The tea landscape is entirely man-made and still working. Estates around Nuwara Eliya, Haputale and Ella are picked daily, and a factory visit — the withering lofts, the rolling, the grading tables — is genuinely interesting rather than a staged demonstration. Lipton's Seat above Haputale is the view Thomas Lipton used to survey his holdings, and it is best at dawn before the cloud closes in.
The Kandy to Ella train earns its reputation. The stretch between Nanu Oya and Ella runs for hours through tea gardens and past waterfalls, and it costs almost nothing. We reserve seats where possible and have your vehicle meet you at the other end, so you get the journey without the logistics.
For genuine wilderness, Sinharaja is the last substantial tract of primary lowland rainforest on the island and a UNESCO site, with a high proportion of endemic birds, amphibians and trees. Horton Plains, up on the plateau, is montane grassland and cloud forest, and the walk out to World's End needs an early start before the view fills with cloud.