Tea terraces line Sri Lanka's mountain countryside

Tea is an essential part of Sri Lankan culture, and is their second leading export commodity, behind textiles. Sri Lanka’s hill country is liberally dotted with terraced tea plantations, and many of them have wonderful tea houses right at the road side where you can relax, drink their teas, and enjoy the mountain atmosphere. And you can buy their teas there, too. You’ll also see a large number of tea factories, many of them right along the roadside, where you can take tours, enjoy a cup, and buy their teas.

Sri Lanka's tea country offers numerous roadside tea houses

Some fascinating books have been written on the tea business in Sri Lanka, and if you spend any time at all in the hill country, you’ll often be immersed in tea plantations, as far as the eye can see. Each plantation has its own specialty, and workers from the same family have often been employees for generations. We here at WoWasis recommend taking a tea break whenever a roadside tea house comes into view. It’s a wonderful way to break up a road trip, and they often have some of the cleanest rest rooms in Sri Lanka, too.