Ceylon tea is Sri Lanka's most famous export. If you love South Asian flavors, Kerala also offers outstanding spice plantation tours. It's also, in my opinion, its most underappreciated experience. Tourists rush through the hill country on the Kandy-Ella train, snap photos of the plantations from the window, and move on.
I spent five days in the tea country. I visited three factories, drank more cups of tea than I can count, and learned that the $3 box of Ceylon tea I'd been buying at home was a shadow of what this leaf can be.
Sri Lanka produces tea at multiple elevations, and elevation changes everything:
The British planted the first tea bushes here in 1867, after a coffee blight destroyed the island's coffee industry. Within decades, Ceylon became the world's largest tea exporter. The industry still employs over a million people.
On the road between Kandy and Nuwara Eliya. Free guided tour (30-45 minutes) of the entire production process: withering, rolling, fermenting, drying, sorting, and grading. You see the same machines — some over 100 years old — that have been processing tea since the British colonial era.
The factory shop sells fresh tea at estate prices: 500-2,000 LKR per 100g depending on grade. The BOP (Broken Orange Pekoe) is the everyday tea. The Silver Tips — handpicked white tea buds — costs 10,000+ LKR per 100g and tastes like a different beverage entirely.
Free cup of tea on the terrace overlooking the plantation. I'm not saying it was the best cup of tea I've ever had, but it was the best cup of tea I've ever had.
Near Nuwara Eliya. Tours 500 LKR (~$1.50). More intimate than Mackwoods. The guide explained the grading system in detail — how the same leaf, processed differently, becomes either a premium loose-leaf or a dusty teabag filler.
The tasting room serves 5-6 different grades side by side. You taste the progression from Silver Tips (delicate, floral, barely tea-like) through OP (Orange Pekoe, classic Ceylon) to Dust (what goes in commercial teabags — still good, just simpler).
Another free factory tour near Nuwara Eliya. Smaller, less touristy. The Tamil workers picking tea on the hillside around the factory — women in bright saris with baskets strapped to their foreheads — gave the visit a human dimension that the factory machines don't.
Tea pickers earn roughly 1,000 LKR/day for 18 kg of fresh leaves. The work is physically demanding and poorly paid relative to the industry's revenues. This is an uncomfortable reality that the tourist-facing tours don't always address.
A suggested 3-5 day route through the hill country:
Day 1: Kandy Visit the Temple of the Tooth (1,500 LKR). Walk the lake. Stay overnight.
Day 2: Kandy → Nuwara Eliya Drive through tea estates (3-4 hours). Stop at Mackwoods for factory tour and tea. Arrive in Nuwara Eliya — Sri Lanka's "Little England" at 1,868m. Misty, cool, with colonial-era buildings and a racetrack. Visit Pedro Estate in the afternoon.
Day 3: Nuwara Eliya → Ella (by train) The legendary train. Second class: 600 LKR. The route passes through the heart of the tea country. Window seat, right side for best views. The Nine Arches Bridge crossing is the highlight.
Day 4: Ella Hike Little Adam's Peak (45 minutes, easy, free, panoramic views). Walk to the Nine Arches Bridge from below — the bridge is 15 minutes from town. Tea at a plantation cafe.
Day 5: Ella → Haputale Visit Lipton's Seat — the hilltop viewpoint where Sir Thomas Lipton surveyed his tea empire. Reached by tuk-tuk and a 7 km walk/drive through Dambatenne Estate (entry 250 LKR). On clear mornings, you can see from coast to coast.
Buy tea at the factory shops, not Colombo souvenir shops. The prices are better and the tea is fresher.
Best time: January-March (dry season in the hill country). The tea bushes are trimmed after monsoon and the light is ideal.
Transport: Hire a driver ($50-70/day) for flexible stops. The Kandy-Ella train is a must but only covers one route.
Budget: Factory tours are free or 500-1,000 LKR. Tea purchases: 500-5,000 LKR. Accommodation in Ella/Nuwara Eliya: 3,000-8,000 LKR/night mid-range.
What to pack: Warm layers. The hill country is 15-22°C during the day and can drop below 10°C at night. Rain jacket essential — the hills get fog and drizzle even in "dry" season.
Skip the tea-themed luxury hotels that charge $200/night for the "plantation experience." The real experience is at the factory floor, watching 100-year-old machines process leaves that a Tamil woman picked by hand that morning. It costs nothing. It tastes better than anything you'll get at a luxury resort. And it connects you to the actual industry — its beauty and its problems — in a way that a boutique hotel never will.
Bring an empty suitcase. You'll fill it with tea. For the full narrative of this train route, read our Colombo to Ella journey. For practical planning, check our Sri Lanka FAQ.
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