Luxury hotel holiday 98 Acres Resort and Spa Ella Gap

98 Acres Resort and Spa is a luxury rural getaway that prides itself on its authenticity and dedication to the Sri Lankan landscape. Open-fronted cabanas line the hillside, looking down into the valley below and beyond towards Small Adam's Peak, each with the rustic appearance afforded by the locally-sourced stone and wood. 98 Acres provides an excellent and intriguing base from which to explore the area around Nuwara Eliya, including the mountainous peaks and waterfalls.
Included in your Expressions holiday
  • Accommodation in a double or twin room on bed and breakfast
  • Scheduled flights with Sri Lankan Airlines
  • Transport by private car with driver-guide
  • Concierge service and Expressions Holidays regional helpful hints
  • Optional room, board and flight upgrades. Details on request

Luxury bespoke holidays and tours to 98 Acres, Ella Gap

98 Acres is an exclusive resort, nestled amongst the beautiful peaks of Sri Lanka's central highlands. The chalets incorporate recycled materials, traditional design elements and luxury touches, all with a spectacular view of the misty mountains, for an unforgettable experience.

Facts in brief

Official star rating Luxury boutique

Location In the countryside, approximately 35-miles from Nuwara Eliya

Closest airport Bandaranaike International Airport

Distance from airport 130 miles

Hotel facilities and services

Spa, Restaurant 98, Bar 98, Swimming pool, Terrace, and Gym.

Complimentary

Bottled water and Wifi.

Out and about nearby

98 Acres Resort and Spa can help you organise Hiking, Trekking, Bird watching, Tea plucking, Tea tasting, and Cycling trips. You may wish to make an excursion into Nuwara Eliya, the 'City of Light,' climb Small Adam's Peak, or visit the smaller towns of Bandarawela and Diyathalawa. One of the highlights of the area, however, might well be Ravana Falls and the small pools at their base.

Special offers for this holiday>

Absolutely loved it. Bespoke sense of the trip is very good. Very pleasant and efficient service.
Mrs H, Sep 2023

Holiday price guide Sample prices are per person based on two people sharing a Standard room for 7 nights

From about

£1,600

Holiday Code EXH1898

The prices displayed here are a guide only. Each holiday price will be tailor-made at the time of booking to reflect all actual costs including up-to-date special offers.

Call us on 01392 441245

Luxury bespoke holidays and tours to 98 Acres, Ella Gap

Named after the 98-acre estate on which it sits, 98 Acres Resort and Spa captures picturesque, rustic Sri Lanka, with a focus on the verdant views beyond. In 2015, this resort was voted 'Best Luxury Mountain Resort in the World' at the World Luxury Hotel Awards. When you arrive, you are greeted by thatched ambalamas; wall-less so as not to impede on your first impression of the location. Then, follow the stone steps up to the resort's highest point, another rustic building with a wooden viewing deck and chairs, tables, and parasols. It might be here that you first relax into the beauty of your surroundings. From here, you can also see the roofs of the accommodation below you. Backed by steep green slopes, these stone cabins have open walls and balconies that look over the fascinating Ella landscape. The natural stone is left exposed on many of the interior walls, creating a sleek, rainforest effect, which is added to by the stone basins in the bathrooms of higher category rooms and the rustic wooden desks and headboards in the bedrooms. Semi-opaque screens cover the open walls, shading you in the hottest hours of the day without shutting out all the light. These are lifted to reveal a panoramic balcony equipped with chairs and coffee table. Top floor rooms have wooden vaulted ceilings, but on the bottom floor, the ceilings are built from the same cool stone as the walls. When you aren't out exploring this tropical region of Sri Lanka, you may want to relax beside the freeform swimming pool, from which there are more spectacular views. Under the shade of one of the hilltop ambalamas is the Restaurant 98. Choose to sit beside the rippling water of the pool, or out on the viewing deck while you sample Sri Lankan and Far Eastern delicacies. Continental food is also available. Afterwards, enjoy a cocktail or tea in the emerald-lit Bar 98, where the overall design of the resort is simultaneously at its most rustic and at its most chic. Guests may also wish to indulge in the herbal treatments available at the hotel spa, administered against the backdrop of the valley. A two or three night stay at 98 Acres Resort and Spa is an indulgent and eye-opening experience that gets you better acquainted with the beautiful nature of this sublime island, and is highly recommended on any tour that passes through central Sri Lanka.

