Tea Trails, Sri Lanka
 

I am trying to select our room at Ceylon Tea Trails. Which of the four properties is the best overall, and which rooms are the best?
We are a couple in out late 30's.

Also, has anyone done the Adam's Peak excursion (in the off season) from Tea Trails?

I am the right person to answer your questions, just been at Tea Trails for the last four days :) and was as a returning guest again impressed by their service which is at Aman levels if not above.

First of all I recommend that you arrive by train to Hatton from where they wil offer you a transfer for LKR 2500. Sri Lankan Railways has a new private sector product called Expo Rail. You can book tickets online and the train is leaving Colombo Fort station at 05:55 AM :(. The advantage is that you will be at Tea Trails for lunch. You can also board that train in Perardenya if staying in Kandy.

The four bungalows are quite different.

Castlereagh has five rooms, three of them garden suites. Alston is to avoid, no view. Palmer is best. The garden and the lakeview are lovely and the common parts very classic.

Summerville is also on the lake and all four rooms look nice and have views. The combined sitting / dining room is a little bit too modern for me with large bay windows.

Norwood is the logistic center of Tea Trails and on a plateau with good views. The style of the house does appeal a little bit less to me.

Tientsin is the most historic bungalow with a scaringly dark dining room which I love. Avoid the suite as it is towards the entranceway. Moir has the best location.

You will be like at a private home and the chefs will discuss your preferences. The inclusive wine choice is excellent but a little bit limited and they are about to set up a more extensive wine list which will be charged at reasonable prices.

The thing to do at Tea Trails is obviously walking, they have well marked path and yes I have been on Adams Peak for the second time. Left 8:30 AM for Dalhousie and paid LKR 10 000 for a luxury four wheel drive vehicle. The climb takes anything between 2,5 and 3,5 hours and is strenuous during the last 30 minutes. Tea Trails wil provide you with a packed lunch. The way down is worse and after four days I can still not walk normally :D.

Avoid the boat trips between Castlereagh and Summerville, the well paid boatmen are extorting in a very unpleasnat way a tip and their boats ar leech infested.

Tea Trails has a new operations manager, Chaminda Fonseka, who is brillant and himself a reason to go there. Tea Trails is a proud Relais & Châteaux, the best hotel association in the world.

Be aware that tea plantations have Hindu staff and these people are very very noisy. So you might be disturbed by loud Bollywood music at very strange times as early as 5 AM, but the noise is manageable. Another problem is the burning and the associated smoke, which is a common problem around Asia.

After Tea Trails I would recommend taking the scenic road over the range to Tangalle where you might stay at Amanwella which is in full renovation and promises to be reallly top notch.

Thanks. Based on what's available, I think we will choose a garden suite at either Castlereagh or Summerville. We will actually be coming from Amanwella-we are doing the 5 day package at the two Amans. For the remaining day 2 days/ 1 night we will probably go to Kandy. It is tempting to just spend more time at Tea Trails, but I don't want to miss some of the cultural sights.

You'll also find good information about Tea Trails in this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...sri-lanka.html

The title doesn't make it obvious, but a lot of posts deal with Tea Trails. I think it is a good read.

Like behuman, I've just been at Tea Trails for three nights (Summerville), but did manage to stop at each bungalow and took copious pictures -- including all rooms available to be seen. My wife and I compiled a list of Pros & Cons for each as well.

I will post a full-on trip report in a few weeks, as I am currently at Amanwella, and then Amangalla before heading to Dubai (The Address - Downtwon), London (FS Park Lane), and then back to the States for the holidays. Will be posting Trip Reports for those as well, along with Trisara, FS Bangkok and FS Chiang Mai.

We also experienced a bit of a service mishap that I am waiting to have resolved by Tea Trails management before posting a full account -- very minor, I assure each of you, and from what I gather a one-off, single individual experience.

I'd also like to point out that Tea Trails will be opening a new bungalow within the next year - Dunkeld - which will look over Castlereagh Resevoir and be quite large (I believe 7 or 8 rooms). It is but a short walk from Castelreagh Bungalow now, but situated higher. I have pics of this as well.

Lastly, I was told they are building a boutique Tea Trails Hotel in Tangalle - 20 rooms, each with a plunge pool, and hope to have it open by October '13.

Thanks behuman for this very interesting post!

I did not know that Amanwella is being renovated, could you elaborate what they are changing in the resort?

Hi ! We are planning (My husband and I) to visit Tea Trails and we were thinking of Summerville. (We had an option of Norwood or Summerville) but the second looked smaller and something really lovely. Since we are paying quite a bit, I was wondering as you said above - the mishap you had: was it related to booking or with the staff at Tea Trails or anything I should look out for? Since we are visiting Sri Lanka from Derby and it's an Anniversary present for my husband, I just wanted everything to be perfect! Please do let me know and it would be much appreciated! Thanks :)

Welcome to FT, izzywizzy!

I should get my Amans and Tea Trails report up this weekend - travel and the holidays have kept me really busy.

Know, however, that you WILL have an absolutely fabulous time. I'm still emailing with Tea Trails (and in truth it's not really THAT big of a deal), but this was just one person, and he is NOT at Summerville.

We loved Summerville. I'm sure you will, too. Happy Anniversary, and welcome to FT!

Tea trails
 

We were just there over New Years and had a fabulous time. We stayed at Norwood in the master suite. Norwood was not my first choice but we loved it, and I think we definately had the best room at Norwood. It was large with a private garden looking at fabulous views. It had a separate living room and a nice bathrrom. The views from Norwood are spectacular. The service was terrific. I agree very Aman like and actually better than Amans in Sri Lanka ( not than Indonesia and some others). The food was the best we have had on this trip by far ( we are currently winding up our Sri Lanka trip at amanwella). Btw we loved both Amans and the service was good just, a Bit off what we expect from some of the other properties. Nothing I have or will complain about its just that tea trails service was so personal and just superb! And of course we loved both Amans as well ( will write up later) just wanted to emphasize the great personal service at tea trails.

