Another possibility would be something like I have on my world, a mountain range that runs north/south and creates a super rain shadow. The latitude of your land would have a great influence on the climate as a whole of course, but if you positioned your country in one of the traditional desert zones (30 degrees north or south of the equator) then you could have a very warm country bisected by a massive mountain range. Depending on prevailing winds and the proximity to water, one side would receive all the rain and be lush and green and humid while the the other side would be bone dry. Since it's at a desert latitude, the lowlands would be hot, but if the average elevation were very, very high, say a plateau, it would be very cold.