By the Best Mountain Hotels editorial team ·
Heritance Tea Factory is one of the most unusual hotels in Asia: a tea factory on the Hethersett estate near Nuwara Eliya, converted into a hotel while keeping its corrugated-iron walls, factory windows and machinery. At about 2,000 metres, among the highest tea gardens in Sri Lanka, it looks out over endless terraces of tea, and it has won awards for the way it brought an industrial building back to life.
Heritance Tea Factory is one of the most unusual hotels in Asia: a tea factory on the Hethersett estate near Nuwara Eliya, converted into a hotel while keeping its corrugated-iron walls, factory windows and machinery. At about 2,000 metres, among the highest tea gardens in Sri Lanka, it looks out over endless terraces of tea, and it has won awards for the way it brought an industrial building back to life.
Location: Kandapola, near Nuwara Eliya
Sri Lanka's hill country rises steeply from the island's tropical lowlands into a cool, misty world of tea estates, waterfalls, forests and mountain villages, where the tea that made the island famous as Ceylon still grows on terraced slopes.
Heritance Tea Factory stands at Kandapola, about 14 kilometres from Nuwara Eliya, the colonial-era hill station known as Little England, at around 2,000 metres above sea level. The factory sits on a ridge of the Hethersett tea estate, with views over the plantations and the surrounding hills. Nuwara Eliya is a base for Horton Plains National Park, World's End and the hill country railway.
Rooms at Heritance Tea Factory
The converted upper floors of the factory hold around 50 rooms and suites, arranged along the old factory floors, with large windows looking out over the tea. Rooms are comfortable and traditional in style, with warm fabrics and wood, ideal for the cool mountain nights. The original structure, with its iron frame and windows, has been kept throughout.
Facilities at Heritance Tea Factory
Guests can learn how tea is made, walk among the pickers on the estate and taste the local teas. The restaurants include TCK 6685, set in a restored railway carriage, and the hotel has a spa.
Guided walks lead through the estate and surrounding villages, and excursions to Horton Plains, Nuwara Eliya and the scenic railway are easily arranged. The conversion, by the architect Nihal Bodhinayake, won a merit award in the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards.
The mountain moment
The defining moment is the early morning, when mist lies in the valleys below the factory and the first tea pickers move along the terraces, as you drink a cup of tea grown on the slopes outside your window.
In the evening, warm up by the fire, then dine in the old railway carriage as night falls over the hills.
Why Heritance Tea Factory is one of the best mountain hotels
Heritance Tea Factory earns its place for its history, its altitude and its originality. Few hotels anywhere tell the story of the place they stand in so directly, and it is an atmospheric, good-value base for the high tea country.
For a more intimate stay in a planter's bungalow, see Ceylon Tea Trails or Thotalagala. For a glamping stay in the Knuckles Range, see Madulkelle Tea and Eco Lodge.
When to go to Heritance Tea Factory
The high tea country is cool all year, and nights can be cold, so pack warm layers. The driest months around Nuwara Eliya are usually from January to April, when skies are clearest for Horton Plains and World's End, which is best visited early in the morning before the mist rolls in. April is the busy holiday season in Nuwara Eliya, and the south-west monsoon, from around May to September, brings rain and mist.
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Questions, answered
- Where is Heritance Tea Factory?
- Heritance Tea Factory is at Kandapola, about 14 kilometres from Nuwara Eliya, in Sri Lanka's high tea country.
- Is Heritance Tea Factory a real tea factory?
- Yes. It is a converted tea factory on the Hethersett estate, which opened as a hotel in 1996 and was relaunched as Heritance Tea Factory in 2009, keeping much of its original structure.
- What altitude is Heritance Tea Factory?
- It stands at about 2,000 metres above sea level, among the highest tea gardens in Sri Lanka.
- What is the railway carriage restaurant?
- TCK 6685 is a restaurant set in a restored railway carriage, on the hotel grounds.
- When is the best time to visit Nuwara Eliya?
- January to April is usually the driest period, best for Horton Plains and World's End.
