The tea is the whole reason. Kyoto, Kandy, and a bus round London.
Which Kyoto ceremony puts the whisk in your own hand. What a morning in the Nuwara Eliya gardens costs. Whether the afternoon tea bus is worth what London charges for it. Reviews of every tea experience you can book.
Kiyomizu, the Thames, Uji, a Routemaster: the four tea bookings that go first.
One temple ceremony, one boat, one matcha town and one 1960s bus. What each costs, and what the people who sat down say.
01The Kyoto oneTea Ceremony in a Traditional Tea House in KiyomizuA tea house in the lanes under Kiyomizu-dera. Forty-five minutes on tatami and a bowl you turn twice before you drink it.
02Tea on the waterAfternoon Tea Cruise on the River ThamesA pot and a tiered stand going past Westminster. The booking that saves a wet afternoon in London.
03Matcha at the sourceWorld Heritage Kyoto & Nara Uji Authentic Matcha ExperienceUji, where the stone mills are and where the ceremony grade comes from. A full day out of Kyoto with Nara on the way back.
04Upstairs on a RoutemasterAfternoon Tea Bus Tour – 1960s Routemaster BusA 1960s double-decker with tables instead of seats, doing a loop of the sights while you pour.
In Japan the tea ceremony is the booking. The city decides the room.
Kyoto keeps the old townhouse rooms and the temple sittings. Tokyo runs the short ones you can slot into an afternoon. Uji is where the leaf is ground. Pick the city and the room follows.
Six countries that build a whole day out of one leaf.
A machiya room in Kyoto, a factory floor above Nuwara Eliya, a gongfu tray in Chengdu, terraced rows an hour from Taipei, a hill station in Kerala, and a trolley of scones in a London drawing room.
What happens in a tea ceremony, and where to kneel for one.
A sweet before the bowl, whisked matcha, and a host who talks you through the turns. Most run under an hour, most take complete beginners, and the good rooms hold about eight people.
The tea experiences more travellers take than any others.
Every tea review →Ceremonies, cruises and plantation mornings that carry more people than anything else here, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Tea Ceremony in a Traditional Tea House in Kiyomizu
In a traditional tea house near Kiyomizu-Dera, an English-speaking host introduces the 500-year-old tea ceremony before a tea master prepares matcha. You will watch the ritual, make your own tea, enjoy a Japanese sweet, and pose for a garden photo. Small groups and a peaceful setting make this a thoughtful Kyoto cultural stop.
From · $49
Read our review →
2
Afternoon Tea Cruise on the River Thames
from $53
3
Tea Ceremony Ju-An at Jotokuji Temple
from $29
4
Afternoon Tea Bus Tour in Dublin
from $72
5
45-Minute Tea Ceremony Lesson Experience
from $22
6
Afternoon Tea Bus Tour – 1960s Routemaster Bus
from $87
7
Afternoon Tea Bus with a Glass of Prosecco
from $64
8
Afternoon Tea Vintage Bus Tour
from $65
London pours at four, and the good rooms are gone by three.
Everything tea in London →
A hotel drawing room, a boat going past Westminster, or the top deck of a Routemaster with the stand sliding about on the table. This is the biggest afternoon tea market anywhere, which is exactly why it books out.
A hotel drawing room, done properly
Loose leaf poured at the table, a three-tier stand, and the sort of room that expects you to stay for two hours. The palace and Mayfair sittings are the ones that price like an event.
Tea upstairs on a Routemaster
A 1960s double-decker refitted with tables, looping Westminster, St Paul’s and the Palace while you pour. The tea is real and the driver takes the corners knowing what is on your table.
Scones going past Parliament
A Thames sailing with the stand already laid out, which turns a grey afternoon into the best hour of the day. Departures run from Westminster and Tower piers.
What a tea sitting actually costs.
Grouped by what you hand over. A temple ceremony in Kyoto costs less than a pot in Mayfair, and neither is the cheapest thing on the list.
Temple ceremonies, matcha classes, factory tours and a morning in the picking rows.
Kimono sittings, hotel afternoon teas, the bus and boat teas, a full day out to Uji.
Palace high teas, private tea masters, and the long garden days that come with a driver.
Up in the tea gardens: pluck, wither, roll, taste.
