Until the pandemic, fuel and food shortages, and political-economic crises wreaked havoc on Sri Lanka in recent years, the island nation was known as a place to plant heritage and mine luxury. Nevertheless, the Fernando family of Dilmah tea wants to show you that both can still be enjoyed as memorable experiences.
The Fernandos own the Resplendent Ceylon trio of properties: Ceylon Tea Trails in Hatton, Wild Coast Tented Lodge in Yala, and Cape Weligama in Weligama. They are the only Sri Lankan members of Relais & Chateaux, which means you can expect these resorts to be “quirky, focused on food and service, have a sense of place, and family-run with passion,” according to second-generation Dilmah owner Malik Fernando.
That fleur-de-lis symbol is often a good indicator that a hotel is a destination unto itself. Indeed, before the world closed its borders, the Tea Trails’ rooms used to be fully booked six months in advance, with tourists planning whole itineraries around their availability. But Resplendent Ceylon lodgings are also a celebration of the land’s incredible diversity.
“Sri Lanka is so compact that you can have an entire, unique journey crossing from one end to another,” continues Fernando. “The largest marine animal and the largest land animal are less than a hundred kilometres from each other,” he says, referring to the elephants that roam Yala and the blue whales that occasionally surface in the waters of Weligama.
You don’t have to do all three in one trip, though it is a popular option. It’s more important to do them eventually—and slowly—to truly savour the multiplicity of Sri Lanka’s resplendence.
CAPE WELIGAMA
Any number of our neighbours peddle the same home-away-from-home humidity with the promise of fewer people and more beaches, but we continue to be drawn to their distinct identities. If Bali has become a decentralised hippie commune and Langkawi an archipelago of languid lagoon living, then Sri Lanka’s ace is going big on, well, everything. The flavours are bold, the waves are rough, and the foliage grows strong and wild.
At Cape Weligama, the rooms are absolutely enormous, and arguably the largest in the country. The smallest room starts at 130sqm and goes up to a sweeping 310sqm for the Duplex Pool Villa.
Except for the 200sqm Pool Villa, which has its own 15-m infinity pool, the others have to share one with a couple of the other villas. If you’re after total isolation, you’ll have to look for a hotel (and country) that doesn’t pride itself on a culture of friendliness and generosity.
Even if you visit off-season, you’ll still enjoy the compounds alongside sauntering iguanas, peacocks and monkeys that politely go about their own business just like everyone else.
All 4.8ha of the property sit on a cliff edge offering privileged views of the Indian ocean as it unfurls its frothy waves longingly onto the sands below. Private meals can be arranged at two lookout points, Minke and Blue. The latter is also where the hotel offers complimentary yoga sessions twice a week, weather permitting. There is nothing like sitting in a private nook, literally looking down at neighbouring apartments and lesser hotels, to give one a sense of incredible smugness.
The beaches below are all public, and a short 200-m walk from the hotel on either side, though it may be hard to pull yourself away from the resort’s Moon Pool. The hotel can also arrange sunset cruises, whale watching, cooking classes, and a tour of the nearby tea plantation and turtle hatchery. If you’re staying on the premises (and who can blame you?), we recommend you sign up for a painting class, put on some Ludovico Einaudi, and get lost in the joy of creation.
The 39 suites and eight gardens here are named after famous writers, poets, and explorers, so you get an idea of the atmosphere Cape Weligama wants to create: one where the outdoors is perfumed by rugged forestry, waiting for the city-weary to run into its balmy embrace and discover its many natural treasures.
WILD COAST TENTED LODGE
Photo: Resplendent Ceylon.
With the ocean on one side and a safari on the other, the Wild Coast Tented Lodge is swaddled in raw wilderness. While the resort is easily the most luxurious in the area, it commits to the expedition theme.
There are no fences or gates separating the lodge from its surroundings, so expect to see a great deal of wildlife during your stay. It’s the main reason why the staff implore you to keep your doors and windows closed at all times, even when you’re in the room, and to keep shoes and valuables inside.
