Handunugoda White Tea Estate

This 200-acre estate on Sri Lanka's southern coast is a great stop for tea lovers and anyone whose itinerary doesn't include the Hill/Tea Country. Handunugoda doesn’t produce massive quantities, but its intimate size makes for a more personal learning experience. The estate and the factory still use equipment brought in by the British some 140 years ago, and besides tea, the estate also grows rubber, cinnamon and coconut.

Break for a cup of Ceylon black tea at the historic planter's bungalow and sample some of the property's famous Virgin White Tea. This expensive product, untouched by human hands, is cut with small scissors, a complicated and lengthy way of harvesting that hails from the days of the Chinese Emperor (back then, the pickers were virgins, an eccentricity that has thankfully not held over). The small shop at the end of the tour is a good spot for picking up some made-in-Ceylon tea gifts.