32 Grand Old Railway Hotels Left Vacant Along Forgotten Routes

31. The Grand Hotel (Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka): Tea Country's Colonial Echo

Nestled in Sri Lanka's central highlands, Nuwara Eliya was a favored British colonial retreat, accessed primarily by the picturesque "up-country" railway. The Grand Hotel, built in 1891, was the epitome of colonial luxury for these rail travelers, offering lush gardens and mountain views. While it remains operational today, significant parts of this vast hotel experienced periods of underuse and felt like relics of a bygone era, its grand corridors and silent wings echoing the footsteps of a departed colonial railway elite.