Boars, monkeys, birds, frogs, and even majestic elephants are frequent visitors to the premises, so guests are asked to be accompanied by an on-site ranger if they want to leave their rooms when the sun has set and it’s dark out. If an elephant is spotted near your room, you’ll be asked to stay inside. If you’re already out, you’ll be asked to run back in. Rightfully, the animals are the real VIPs here.
Not that you’ll have much to complain about inside. The rooms are 55sqm cocoon-shaped sanctuaries decked out in comforts Livingstone and Hemingway could only have dreamed of. Still, the design is consistently adventurer-chic. Four-poster beds, polished wood floors, leather-clad chests and folding chairs, a copper clawfoot tub, and knobby brass switches—think Tintin in the Congo, but with Sonos speakers and air-conditioning.
Game drives through Yala National Park are included and recommended with every stay. You will wake up at an ungodly hour and trundle along dusty, bumpy “roads” for three hours, hoping to spot the notoriously elusive leopard or sloth bear and probably see everything but.
Yet, you will suffer it gladly because when dawn breaks upon bushlands and calm ponds instead of traffic lights and office buildings, the morning sun seems to shine, rather than sneer. Watching water buffalo, crocodiles, hornbills, paradise flycatchers and grey langurs greet the day with serene indifference will trigger a reminder to stop and smell the blue water lilies.
CEYLON TEA TRAILS
Perched at a height of 1,250m and overlooking the Golden Valley of Tea is a series of five restored planters’ bungalows that make up Resplendent Ceylon’s crown jewel.
The beauty of its location in central Hill Country is inversely related to the pain of getting there (unless you take a seaplane), but hours of winding roads eventually lead to views of tea tree-lined hills, vivid gardens, and the sparkling beryl waters of Castlereagh Lake. Far prettier than any postcard.
There are four room categories, ranging between 40sqm and 120sqm with 27 suites across five bungalows. With four to six rooms per mansion, each bungalow has its own unique design and personality, but they are all united by the spirit of rustic luxury and slow living. Our advice: go in a group and book the whole thing to feel like a tea baron from the 1800s.
That’s because Ceylon Tea Trails doesn’t think of itself as a hotel or resort. When you arrive, the staff, including a manager, butler, chef and houseboys for each bungalow, greet you like you’ve come home after a long absence. It won’t matter that you have never played croquet in the backyard or eaten scones under the light of fireflies; the warmth of the hospitality and the charm of colonial architecture will evoke anemoia or nostalgia for an era you’ve never known.
Tea Trails’ amenities aren’t as modern as its sister properties. Technology here is a reluctant compromise, but you can enjoy necessities like electrical outlets, hairdryers and Wi-Fi. Apart from that, let the high altitude air cool your room and the cries of the forests’ many inhabitants fill your holiday playlist. Occupy your hours with tennis on clay courts, hikes on stony paths, and tiffin lunches on the hillside. If there’s anything else that you need, just stand around long enough looking mildly distressed and the unobtrusive staff will emerge—seemingly out of nowhere—with alarming efficiency.
Far away from the beeps and burdens of modern life, coming to Tea Trails is like time-travelling. It’s as though it never got the memo that the world outside had moved on. Here, where hardwood still crackles in fireplaces and tea is served in bed after the ring of a butler bell, you’re no longer in Sri Lanka, but the Ceylon of old.
Getting there
Sri Lankan hospitality can begin even before you step foot on the Resplendent Isle if you fly with SriLankan Airlines.
Flights from Singapore to Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport are typically on the airline’s newest Airbus A330-300s, with the business class cabin comprising 28 leather seats in a three-row reverse herringbone configuration.
The flat beds extend to 198cm with a roomy pitch of 119cm, but you probably won’t be needing it for a four-hour flight. Your time will be better used throwing on the noise-cancelling headphones and enjoying the extensive in-flight entertainment on 15.4-inch screens.
The airline recently won the 2023 APEX Passenger Choice Awards for Best Food & Beverage in Central/Southern Asia, so we recommend the Sri Lankan options for their authentic flavours (and heat).
But the best perk for business class passengers is the access to the Silk Route, which fast-tracks the immigration process with a dedicated team that will help process your papers and collect your luggage. After all, with three distinct breeds of paradise waiting, every minute is worth saving.
