Celebrating Tea

Begin your journey in Colombo, the Sri Lanka’s charismatic coastal capital: stay at one of the first hotels to be built in Asia; see the beautiful colonial architecture in Colombo Fort on a guided tour, and meet with an expert for an introduction to Sri Lanka’s tea industry and a tea tasting session.

From Colombo travel inland to Kandy, the last ancient royal capital and a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Kandy is home to Sri Lanka’s most sacred shrine, the Temple of the Tooth.  After lunch, visit the beautiful Botanical Gardens where the first tea bush was planted.  Continue 30km southeast to your hotel, Taylors Hill that sits next to the first commercial tea plantation estate in Sri Lanka.  Spend the next few days relaxing in the beautiful gardens or explore the plantations on foot or bicycle.

Today, continue south to Kandapola and spend an atmospheric night in a converted tea factory, where you can see the original machinery used over a century ago.

Travel to Haputale on the original railway line put in place by the British, which is renowned as one of the most beautiful rail journeys in the world.  From here, wend your way up to Lipton’s Seat, the glorious viewpoint from which Thomas Lipton used to survey his extensive tea plantations in the 1890s.  Stay in resorted planter’s bungalows on a working tea estate.

Spend the next two nights at Ceylon Tea Trails, a collection of luxurious colonial bungalows built for British tea estate managers in the days of the Raj and admire the majestic views across Dickoya, known as the Golden Valley of Tea.  Go on a tea plantation tour and see the entire process of tea manufacture, from meeting the women who pluck the leaves to watching how it is transformed into the product we buy off the shelves.

From Castlereagh Reservoir at the Tea Trails, board a sea plane to Galle.  A spectacular experience which allows you to see the full majesty of this dramatic landscape in a way that the British tea planters never could.  sSar above the lush rolling hills, watching as they slowly transform into wide open plains and the golden coastline and turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean can be seen glimmering on the horizon.  Arrive in Galle, a key trading port for centuries and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Discover the colonial history of Galle Fort through a guided walking tour and stay for two nights at a stunning boutique hotel built in 1865 which still exudes an old-world grandeur.

Travel north to Colombo and stay one night at a restored colonial manor house set among five acres of beautifully manicured gardens.  The next day, board the direct flight from Colombo Airport to London.