A wide landscape shot of rolling hills with tea plantations and simple houses peeking through the thick forests.

See Sri Lanka’s misty tea country—in pictures

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.

Sri Lanka’s historic main railway runs 180 miles east from the capital, Colombo, to Badulla in the Central Highlands, and is one of the world’s great train journeys.
Photograph by Mark Parren Taylor
Story and photographs byMark Parren Taylor
Published February 7, 2026
This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).

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.

A wooden train passing an arched stone bridge through forested hills.
Sri Lanka's historic main railway winds through forests, tea plantations and Victorian-era stations, before pausing at one of the country’s most photographed landmarks: the Nine Arch Bridge.
Photograph by Mark Parren Taylor
A close-up on a wooden sign at a train station listing multiple stops, including ELLA.
Many travellers choose a shorter two- or three-hour ride between Highland stops, but the overnight service from Colombo takes around 10 hours, rolling into Ella — and the nearby viaduct — at first light.
Photograph by Mark Parren Taylor
A wide shot of two local women picking tea leaves from a thickly grown forest plantation.
Ella itself is a lively hub of cafes and bars, yet just an hour into the hills lies Amba Estate, where the rhythm slows.
Photograph by Mark Parren Taylor
A close-up of a local woman spreading out fresh tea leaves on a multi-level drying rack.
A simple arrangement of dishes in bowls, including spiced and fried okra, red lentil dal and chilli oil in a jar.
Here, world-renowned teas are still produced and guests can stay in a plantation house, try their hand at tea-picking or head out for hikes and wild swims. Days begin and end with traditional dishes prepared by former farmworkers, whose skills keep the old estate kitchen alive.
Photographs by Mark Parren Taylor
A modernist bungalow with moss growing on one side of its roof, supported by 80s-style stone pilars and featuring floor-to-ceiling windows.
From there, a winding drive north leads to the Stafford Tea Estate, where the 1880s bungalow of its Scottish founders has been transformed into a boutique hotel.
Photograph by Mark Parren Taylor
A portrait of an elderly, local woman in profile as she handpicks tea leaves from a bush.
A close-up of a crisped and bowl-shaped pancake filled with a fried egg on a wooden platter.
Set amid a picture-book plantation landscape, it offers tea-plucking and tasting experiences, as well as hiking and other outdoor pursuits. Guests might begin the day with hoppers (right), the protein-rich Sri Lankan breakfast.
Photographs by Mark Parren Taylor
A busy city scene with a group of local woman shot from the back, carrying urns on their heads and walking towards a towering and playful-looking temple.
Down in the valley lies Ragala, home to a long-established community of Tamil-heritage tea workers. At its heart stands the Sri Kathirvelautha Swamy Temple, a gathering place for celebrations that unite the entire town.
Photograph by Mark Parren Taylor
A close-up of a typically Indian lazy Susan with seven small tins containing different spices in a bigger round tin plate.
Suresh Sathyanathan and his wife, Anuju, are members of Ragala temple’s fellowship. They live in a traditional workers’ house on the Hethersett Estate, an apt setting for their cooking classes, which naturally culminate in a shared lunch.
Photograph by Mark Parren Taylor
A local man pouring a liquid from a height into a tin cup with a simple garden in the background.
Prepared in a rustic kitchen with windows opening onto vegetable patches, the meal is served with a mug of ‘yard tea’, so called because, as Suresh demonstrates, its flavour comes from being ‘pulled’ in a long stream from three feet above.
Photograph by Mark Parren Taylor
A focused view onto a bungalow house with wooden pilars and lounge chairs on a stone veranda, surrounded by tall trees.
On the northern slopes of the same peak lies the Concordia Estate’s Goatfell Bungalow, once the planter’s residence. From here, he could watch over his ‘garden’ of tea hills and enjoy sweeping views across Kandapoola town to Pidurutalagala, Sri Lanka’s highest mountain at 8,281ft.
Photograph by Mark Parren Taylor
The interiors of a sleek dining room in a hotel, decorated in the mid-century style with curved teakwood furniture and muted colours.
Rebuilt in the 1940s with an art deco spirit, today it’s been reimagined as an elegant retreat with just four bedrooms and a dining room that celebrates contemporary Sri Lankan cuisine.
Photograph by Mark Parren Taylor
An elevated view onto a British-style estate with ivy climbing up the lower half of the house.
A winding 50-minute drive south east of Nuwara Eliya leads to the 30-acre Warwick Estate, home to Jetwing Warwick Gardens — an 1880s stone villa perched high on a hill. Its rooms, little changed since the early 20th century, still whisper of the elegant lives once led by colonial owners.
Photograph by Mark Parren Taylor
A landscape shot of a tiered tea fields and low vegetation save for a selection of tall trees and hills in the background.
A half-mile walk downhill through the working plantation leads to a row of labourers’ houses, now somewhat adapted for 21st-century guests, yet largely preserved in their original form. Former picker Meena Amma plays host here, guiding visitors through the tea fields and into the workers’ village.
Photograph by Mark Parren Taylor
A dimly lit portrait of a local woman in a simple kitchen shaping lentil fritters with her hands and placing it onto a ceramic plate.
Back in the kitchen, she prepares the day’s meals and, in between, shares cooking classes that offer a glimpse of her secret recipes: think soft, pillowy roti, fragrant curries and savoury snacks such as the ubiquitous wade.
Photograph by Mark Parren Taylor
Published in the Experiences Collection 2026 by National Geographic Traveller (UK).

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