Sri Lanka celebrates a remarkable achievement as the Pekoe Trail is recognized among TIME Magazine’s Greatest Places of 2025. This 186-mile long-distance walking path, winding through the scenic tea country, is a testament to Sri Lanka’s tourism potential. Originally a colonial-era transport network for tea, the trail has been transformed into a world-class trekking experience, thanks to the dedication of sustainability consultant Miguel Cunat and support from the European Union and USAID.
Up in the Sri Lankan highlands, a 19th-century transport network for tea is now conveying adventurers to remote communities and businesses. The 186-mile Pekoe Trail completed last March and named for the high-grade black tea produced on many Sri Lankan estates is the country’s first long-distance walking path, linking thousands of colonial-era dirt roads and railway tracks built by the British for exporting tea.
Though local companies have led trekking tours along parts of the route for years, this is the first time all 22 sections have been connected as a single trail, an initiative led by Sri Lanka-based sustainability consultant Miguel Cunat and funded by the European Union and the U.S. Agency for International Development. For hikers, the path offers an intimate look at Sri Lanka’s diverse landscape and tea-entwined history: it unfurls from the mist-cloaked Hanthana mountains near Kandy, through tea plantations, eucalyptus forests, tiny villages and the holy peak of Sri Pada, to Nuwara Eliya, the country’s tea capital. A new app highlights nearby landmarks, segment details, emergency information, and more.
Each stage takes about three to six hours to hike, depending on its difficulty, and traversing the entire route can take weeks. Charming stays including Teardrop Hotels’ contemporary-chic bungalows and Uga Escapes’ newly launched Halloowella, a six-suite estate formerly owned by a British army major that has been redesigned by celebrated Sri Lankan architect Channa Daswatte ensure that hikers are well-fed and rested along the way.
