Sri Lanka’s Pekoe Train has made it to the top of The World’s Greatest Places of 2025, ranked by the prestigious Time Magazine.

The 186-mile Pekoe Trail, completed last March, is named after the high-grade black tea produced on many Sri Lankan estates. This trail, the country’s first long-distance walking path, connects thousands of colonial-era dirt roads and railway tracks constructed by the British.

While local companies have offered trekking tours along parts of the route for years, this marks the first time all 22 sections have been unified into a single trail.

The initiative was 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 Pekoe Trail provides an intimate exploration of Sri Lanka’s diverse landscapes and rich tea history. 

The trail begins in the misty Hanthana mountains near Kandy, winding through tea plantations, eucalyptus forests, quaint villages, and the sacred peak of Sri Pada, before reaching Nuwara Eliya, the heart of Sri Lanka’s tea industry.

A newly launched app enhances the hiking experience by highlighting nearby landmarks, providing segment details, emergency information, and more. Each stage of the trail takes approximately three to six hours to hike, depending on its difficulty, and completing the entire route can take several weeks.