Tea Plantation & Factory Tour
Follow the leaf from the terraces through a working 1930s factory to a tasting of the estate’s own grades.
Ceylon tea grown above twelve hundred metres is among the most sought-after in the world, and the estates around Nuwara Eliya are where it comes from. A visit follows the whole process rather than a demonstration of it: the pluckers working the terraces to the two-leaves-and-a-bud rule, then the factory where the leaf is withered overnight, rolled, oxidised, fired and graded — much of it on machinery that has been running since the 1930s and smells extraordinary.
It finishes with a tasting of the estate's own grades poured side by side, from broken orange pekoe up to the silver tips, where the differences stop being abstract. You can buy directly from the factory at a fraction of what the same tea costs at home.
What’s included
- Guided walk through a working tea estate
- The full factory process, on 1930s machinery
- Side-by-side tasting of the estate’s own grades
- Meet the pluckers and learn the two-leaves-and-a-bud rule
- Buy direct from the factory
- Combines with Ramboda Falls and Gregory Lake
Add Tea Plantation & Factory Tour to your trip
Tell us roughly when you are in the country and we will check availability, arrange the transport to get you there and fold it into the rest of your itinerary.
- A reply within 24 hoursUsually the same working day.
- Fits around your plansWe work it into the days you already have.
- Nothing to pay nowNo card details to check availability.
Other things to do
All activities
Half day (two dives)Diving & Snorkelling
Coral gardens, colonial-era shipwrecks and reef sharks — on whichever coast is in season.
PriceOn enquiry
2 hours to multi-day campsSurfing
One of the easiest places in the world to learn, and a serious destination once you can stand up.
PriceOn enquiry
5–6 hoursWhale & Dolphin Watching
The largest animal that has ever lived, within a morning boat ride of the shore.
PriceOn enquiry