Journey through Sri Lanka’s tea country by train and estate

Sri Lanka’s tea industry began in 1867, when a Scotsman named James Taylor planted the first seedlings at the Loolecondera Estate, after disease destroyed the region’s coffee. Today the central highlands are a landscape of tea: hillsides combed with rows of bushes, women picking by hand, small factories at the roadside, and a railway that winds through it all.

What the experience is

The journey pairs two ways of seeing the hill country. The first is the railway. Sri Lanka Railways’ Main Line, built by the British in the nineteenth century, runs from Colombo Fort through the hill country to Badulla, about 300 kilometres. The Podi Manike train covers it in roughly ten hours, calling at stations including Gampola, Nawalapitiya, Hatton, Nanu Oya and Bandarawela, and reaching its highest point at Pattipola, at 6,226 feet. The stretch from Nanu Oya to Ella is the most renowned, with tea gardens, mountains, valleys and waterfalls. First, second and economy classes are available.

The second is the estate: stops at working plantations such as Pedro and Labookellie, near Nuwara Eliya, where tours show how leaves are withered, rolled and dried, and tastings let you compare grades. Nuwara Eliya sits at 1,868 metres and has a cool, English-garden character.

Altitude defines the tea. High-grown teas, above about 1,200 metres, are often called the champagne of teas, with Nuwara Eliya and Uva among the best known. Only the bud and the two youngest leaves are plucked, by hand, and about 300,000 estate workers are involved.

How to do it well

Plan the route around the estates rather than the other way round: a night or two in an estate bungalow or a hotel near Nuwara Eliya, a morning at a factory, an afternoon on the train. Seats on the scenic sections are in demand, so confirm booking arrangements and timetables with Sri Lanka Railways or an agent, and allow slack in the schedule.

Why OKYTO recommends it

Because it joins landscape, history and craft in one slow journey, and because the tea itself is a reason to arrive hungry for the next cup.