The newly opened Pekoe Trail, a 300km hiking route winding through Sri Lanka’s tea plantations, villages, and forests, offers a unique insight into the country’s rich and complex tea history.
On a sunny yet breezy day, the trail’s beauty unfolds with sprawling tea estates stretching in every direction. The central highlands of Sri Lanka are known for their ever-changing weather, but the sight of lush greenery remains constant. This region is the heart of Ceylon tea production, and the Pekoe Trail is Sri Lanka’s first long-distance hiking trail, divided into 22 stages. It begins in Kandy, near the location where Scotsman James Taylor first planted tea in the mid-1800s, and ends in the hill town of Nuwara Eliya, which reminded British colonizers of their homeland with its cool climate and misty hills.
The trail has existed in parts since the early days of tea cultivation. It started as mud tracks used to transport tea leaves to factories and then to Colombo port for export. Turning this fragmented network into a continuous hiking trail was the passion project of Pekoe Trail founder and sustainable tourism consultant, Miguel Cunat. His dedication to promoting Sri Lanka as a world-class hiking destination took nearly ten years of research and exploration, with initial funding from the European Union and USAID.
“My initial objective was to promote Sri Lanka as a world-class hiking destination,” says Cunat, who has been a resident of Sri Lanka for many years. The Pekoe Trail officially opened in late 2023, offering an accessible hiking experience suitable for all skill levels. As Cunat explains, the trails are fairly easy, with low elevation and year-round accessibility, making it a hike for everyone. Most visitors prefer to do single-stage day hikes while staying in nearby hotels rather than tackling the entire trail at once.
Each stage of the Pekoe Trail tells a unique story. Hikers encounter colonial-era cricket clubs, seasonal waterfalls, colorful village deity statues, Anglican churches with beautiful stained-glass windows, and picturesque views of valleys and wildflowers. Cathy Cruse, a 62-year-old Australian hiker, recently completed the trail in just seven days. “You’ve got the tea plantations, then thick jungle, pine forests, and at one point, I thought I was walking through Australia with all the tall eucalyptus trees,” she says.
Beyond the natural beauty, Cunat’s mission was to draw tourism and economic opportunities to Sri Lanka’s hill towns and hinterlands, which are often overshadowed by the popular coastal regions and cultural landmarks like Anuradhapura, Sigiriya, and Dambulla. Cruse, who is married to a Sri Lankan, admits that although she has visited Kandy and Nuwara Eliya several times, she had never explored the interior parts of tea country before.
Cunat also saw the trail as an opportunity to highlight the living heritage of the tea plantations, where local fairs, festivals, and daily life reflect centuries of tradition. Plantation workers, especially the Indian-Tamil women who pick tea leaves, remain central to the industry. These women, often dressed in worn-out clothing and carrying bamboo baskets tied to their heads, spend their days plucking the finest tea leaves from the bushes.
While hiking through Bogawantalawa, known as the “Golden Valley” for its premium tea, visitors often encounter these hardworking women. Conversations reveal that many of them, like third-generation tea picker Sathyavathy, have distant family in Tamil Nadu, India, but have never been there.
In the Hatton area, old tea factories still use dated technology, while some of the grand bungalows built for estate managers have been transformed into boutique hotels. Local guide Dharsharuban Rathnasingham, fondly called Ruban, is passionate about sharing the stories of his people — the Indian Tamils who continue to live and work on these estates. He points out the cramped “line rooms” where families still live and the Tamil protector deity statues found at crossroads or under trees.
From Hatton, the trail continues to Ella, where highlights include the famous Ella Rock and the stunning Nine Arch Railway Bridge. The Pekoe Trail offers a journey rich in variety, from active railway tracks to pine forests and rugged trails through dense jungle.
“There were so many ‘wow’ moments during the hike,” says Cruse. “You come around a corner, and the whole valley would be laid out below. I’d have to stop and just stare.”
By shining a spotlight on Sri Lanka’s tea heritage, the Pekoe Trail not only offers breathtaking views but also brings tourism revenue to lesser-known areas, promoting sustainable development in the hill country.
