A 2-week Sri Lanka plan for tea lovers

The 2-week Sri Lanka plan for tea lovers climbs from Kandy to the highest estates, crosses to the eastern slopes and descends to the coast. No drive is longer than about three hours once the hills are reached, and several legs can be done by train.

Kandy is the starting point of the story. The island's plantations grew coffee until a leaf disease destroyed the crop from the late 1860s, and tea replaced it within a generation. The Ceylon Tea Museum, in a former factory at Hantane above the city, keeps the old rollers and dryers and explains the change.

Loolecondera estate, roughly one and a half to two hours from Kandy on narrow roads, is where the Scottish planter James Taylor laid out the first commercial tea field in 1867. The remains of his cabin and a stone seat with a long view are still there.

The valleys around Hatton and Dickoya, in the Dimbula region, are the most complete tea landscape in the country: reservoirs, planters' bungalows, estate villages and slopes combed into rows. Three nights here are best spent on an estate, walking the paths between divisions and visiting a working factory in the morning, when the previous day's leaf is being processed.

Nuwara Eliya, higher still at roughly 1,900 metres, makes the lightest teas on the island, often compared with champagne among wines. Factories around the town run tours of roughly 30 to 45 minutes. The western highlands are driest, and their teas at their best, in roughly January to March.

Haputale stands on the southern edge of the highlands. The Dambatenne factory, built for Sir Thomas Lipton in 1890, is a long, working building roughly 30 minutes from the town, and the road beyond it climbs to Lipton's Seat, his favourite viewpoint. Go at sunrise, before cloud covers the plains below.

Ella, roughly 45 minutes to an hour away, sits in the Uva region. Dry winds from roughly July to September give Uva teas a distinctive, slightly menthol character. Ella's factories are smaller, and some produce green and hand-rolled teas alongside black.

Low-grown tea is the part of the story most visitors miss. In the Ruhuna and Sabaragamuwa regions, below roughly 600 metres, the bushes grow fast in heat and humidity, and the tea is dark, malty and popular in the Middle East and Russia.

Small estates inland from Galle and Koggala welcome visitors and often grow cinnamon and rubber as well. From Ella, the drive to the south coast takes roughly three and a half to four and a half hours, and two nights by the sea end the fortnight.

A tea fortnight suits return visitors, walkers and anyone who prefers cool evenings to hot afternoons. Choose it if you have already seen Sigiriya, or are content to miss it. To keep the rock, cut Hatton to two nights and the coast to one, and add two nights at Sigiriya at the start.

Estate bungalows are few and fill early, so book them before anything else. Lankan Stays & Trails can arrange estate walks and factory visits on days when processing is under way. The people who pluck the leaf, most of them from the Hill Country Tamil community, work hard for modest pay; ask before photographing, and tip directly.