Room descriptions

98-Acre Resort and Spa has 12 rooms with veranda or balcony, traditional stone shower, LCD television, minibar, safe, hairdryer, tea and coffee making facilities, and daily housekeeping.

Standard Rooms
Superior Rooms with living area, larger outdoor space, and bespoke interior features
Premium Deluxe with tea-themed wall mural
Honeymoon Deluxe with living area and large bathtub
Greenland Suite with kitchenette and large balcony

Special offers for this holiday>

Absolutely loved it. Bespoke sense of the trip is very good. Very pleasant and efficient service.
Mrs H, Sep 2023

Holiday price guide Sample prices are per person based on two people sharing a Standard room for 7 nights

From about

£1,600

Holiday Code EXH1898

The prices displayed here are a guide only. Each holiday price will be tailor-made at the time of booking to reflect all actual costs including up-to-date special offers.

Call us on 01392 441245

Luxury bespoke holidays and tours to 98 Acres, Ella Gap

The journey and how you get there

For a holiday to 98 Acres Resort & Spa in Sri Lanka, our clients fly to Colombo, usually with Sri Lankan Airways on a direct flight from London Heathrow (or with Emirates from other UK airports via Dubai). This hotel is 6 hours and 10 minutes' drive from Colombo airport. However, it is usually stayed at as part of a tailor-made touring holiday accompanied by a driver-guide and you would often approach the hotel from a previous stay in the Cultural Triangle to the north, or from Yala or Galle to the south.

Special offers

Call to make your booking and save an extra £50 per adult Call us instead of emailing us when you are thinking of booking a holiday and save an extra £50 per adult (in addition to any special offers that might be available). We want to talk to you to discuss your requirements and a phone call is usually the best way for you to define what you want enabling us to respond more accurately. We want to talk to you and you save an extra £50 per adult.

Absolutely loved it. Bespoke sense of the trip is very good. Very pleasant and efficient service.
Mrs H, Sep 2023

Holiday price guide Sample prices are per person based on two people sharing a Standard room for 7 nights

From about

£1,600

Holiday Code EXH1898

The prices displayed here are a guide only. Each holiday price will be tailor-made at the time of booking to reflect all actual costs including up-to-date special offers.

Call us on 01392 441245

Luxury bespoke holidays and tours to 98 Acres, Ella Gap

About Tea and hill country

An Expressions tailor-made holiday to Sri Lanka’s Tea Country incorporates the best of this diverse and exotic region. Popularly known as the High Tea Country, the temperate highlands of southern central Sri Lanka are wonderfully scenic with stunning mountain and valley vistas almost everywhere you go, and of course, often carpeted in tea bushes. Thanks to the multitude of micro-climates, the landscape is constantly changing, and it is an incredibly beautiful mountain area, worth visiting for the scenery as well as the tea culture. It is also Sri Lanka’s heartland for market gardens and dairy products; endless rows of vegetables and strawberries hug the slopes, vying for space with the tea bushes. Kandy, the royal capital of the hill country is a UNESCO world heritage site, built beside a placid lake surrounded by hills. This is certainly a thriving cultural capital with its universities and centres for Buddhist learning and the arts. Kandy is home to one of Buddhism’s most sacred sites, the ‘Dalada Maligawa’ Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic of Lord Buddha, as well as a number of other historical and cultural places of interest.

