The new, nearly 200-mile Pekoe Trail—which winds through Sri Lanka’s central highlands, passing remote villages and tea estates—was voted the Best of the World 2024 Reader’s Choice Winner.
Sri Lanka is virtually synonymous with tea. The island nation is one of the world’s top producers of tea leaves. Now visitors can trace the footsteps of historic planters on the new trail, which is also the country’s first long-distance walking route.
Starting just outside Kandy, the trail follows the 19th-century tracks upon which workers and horse-drawn carts transported freshly plucked leaves. Hikers can even stop to take a cooking class or savor a cup of aromatic Ceylon tea.
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