The hill country above Nuwara Eliya, the Munnar ridges, the terraces an hour out of Taipei. A morning in the rows with somebody who picks for a living, then the factory floor where the leaf is withered and graded, then the bench where you finally taste it.
Every plantation day →
Half of this runs on when the leaf is actually picked.
A garden in plucking season is a working garden. Out of season it is a shed and a very good view. Darjeeling’s first flush is March, Japan’s shincha comes in May, and Sri Lanka picks all year round, which is why the hill country is the safe booking. Ceremony rooms, classes and hotel teas do not care what month you turn up.
Three things that only happen once tea is involved.
Hot drinks are served everywhere. Being dressed in a kimono before you are allowed one, turning a granite wheel to make the powder yourself, and eating scones on the top deck of a moving bus are not.
The Kimono Tea Ceremony
You are fitted before anything is poured: under-layers, obi, collar, the lot, and it takes longer than the ceremony that follows. Then you kneel in a tatami room while the host explains the turn of the bowl and the sweet that goes before it. Kyoto, Tokyo and Osaka all run them daily, and it is the dressing slots that sell out, not the tea.
- 1Kimono Tea Ceremony at Kyoto Maikoya, NISHIKI★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 911 reviews
- 2Kimono Tea Ceremony at Tokyo, Asakusa Maikoya★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 638 reviews
- 3Kimono Tea Ceremony at Orizuruya Gion★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 618 reviews
Grinding Your Own Matcha
Matcha does not arrive as powder. It is tencha leaf ground on a granite wheel at roughly thirty grams an hour, which explains what a decent tin costs. Uji and the Kyoto tea museums hand you the wheel and let you turn it, then whisk whatever falls out. The first bowl tastes better for the arm ache.
- 1World Heritage Kyoto & Nara Uji Authentic Matcha Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,573 reviews
- 2Matcha Making Class in Tokyo with Authentic Japanese Sweets Set★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 744 reviews
- 3Tea Museum Tickets and Matcha Grinding Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 739 reviews
Afternoon Tea on a Routemaster
Somebody in London worked out that a 1960s double-decker with the seats stripped out fits eight tables, and the idea has since reached Dublin and Edinburgh. The sandwiches come on a stand, the tea is poured while moving, and the whole thing lasts about as long as a lap of the sights.
- 1Afternoon Tea Bus Tour in Dublin★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,791 reviews
- 2Afternoon Tea Bus Tour – 1960s Routemaster Bus★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,032 reviews
- 3Afternoon Tea Bus with a Glass of Prosecco★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 1,853 reviews
Tasting tea properly ruins the supermarket aisle for you.
Five leaves in five cups, the same water, the same three minutes, and a spoon you are meant to slurp from. An hour of that and you can tell a second flush from a first with your eyes shut. Gongfu trays in China, cupping benches on the estates, and the factory tastings that come free with the tour.
- 1Uva Halpewatte Tea Factory Tour in Ella Sri Lankafrom $18
- 2Private Tea Ceremony and Sake Tasting in Kyoto Samurai Housefrom $99
- 3Tea Factory and Pickle Waterfalls Tuk Tuk Tourfrom $33
Four tea rooms that cannot squeeze you in.
Most of this can be sorted the night before from a hotel lobby. These four cannot. The rooms are small, the kimono fitting is a booking of its own, and the bus has eight tables and two departures.
- 01Tea Ceremony Ju-An at Jotokuji TempleA temple room takes a handful of people at a time and the sittings run to the hour. The morning ones go first.
- 02Kimono Tea Ceremony at Kyoto Maikoya, NISHIKIYou are dressed before you drink, so the slot covers a fitting as well as a ceremony. Dressers and sizes are both finite.
- 03Afternoon Tea Bus Tour – 1960s Routemaster BusOne bus, eight tables, a couple of departures a day. Nobody stands at the back with a scone.
- 04Tea Museum Tickets and Matcha Grinding ExperienceThe stone mills are handed out by session, and a session is booked rather than queued for.
The classes where you whisk, roll and write it out by hand.
Matcha classes hand you the bowl and the bamboo whisk and let you fail at the froth twice before it works. The wagashi sessions have you shaping the sweet that goes with it, and the calligraphy rooms pair a brush with the bowl. All of them run a couple of hours and send you out with something you made.
The Japanese tea run: Kyoto, Uji, Nara, Osaka, Tokyo, Kanazawa.
Osaka
Kanazawa
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