Ootacamund, now officially Udhagamandalam but known to nearly everyone as Ooty, was barely a name on the map until 1819, when the British collector of Coimbatore, John Sullivan, decided its cool air and blue hills were worth building a town around. Ringed by four peaks, Doddabetta, Snowdon, Elk Hill, and Club Hill, and sitting above 2,200 metres in the Nilgiris, the hill station earned its old nickname, Queen of Hill Stations, from the tea planters and holidaymakers who followed Sullivan up from the plains. For anyone shortlisting places to visit in Ooty today, that colonial backbone still shows in stone bungalows, an old English church, and a toy train that has been climbing these slopes for more than a century.

There's a long list of things to do in Ooty once the toy train pulls in. The Nilgiri Mountain Railway, a UNESCO-listed rack railway that huffs its way up from Mettupalayam through sixteen tunnels, is worth the ride on its own. Once in town, the Government Botanical Garden spreads across the lower slopes of Doddabetta with a 20-million-year-old fossil tree trunk and hundreds of plant species, while the adjoining Rose Garden holds one of India's largest rose collections. Ooty Lake, dug out by John Sullivan himself in 1824, is still the go-to spot for a paddle boat and a lakeside walk, and a climb up Doddabetta Peak, the highest point in the Nilgiris, rewards early risers with views over Ooty and Coonoor before the clouds roll in. For something quieter, the Toda village trail introduces one of the Nilgiris' oldest tribal communities, and a day trip to Mudumalai National Park or the cascades at Pykara Falls rounds out a longer stay.

What actually lingers after an Ooty trip is usually smaller than any single sight: the smell of eucalyptus after rain, a square of handmade chocolate bought off Charing Cross, or the sight of the racecourse wrapped in morning fog. A stay at Sterling Ooty - Elk Hill or Sterling Ooty - Fern Hill, perched above the town with views over that same racecourse, keeps the toy train, the gardens, and the tea estates within easy reach, so a Nilgiris holiday can move between colonial history, mountain views, and quiet hill-station calm without much driving in between.