As the sun started to descend in the sky, signalling the end of another day in Sri Lanka’s high country, we stared out the window of our hotel room mesmerised by the view of the thick fog floating up the mountainside blanketing the tea plantations in a sea of white. There was a whirring noise from the corridor as the machines from the former tea factory on which the hotel is set came to life. Then a knock at the door revealed a dapper waiter with a trolley of complimentary hors d’oeuvre and drinks (hello gin and tonic!).

Sometimes hotels are simply a comfortable place to bathe and lay your head amongst the excitement of exploring an exotic locale, but sometimes they are so much more! Spending our tenth wedding anniversary at the Heritance Tea Factory hotel is something I will never forget. It is not every day you get to stay in an old tea factory turned into a hotel! Heritance Tea Factory hotel in Newara Eliya, the heart of Sri Lanka’s tea country, is a beautiful, unique hotel with a story and character of its own and when I found out about it I decided we had to stay there! When I first enquired about booking I was so disappointed to find out that it was booked out, but thanks to my persistence (and stubborn character), I kept checking back with the hotel and was lucky enough that a room finally became available!

The hotel is set high up in the hills, perched on a hilltop with beautiful views of the surrounding countryside and tea plantations. It feels somewhat like a museum, full of the original tea factory machinery and paraphernalia and the service and ambience were a nod to colonial times.

What we loved about the hotel

Corporate responsibility
One of our favourite things about this hotel was the strong focus on responsible tourism. We loved that all the staff lived in the little village at the bottom of the hill (we went down for a visit and we so impressed to see the crisply laundered uniforms hanging proudly in the very modest houses).

The focus on (quirky!) ceremony and tradition
At 5pm every night the old machinery from the tea factory that is still part of the hotel would be turned on and the staff would visit the rooms with their trollies laden with early evening treats and drinks (hello gin and tonic!). We sat at our window enjoying the spectacle as the fog rolled up the mountainside cloaking the countryside in a blanket of white.

Dinner in a train carriage
When I first read about having dinner in the on-site train carriage I thought it sounded too cheesy for words. But then I figured you only live once, and it is not everyday you get to dine in a train carriage. It was actually a really fun evening, made even more so by the eccentric waiter, who towards the end of our meal realised it was our wedding anniversary and organised a special dessert and performed a happy anniversary song complete with sparklers outside the carriage window.

Heritance Mini Tea Factory
The hotel had a great selection of activities you could take part in, including tea leaf picking and a nature walk around the surrounding plantations, unfortunately the timing was all wrong for us, but we did enjoy a visit to their mini tea factory.

High Tea
I’ll admit it. I am a huge fan of high tea. And what better excuse to indulge than the fact that we were in the middle of a tea plantation. Whilst probably technically more morning tea than high tea we did love our indulgent morning spent sipping Ceylon’s finest overlooking the view and enjoying the English traditions with a Sri Lankan twist on the flavours.