Ceylon Tea Museum
4h · Admission ticket not included
Your tour starts at 8:30am at the entrance of the Ceylon Tea Museum, located in Kandy. You will be joined by an experienced cycling guide who will explain the attractions during the tour. Mountain bikes and helmets, as well as a bottle of water for the ride, will be waiting for you at the startup point.
Before starting your ride, explore the Ceylon Tea Museum (entrance ticket at your own expense), founded in an abandoned tea factory built in 1925. As a joint effort of the Sri Lanka Tea Board and the Planters' Association of Ceylon to spread knowledge about the history of Ceylon tea, the museum has been quite successful. You will be able to see two floors full of tea processing machinery and other relics used through the ages in Sri Lanka. The third floor has a library where you can read up on the history of Ceylon tea. You can finish off with a cup of hot fresh tea sold at the Tea Cafe (own expense).
After this, embark on your bike down a trail that winds through the Hanthana tea plantation. The trail is of average difficulty and is mostly gravel with no proper road. The entire trail is approximately 34 miles (55 km) and will take you four to five hours to traverse, including the time spent at the museum.
See various types of tea that your guide will help you identify, and observe tea pickers around the plantation, who you can meet and speak to. Get to know more about tea plucking and the work of tea pluckers as your guide translates for you.
In addition to this, the trail provides you with some wonderful views of bright green carpets of tea, distant purple mountains, and much more.