Highlights of Tea Country

Kandy market; Kandy area – handicrafts villages and workshops – brass, musical instruments, basket weaving, batik, painting; Kandy evening cultural show; Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage; Peradeniya Botanical Gardens; Mahaweli River and Victoria Dam; Tea estates; Drive to Nuwara Eliya and around the tea plantations, visiting a tea factory; Hantana mountain and Hantana tea plantations - walks and museum; Buddhist sites near Kandy – Gadaladeniya, Hindagala Vihara, Embekke Divale, Lankatilake; Mahiyangana – Rajamaha dagoba; Aluvihara Buddhist temple; Aluvihara Heritage Centre (Ena de Silva batik art and workshop and Sri Lankan rice & curry lunch); Knuckles Mountain Range - scenic drives and walking; Rubber plantations; Spice farms; Rail journey to Tea Country; Relaxing in the lush tropical hills; Treat your body, mind and soul to a programme of Ayurvedic massage and herbal treatments; Golf at the Victoria Golf course; Riding at Victoria Saddle Club; Walking and trekking; Cycling; White water rafting at Kitulgala.

Cultural highlights of Tea Country

Places of interest in Kandy include the Temple of the Tooth, the sacred Buddhist site which holds the tooth of Lord Buddha which is said to have been brought from India in the third century. The Temple lies within the Royal Palace complex along with the National Museum, the Audience Hall and a museum dedicated to the famous elephant, Raja. British legacies remain in central Kandy, in the form of grand old buildings and hotels, St Paul’s Church and Royal Palace Park. It is possible to walk most of the way around the lake besides which Kandy is built, where you can see the Royal Bathing Pavilion and the royal summerhouse which is on an island in the centre of the lake.). There is a lively market and a plethora of shops, gem showrooms and arts & crafts workshops. There are also several nightly cultural shows that showcase traditional Kandyan drumming, music and dance and the city boasts a fine international cricket stadium. Other highlights of the region include Pinnawela elephant orphanage where abandoned or injured elephants are cared for; Nuwara Eliya, a hill town with many British influences; the mountainous scenery and tea plantations around Ambewela and Bandarawela; the Highland Railway between Kandy and Badulla; and Tea Experience and Tea museums, an essential part of any visit to this part of Sri Lanka.

Festivals in Tea Country

Kandy - Esala Perahera Festival - July or August (depending on the date of the Esala full moon). This spectacular cultural pageant is held over 10 days with the processions and celebrations getting more elaborate and longer each day. Although in ancient times this was a procession to honour Hindu gods, during the reign of King Rajasinghe it was decreed that the procession should be in honour the sacred tooth relic of Lord Buddha. Each night, dancers, drummers, flute players, whip-crackers and elephants form a procession around the streets and Kandy lake. The ornately decorated elephants increase daily in number to 100 on the last night, the finest of them being the Maligawa Tusker which carries the Sacred Tooth Relic, led by the Chiefs of the Temple in traditional silver and gold ceremonial dress. The Nuwara Eliya season runs from April to June. Horse racing in High Tea Country (trotting) in January, February, April, August and December. Bandarawela Perahera on full moon day in June.

Climate in Tea Country

Climate in Kandy: The daytime temperatures in Kandy and the surrounding hills range from around 22° C to 31° C, with cooler evenings averaging 17° C. It is fairly humid and misty in the evenings with short outbursts of rain. Heavier rainfalls occur during the south-west monsoon from May to August. Climate in the High Tea Country: At an elevation of above 4,000 feet the climate is cooler and less humid with cool mornings, warm days and cool evenings. Daytime temperatures are in the low to mid 20s Celsius and at nights can drop to around 10° C. The driest part of the year is between December and April, and September is normally quite dry. The rainy season is May, June and July, and October and November due to the north-east, south-west and intermediate monsoons, and July is generally the coldest month. February and March are usually dry and around 20° C. Micro-climates exist from valley to valley. The weather at Warwick Gardens, for example, is around 16° C at night and can reach 26° C during the day, whilst the temperature at Bandarawela goes from 12° C to 20° C.

Call us on 01392 441245

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