Sri Lanka is an absolutely stunning country. ... developed the town, and the British Governor, Sir William Gregory, even considered making Nuwara Eliya the country's capital.

So British estate owners pushed for a rail system to transport coffee. In 1867, the British completed a railway from the city of Kandy in central Sri Lanka to the coastal city of Colombo.

Carving a path through cloud-swathed villages and centuries-old tea estates, the new long-distance Pekoe Trail gives hikers a chance to explore Sri Lanka’s quiet central highlands.