Sri Lanka’s Up Country is a landscape of forested peaks and rolling hills, their slopes striped with tea plantations and dotted with picket-fenced railway stations and colonial-era resorts.
Mist drifts across these cool Central Highlands, offering a soothing counterpoint to the country’s frenetic cities and sultry coastline. Since the 1860s — when Sri Lanka was still known as Ceylon under British rule — the region has produced some of the world’s most celebrated single-origin teas. That tradition endures today, blending heritage with innovation. Many estates — still known as ‘tea gardens’ — open their gates to visitors, offering a glimpse into two intertwined stories: the legacy of the colonial-era planters and the daily rhythm of today’s tea-pickers.
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