The Planter's House
Koslanda, Sri Lanka
With long haul adventures, spontaneity doesn’t often play a part in deciding where we rest our heads. Undeniably, there’s a certain romance in rolling the dice on holiday - deciding where to eat a few minutes before you set off, swapping existing plans in pursuit of somewhere a local recommended at breakfast - but when it comes to where we’re sleeping, we usually have that locked in weeks before we step foot on a plane. We know what we like (that’s not a bad thing), and I will always cherish checking into a hotel which I’ve spent months eyeing up.
Fast forward to us ignoring all of the above, sitting on a beach in Dikwella and after a very brief research session (read: 10 minutes and 2 beers later), booking a night’s stay at The Planter’s House. I know. Rebels. Our time on the South Coast was an absolute dream, but we needed a change in scenery, wanting to swap the beach for the mountains. We forfeited a second night in our current spot (admittedly it wasn’t our favourite of the trip) and set about plotting how we got there. Dikwella to Koslanda isn’t an easy journey, but our driver made light work of it, negotiating Sri Lankan traffic and wriggling around hairpin bends and after a three hour stint, we said our goodbyes at the side of a road and clambered into the waiting four wheel drive. At this point, I realised how tucked away our next stay was, with a 45 minute uphill off-road drive ahead of us. With my legs dangling over the side of the jeep (sorry mum), I spent the best part of an hour refusing to blink in case I missed anything. Snaking slowly up the mountain, through tea and cinnamon estates, we finally turned one last corner and squeezed through a set of gates. After a quick glance at the house, we realised it was so worth the bum numbing journey.
At an altitude of 1,200 metres, The Planter’s House is a playground in the clouds.
Built in the Uva Province within the original Lipton tea estate, The Planter’s House sits just below Lipton’s Seat. It’s secluded, incredibly beautiful and somehow, we lucked out with being the only guests there. With six en-suite bedrooms, study, drawing room, dining room, veranda, a two bedroom cottage and swimming pool, it’s spacious too. The entire house is wrapped in bougainvillea, the best looking (and smelling) blooms I’ve ever seen. The service is relaxed but attentive, with no formal structure to meal times and a three-course set meal is offered for lunch and dinner, and the team are friendly and flexible so any requests are welcomed. We stayed in The Oriole Room, with a four poster bed, and a bathtub that overlooked the garden and valleys below. I accidentally timed my bath with sunset, which when combined with the sweet smelling bougainvillea outside, nudged it to first place on my ‘best baths’ list.
After cocktails by the pool, we decided we didn’t really want to leave at 6am the next morning so had a very serious Google session to see if we could jump on a later train to Kandy. Sadly, we couldn’t so we attempted to eke out the evening with multiple nightcaps by the fire before admitting defeat and heading to bed. The next morning went by in a blur (5am alarms are not my friend on holiday) but I remember a few things - how smiley the team were that early in the morning, how thoughtfully packed our breakfast was, and how sad I was as we made our bumpy descent down the mountain.
The Planter’s House is a special place, and it deserves more than a one night stay. Surrounded by beauty spots, the team there are experts in day trips (Lipton’s Seat and the Diyaluma Falls are near by), hikes and showcasing the ridiculously beautiful location. At an altitude of 1,200 metres, The Planter’s House is a playground in the clouds.
