Sri Lanka tea plantation tour

Hi, I just posted this on the Princess board, but thought it might be useful for anyone planning independent excursions from any cruise line I happen to be in Sri Lanka right now, and while touring a tea plantation I noticed a white board listing upcoming cruises that will have excursions there (hence, my posting on the Princess board).

I highly recommend this tour. Gallaboda Estate is an organic tea plantation in the low country (meaning low altitude, but it is also in the southern part of the island). Low altitude tea plantations look very different from their high altitude counterparts, and will be a much shorter travel distance from Colombo, where the ship will be docked. On the way, you will get to see the inland landscape with rolling hills, rice paddies, and other plantations including palm and citrus. You will also drive through some small towns, to get a sense of what they look and feel like.

The tour starts out in the fields with the tea plants, learning about their varieties and organic cultivation. Then you'll move into the factory, where the guide walks you through the entire process. You'll end up at a tea tasting room/shop. I have had many tea tastings and this was by far the most thorough. They sell fancy package teas (like you would find in the airport), but also the same product without the fancy packaging for much lower prices. Needless to say, I stocked up! They also sell a variety of spices from trees and bushes grown to make shade for protecting the tea bushes from the heat: pepper, cinnamon, cardamon, and clove. I'm a spice fanatic, and I have found Sri Lanka pepper and cinnamon to the best I've ever had. So I stocked up on those, too.

After the official tea tasting you are invited to sit with your choice of green or black tea and some ginger cookies. It is a lovely outing, and a fine way to spend a day in Sri Lanka.

I hope this is helpful -- happy cruising to all,

Thank you for sharing this valuable information.

Barbara

Hi, I just posted this on the Princess board, but thought it might be useful for anyone planning independent excursions from any cruise line I happen to be in Sri Lanka right now, and while touring a tea plantation I noticed a white board listing upcoming cruises that will have excursions there (hence, my posting on the Princess board).

I highly recommend this tour. Gallaboda Estate is an organic tea plantation in the low country (meaning low altitude, but it is also in the southern part of the island). Low altitude tea plantations look very different from their high altitude counterparts, and will be a much shorter travel distance from Colombo, where the ship will be docked. On the way, you will get to see the inland landscape with rolling hills, rice paddies, and other plantations including palm and citrus. You will also drive through some small towns, to get a sense of what they look and feel like.

 

The tour starts out in the fields with the tea plants, learning about their varieties and organic cultivation. Then you'll move into the factory, where the guide walks you through the entire process. You'll end up at a tea tasting room/shop. I have had many tea tastings and this was by far the most thorough. They sell fancy package teas (like you would find in the airport), but also the same product without the fancy packaging for much lower prices. Needless to say, I stocked up! They also sell a variety of spices from trees and bushes grown to make shade for protecting the tea bushes from the heat: pepper, cinnamon, cardamon, and clove. I'm a spice fanatic, and I have found Sri Lanka pepper and cinnamon to the best I've ever had. So I stocked up on those, too.

 

After the official tea tasting you are invited to sit with your choice of green or black tea and some ginger cookies. It is a lovely outing, and a fine way to spend a day in Sri Lanka.

 

I hope this is helpful -- happy cruising to all,

I have just looked at the location of this and it appears to be 3/4 hour journey from the port, which is not something I would recommend to a cruise passenger. I can see you obviously enjoyed the tour and will look into it for a holiday we have planned in that area of Sri Lanka, but there are lots of things to see/do in Colombo itself or on a shorter journey for cruise passengers.

There is a tea estate part way along the road towards Kandy that do tours and I think I saw something about one that is south west of Colombo as well, but much nearer than this one, which appears to be inland, a distance beyond Galle.

That’s a valuable perspective. My own advice is NOT to go all the way to Kandy for any tours, as you will spend nearly all the port time driving and in traffic. Kandy is several hours away no matter how you try to get there. The higher elevation tea plantations are a much longer drive as well.

Yes, there is plenty to do in Colombo. And yes, there are other tea plantations. I can’t vouch for them, and I do know that some tours are better than others. The one I vouched for is excellent, and relatively close to port all things considered.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I did not mean to take you to task with my previous post. My thoughts are that as you are/were on holiday in Sri Lanka, you are unlikely to have travelled to/from Colombo to visit the plantation you mentioned and it is also possible that you had travelled from the airport to the south without spending time in Colombo, so you would have gone on the expressway, which is basically a motorway which bypasses Colombo. Given that cruise tours would likely be travelling out of Colombo before the morning traffic has subsided and be travelling back as the evening traffic is heavy as well so that journey to the south would be totally different.

Yes Kandy from Colombo is also generally 3-4 hours each way (in fact the area of the south you mention could well be more than that). Tea country (which is in the hills) is a 6 hour drive from Colombo one way (and that takes a direct route, not via the Kandy road, which would take longer still), My comment was about a tea estate that is to the right off the Kandy road, possibly about half way there (so possibly 1.5 - 2 hours from the port). I have not been there, but have seen good comments made. Not that I would recommend going to there from a cruise ship - more somewhere people stop at en route to Kandy when touring the country.

My point was though, that there are plenty of things of interest in Colombo itself, including places that are probably within walking distance of the port exit, or a very short tuk tuk ride away. For that assumption I am, admittedly, thinking about the main port entrance, but it is possible that cruise passengers exit elsewhere (I have not been on a cruise). We spent four nights in a hotel about 10 mins drive from the centre of Colombo and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. We were in Sri Lanka for more than three weeks and are doing the rough planning for a similar length of stay for a pre cruise in early 2020. Doing our own planning, I am looking into travelling times to/from various places and have experience of our journeys to the cultural triangle etc. on our last stay. CC's sister site, Trip Advisor, has a forum which I have/am finding very useful.

I hope you enjoyed your holiday in Sri Lanka. It was one of the best places we have ever travelled to and we are very much looking forward to our return.

Hi, I just posted this on the Princess board, but thought it might be useful for anyone planning independent excursions from any cruise line I happen to be in Sri Lanka right now, and while touring a tea plantation I noticed a white board listing upcoming cruises that will have excursions there (hence, my posting on the Princess board).

I highly recommend this tour. Gallaboda Estate is an organic tea plantation in the low country (meaning low altitude, but it is also in the southern part of the island). Low altitude tea plantations look very different from their high altitude counterparts, and will be a much shorter travel distance from Colombo, where the ship will be docked. On the way, you will get to see the inland landscape with rolling hills, rice paddies, and other plantations including palm and citrus. You will also drive through some small towns, to get a sense of what they look and feel like.

 

The tour starts out in the fields with the tea plants, learning about their varieties and organic cultivation. Then you'll move into the factory, where the guide walks you through the entire process. You'll end up at a tea tasting room/shop. I have had many tea tastings and this was by far the most thorough. They sell fancy package teas (like you would find in the airport), but also the same product without the fancy packaging for much lower prices. Needless to say, I stocked up! They also sell a variety of spices from trees and bushes grown to make shade for protecting the tea bushes from the heat: pepper, cinnamon, cardamon, and clove. I'm a spice fanatic, and I have found Sri Lanka pepper and cinnamon to the best I've ever had. So I stocked up on those, too.

 

After the official tea tasting you are invited to sit with your choice of green or black tea and some ginger cookies. It is a lovely outing, and a fine way to spend a day in Sri Lanka.

 

I hope this is helpful -- happy cruising to all,

Could you email me, as I have questions I am Kwar and I am at kwarcins@gmail.com, I am looking for a Tea tour in Sri Lanka as we are crusing in Jan/Feb.