Sri Lanka Tea Highlands: Kandy & Hill Country

The group assembles at Colombo airport and travels together by coach to Kandy — a scenic three-hour drive through the hill country foothills, past rubber plantations and river valleys. Check in to the Amaya Hills with its panoramic hilltop views. David's welcome dinner is the perfect introduction to the journey ahead: Kandyan cuisine, cool evening air and the lights of the city twinkling below the ridge.

The morning at Peradeniya Royal Botanical Gardens — 147 acres of orchid houses, spice gardens, giant bamboo and the most magnificent avenue of royal palms in Asia. Afternoon excursion to Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage for the 2pm river bathing. The orphanage's 90 rescued elephants, from newborns to enormous bulls, make for one of the most joyful wildlife encounters on the island. Return to Kandy for an evening lakeside walk.

A morning devoted to Kandy's sacred city centre — the Sri Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the Tooth), the lakeside promenade and the excellent Kandyan Arts and Crafts Association where traditional woodcarving, lacquerwork and mask carving are still practised by artisans trained in the centuries-old tradition. Evening: the traditional Kandyan cultural show at the YMBA theatre, a 45-minute programme of Kandyan drumming, devil dancing and fire walking that represents art forms practised without interruption for over 500 years.

The defining day of the tour. Board the famous blue train at Kandy station — David has reserved the observation compartment at the rear of the train for the group. The four-hour journey climbs 1,400 metres through some of the most beautiful landscape in Asia: waterfall gorges, tea terraces, mountain tunnels and villages clinging to impossible slopes. Tea vendors board at every station; the windows stay open and the cool mountain air fills the carriage. Transfer by vehicle from Nanu Oya station to the Heritance Tea Factory hotel for three nights.

Morning at a working tea estate with David's contact — a third-generation tea maker who explains the complete tea-making process from plucking to withering to rolling to firing, then conducts a tasting of four grades of Ceylon tea with a running commentary that transforms how you will think about tea forever. Afternoon exploring the extraordinary colonial anomaly of Nuwara Eliya town: the Hill Club (founded 1876, still serving afternoon tea on wicker chairs), the Victoria Park rose gardens and the 18-hole golf course laid out by the British in 1889.

A 5am departure for Horton Plains — the high plateau ecosystem at 2,200 metres needs to be reached before the cloud rolls in (typically by 10am). The 8km circular walk through cloud forest and open grassland leads to World's End, a sheer 1,000-metre escarpment with views across half of Sri Lanka when the weather is clear. Return via Baker's Falls — a beautiful 20-metre waterfall surrounded by cloud forest. Afternoon back at the Tea Factory in well-deserved leisure, perhaps with an Ayurvedic treatment in the converted engine room spa.

A final morning in the tea country — perhaps a last pot of single-estate Nuwara Eliya high-grown on the hotel veranda, watching the morning mist clear from the mountain peaks. The train back to Kandy (reverse journey, same magnificent scenery) then a smooth drive down to Colombo for the last night at the Galle Face Hotel, with a farewell dinner on the ocean terrace.

A final morning in Colombo — time for last-minute shopping in the Pettah market for Ceylon tea, spices and batik fabric, or a quiet breakfast on the Galle Face Green watching the morning kite-flyers. Transfer to the airport with David for a final farewell from one of Sri Lanka's most devoted advocates.