We had been advised by the tourist office in Kandy to visit Nuwara Eliya, the highest city in Sri Lanka – it is also in all of the guidebooks as somewhere to visit so we arranged a day tour through them.  The cost of the trip was 9000rps (£38) total for two people which covered our transport, plus a tour around a tea factory, overall the trip took around 8-9 hours so we thought it was quite good value.

Our driver picked us up from our hotel at 9am and we headed off.  We weren’t sure what to expect from the day and so were happy to go with our drivers recommendations rather than setting the itinerary. I think if we had been more prepared we would have been more specific but you live and learn.  Saying that, when we made our first stop after an hour at the tea factory we were already enjoying ourselves.  We stopped at Storefield Tea Factory and were greeted by a guide at the door who showed us around the tea factory.  The factory is still in use and it was interesting to see all the various processes the leaves go through from picking to cup.  Our guide was very good, and was able to answer all of our questions as we walked around.  At the end of the tour we were rewarded with taste testing the various types of tea, from white, golden and green down to the very strongest of black tea.  At this point you are offered the chance to buy some tea but I warn you it is very expensive! Luckily I had read up beforehand that it is better to go to a supermarket or shop in the city rather than buy at the tea factory as its the same product for at least half the price. So the day before we visited the Tea Centre on the main street in Kandy which has a great selection of tea in lovely packaging too – for much, much cheaper.  So I would advise against buying tea from the factories unless you really want to buy something special.  But the tea factory itself was interesting and the tea tasted lovely. 

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Our journey continued and we started to wind our way upwards towards the mountains.  Our driver asked if we wanted to stop at a spice garden, and before I could really say no to Richie we had pulled in. I’d read a few things about herb gardens, that they basically try to scam you out of money so from the off I was sceptical and potentially not fully embracing the experience.  Richie on the other hand had no pre-conceptions so was open to it all.  The garden is free (in theory) and we were shown various plants and told about their healing properties by a ‘doctor’, which I will admit was interesting.  We were then shown to what he called his classroom – a large open concrete room with a small wooden table in the corner with a bench in front of it – and he explained more remedies and how to apply them.  We were offered a massage by one of his students, which I politely refused but Richie accepted and before we knew it he was sitting topless while a man rubbed coconut oil all over him.  I’ll admit it was potentially the most random experience we had, but Richie did really enjoy his massage.  Our guide however was getting quite annoyed that I didn’t want to have one too, and it was quite difficult to persuade him to leave me out but eventually he got the hint.  At the end we were asked for a donation for the garden tour and the massage, and Richie gave 500rps for each, which was ungratefully received.  We quickly avoided the shop and jumped back in the car and headed off.  Overall I’ll admit my attitude probably tainted the experience for me, but I was pleased I was wary.

A little further on we stopped at Ramboda which has amazing views across the valley and up into the tea covered hills.  There is a souvenir shop there too where we bought some magnets as gifts, but otherwise it was very expensive. The views were worth the stop though.  We had been promised waterfalls on our trip, but this meant that we would just be driving past Ramboda falls in the car – not quite what we imagined.  Our journey climbed higher and higher up some very twisty roads, through miles of tea plantations which were very beautiful.  We stopped at one of them and were able to walk in to take photos of the women picking, but be warned although they are very smiley if you take their photo you will be expected to give them some money. 

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Around 1.30pm we reached our destination, Nuwara Eliya.  I’ll be honest, I was disappointed.  I’m not sure what I was expecting but it was more than Nuwara Eliya had to offer on the face of it.  We were dropped off outside the post office and were given 30-40 mins to walk around.  There are a few interesting buildings which do look like they could be somewhere in Britain (the main selling point is the buildings which look British), but the rest of the main town is a functioning town of shops and cafes, similar to the back streets of Kandy.  We walked in a loop round the town and were back to where we started in no-time.  There were some places which looked interesting which we didn’t go to, such as Victoria Park and some of the larger hotels.  We had arranged with our driver to go for lunch and so we drove a bit further south to Lake Gregory on the outskirts of Nuwara Eliya.  We had lunch at Calamander Lake Gregory which serves a mixture of food and seems popular with drivers – I think they get rice and curry on the house as reward for bringing their passengers to eat there.  We sat on the lawn in the sunshine and watched people speed up and down the lake, it was very relaxing. 

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After lunch we headed back towards Kandy, without any stops other than for our driver to pick up some fresh vegetables for his dinner – the mountain region is known not just for tea but has very fertile ground for vegetables too so the roads are lined with vegetable stalls.  Overall we enjoyed our day, it was good to see more of Sri Lanka and especially the views on the way up through the tea plantations.  I wouldn’t recommend spending long in Nuwara Eliya but then it may be similar to other places in that it would make a good base to explore other places from, just don’t go expecting to find lots to do in the town itself.