Ooty (Udhagamandalam)

Ooty sits at 2,240 metres and was built by the British as a hot-weather escape, which is still exactly what it is used for — and why April and May are the months to avoid, when the plains empty into it. The Nilgiri Mountain Railway is the best thing in the district. It climbs from Mettupalayam on a rack-and-pinion section, takes about five hours, and is UNESCO-listed. Book ahead in season or take the ordinary carriage, which is fine. Doddabetta, the highest point in the Nilgiris, is ten kilometres out and usually inside cloud by afternoon. The Botanical Garden dates from 1848 and has a fossil trunk around twenty million years old in it. The lake is man-made and rented out by the hour. Tea here is grown for volume rather than for named estates, and the roadside shops sell a great deal of flavoured dust. Buy from an estate if you care about it. September to November, and January to March.