by Augusta Falconer

Sri Lanka's Hill Country: What It's Actually Like to Stay Here

Too many people leave the tea-growing region having only seen it from a train window. Here's what you discover when you stay a while and venture beyond the typical tour.

Article Summary

Experience Travel Group's Content Editor, Gusta, has just returned from Sri Lanka's Hill Country, the tea-growing region in the island's central highlands, where towns like Ella, Haputale and Koslanda sit. Rather than the typical train-and-photo-stop loop most visitors take, she took the time to settle into tea estates, walk forested trails and swim in waterfalls most travellers whizz straight past. Here's exactly where she stayed, and what she'd recommend depending on what you're after.

I arrived in this region with sky-high expectations, as I’d heard such great things from the team. In particular, the walks along the Pekoe Trail and the tea planters’ bungalows turned boutique retreats.

And, as an avid tea drinker, I was equally excited for AMBA Estate’s ‘Teaology’ experience.

While most visitors only stay a day or two and breeze through the classic checklist (ride the Kandy–Ella scenic train, snap a photo at the Nine Arch Bridge in Ella, tour a commercial tea factory), I stayed longer at these three hotels and did some of the more unusual things instead…

1. Nine Skies

This was my first night in the Hill Country and it set the bar high.

My chauffeur-guide drove fifteen minutes uphill from the bustle of Ella, leaving the busy cafés and backpackers behind, to this peaceful bungalow tucked in the Demodara Estate. With my welcome cuppa in hand, I couldn’t resist heading straight for the infinity pool, surrounded by tropical flower bushes and towering pines, to take in the view across the valley: where tea slopes run into bright-green mountains like Ella Rock.

You’re properly set up to relax here: the chef and team, including a butler, keep you well fed and topped up with tea. Before a day out walking in the hills, fuel up with a hearty breakfast of still-warm pastries, fresh tropical fruits and Sri Lankan eggs cooked however you fancy. And on your return, the butler greets you with the question, “What would you like to drink?”, then mixes an evening tipple by the fire, before you sit down to a multi-course dinner out on the veranda, under the stars, with the odd firefly for company.

Speaking of walking, Little Adam’s Peak and Ella Rock are both nearby, with views over the Ella Gap, along with the Nine Arches Bridge. The Demodara Railway Station, with its 360-degree loop of track around the mountain, is just a ten-minute stroll from the bungalow, and it’s where we began our hike along the Pekoe Trail.

I walked Stage 16 with an ETG guide called Dino, who told me with a grin that his wildlife spotting, and his frequent jokes, have earned him the nickname “the lizard wizard.” It’s a 9km scenic walk through the tea slopes, along railway tracks, that’s not too demanding at all. En route, Dino pointed out flora and fauna like a white-throated kingfisher, African tulip trees, Indian coral trees and morning glory growing wild.

We took a break around the halfway point, where we snacked on bananas and rose apples picked from his own garden and sipped orange pekoe tea from coconut cups. I asked Dino what his favourite stage of the Pekoe Trail was and he said 17, as it crosses six different terrains and elevations.

Located:

~7.5 km to Ella

Access to the Pekoe Trail:

Stage 16 and Stage 17

This is for you if:

You want to feel seriously well looked after

ETG Top Tip:

Spare some time for the simple things like taking your book to your veranda

2. AMBA Estate

In comparison, AMBA is rustic and, I’d argue, all the richer for it.

Set on an organic farm, this guesthouse is a social enterprise that produces award-winning artisanal tea and coffee.

It’s further up from Ella, around a 30-minute drive, so you enter a cooler, forest-y reserve, with misty views of Ella Rock and Lipton Seat. Photos just don’t do the scenery justice, though I tried my best to capture it from my balcony in the lovely Clove Tree House, below.

You’re welcomed to this homely spot by the small team, and their friendly dogs and cat, with a chilled glass of lemongrass tea while you settle in. The knowledgeable owner, Simon, is often around for a chat, especially over communal dinner, where you dig into Sri Lankan vegetarian classics alongside more original dishes like their cheesecake, made from curd mixed with lime on a ginger crumble.

There’s plenty to walk to from here: waterfall swims, sunrise and sunset hikes, and several stages of the Pekoe Trail lie close by. But, the highlight here is their ‘Teaology’ tour, which really did live up to my (sky-high) expectations.

My guide Priyanka was an inspiring Tamil woman who used to be a military nurse, challenging the assumption that Tamil people didn’t work in the forces. She kicked things off by explaining the history of tea and Tamil tea pluckers to me: the Scottish introduced tea here commercially, and the pluckers were expected to pick 60kg a day, carrying it in bags hung from their heads and living in very basic conditions. AMBA is an ethical estate so takes a completely different approach; the owners look after their workers by providing free education and medicine, and the pluckers don’t have pressurising targets to meet. Here, they’re called “tea crafters”, and the 75 tea makers go by “tea artisans”.

Priyanka then walked me through their many types of tea bushes, as well as coffee pods and vanilla pods. She also described the entire picking process in detail and how different leaves produce different kinds of tea, depending on age and shade (I’ll let you discover these insights out there for yourself.) I’ll just share that one of the best grades is TGFOP (Tippy Golden Orange Pekoe), which Priyanka dubbed “Too Good for Ordinary People”! Inside their little factory, I saw the tea leaves being hand rolled and some being spread out to dry. I loved learning about the distinctions between all the black and green teas and just how many steps they are to make, and perfect, each one.

By this point, I was more than ready to try them. Taking a seat under the shade of a tree, I tasted five teas in Japanese cups, each brewed for exactly the right length of time at the exact right temperature. I particularly liked a TGFOP that tasted a little like toffee without the sugar, their seven spices Chai, and Lemongrass & Blue Pea Flower tea that tasted lovely and citrusy.

(With absolutely no milk or sugar in sight… Priyanka said it’s sacrilege to add either and that the British introduced milk in order to protect porcelain mugs from the heat, and sugar was only added as a status symbol.)

If you’d like to get more involved, you can have a go at plucking and rolling your own tea, or peeling cinnamon, roasting coffee and making jams and chutneys.