We also looked at the other bungalows while there. Summerville was empty as they were expecting a family taking over the whole thing that night so we saw every room. If we were to return I would book the shuttle worth master suite there. It was great. Other rooms wre also very nice. Views from the cottage of the lake were spectacular. The only thing I would say about Summerville is since it is very small, and all the bedrooms are right next to each other, if you had people staying there there taking 2-3 rooms or taken up by people travelling together in a group it could be a problem. Norwood is a bit chopped up so you really do have a lot of places you can go in addition to your room to be alone. Of course the chopped up is not as beautiful either but we loved it.

We had lunch at castlreigh and tiensen but could not see any of the rooms as fully booked. My impression on castlreigh was great with its position on the lake. Tientsin is far away. Charming, but we heard from guests staying there it can be very noisy at night as there is a local village nearby. Evidently on New Year's Eve and New Years night the guests were kept up all night with the noise so something to check on.

Anyway we loved tea trails and would highly recommend. Service and experience are luxury. Rooms nice - maybe not what we call luxury on this site but such a great experience I cannot imagine people would dislike!

Agree with BeHuman the walks are great! We walked to castlreigh from Norwood, had a nice lunch and were driven back to Norwood, stopping at Summerville to have full tour since guests had not arrived yet!

Great place to spend a special occasion. New Years was just the way we like it. Great extra special dinner and very low key evening chatting with a couple we met from the uk drinking a glass of port and asleep by 12:05!

A lot of great information in this thread as well as the Aman Sri Lanka thread. Hoping to get recommendations from you all that have been to Sri Lanka, and also have a logistical question regarding transportation:

1. I've just finalized by honeymoon plans for November and ended up adding Sri Lanka to the tail end of the trip for 3 nights before heading home. Based on what I've read thus far, it sounds like I should probably just choose just 1 destination to spend those 3 nights given the amount of driving required between destinations. At this point, Tea Trails is my #1 choice - my question is whether I should spend all 3 nights there or is it worth it to do 2 nights at Tea Trails and then try and squeeze in another night at Amangalla (not really considering Amanwella since we'll be coming from Maldives)

2. Has anyone had experience with early flights out of Colombo? My flight will depart at 9:45am - would it be cutting it too close to leave Tea Trails that morning, or should I plan to spend the night in Colombo closer to the airport. The information Tea Trails sent indicates a distance of 160km and travel time of 4.5 hours - just wondering if this is pretty accurate based on people's experience.

1) Way too much effort to go somewhere else for just one night. With only 3 nights (does this include your first night in Sri Lanka?) I'd advise only one of TT, AW, or AG.

2) You'd have to leave TT at ~ 2:30a for that. Better served staying somewhere near CMB that night ... or even better, change your outbound to a later flight (if possible).

Yes the information is accurate- I would estimate actually 5 hours although I suppose very early in the morning will be shorter.

[QUOTE=sfoactuary;20026277]A lot of great information in this thread as well as the Aman Sri Lanka thread. Hoping to get recommendations from you all that have been to Sri Lanka, and also have a logistical question regarding transportation:

1. I've just finalized by honeymoon plans for November and ended up adding Sri Lanka to the tail end of the trip for 3 nights before heading home. Based on what I've read thus far, it sounds like I should probably just choose just 1 destination to spend those 3 nights given the amount of driving required between destinations. At this point, Tea Trails is my #1 choice - my question is whether I should spend all 3 nights there or is it worth it to do 2 nights at Tea Trails and then try and squeeze in another night at Amangalla (not really considering Amanwella since we'll be coming from Maldives)

2. Has anyone had experience with early flights out of Colombo? My flight will depart at 9:45am - would it be cutting it too close to leave Tea Trails that morning, or should I plan to spend the night in Colombo closer to the airport. The information Tea Trails sent indicates a distance of 160km and travel time of 4.5 hours - just wondering if this is pretty accurate based on people's experience.[

I am not sure I would recommend going to Sri Lanka with tea trails for 3 nights and leaving so early. I think would be stressful and defeat the purpose. Tea trails is best case 4 hours with no stops and more likely closer to 5 hours from the airport. Colombo itself is a good 60-90 min from the airport as well.

If I were you and dead set on stopping by Sri Lanka within the given time frame I would probably do amangalla. It is more of a city experience but a beautiful hotel. You can arrange a private boat cruise one day or they can arrange for lunch and sunbathing at Why beach if you want some R&R while there one day. But it sounds like you will only have 2 full days given travel distances so you could do 1 day touring galle fort and using the Aman baths and pool. Second day could be one of the R&r options I mentioned. It however is a good 3 hours from the airport so you would need to leave by 5:00am for your flight.

The best hotel we found close to the airport is the Wallawaa. It is not what I would call luxury but a very nice small boutique hotel about 15-20 min from the airport. It has a pretty good restaurant. If ou stay there book a garden suite and ask for the original building. ( just spent a night there on either side our trip to Sri Lanka which was literally two days ago!).

I do think tea trails is an awfully long trip given what would end up being two nights and one full day given your flights. It is a lot if time on winding roads for that length of time IMO although we lived the place! But spent almost 2 weeks in the country!

I just saw a Tea Trails review (on Mr. & Mrs. Smith) that talked about "dressing" for dinner at Tea Trails- jackets for men and cocktail dresses for women. This is not how I pictured it and not how I was hoping to pack! Those of you who have been there, was is appropriate attire?