Kandy, Kandy and the Tea Country, Sri Lanka

Tucked away in a leafy suburb to the northwest of the temple, Kandy House occupies an old Dutch mansion with traditional red-tiled roofs and colonial-style pillared verandas. Shaded by mature trees, the building has been artfully refurbished. Just eight rooms are ranged around its open courtyard. All are elegantly furnished and offer a high degree of privacy, combining modern touches such as polished cement floors and silk bolsters with old-world varnished wood and a generous scattering of antiques. Your personal butler, dressed in suave sarong, will rarely be far away. And the food, served alfresco on an open-sided terrace, is gourmet standard. There’s also a particularly good spa and tempting curvi-form pool in the grounds – perfect for those humid Kandy afternoons.