On the night before we were planned to get to Tea Trails, Sri Lanka in Style booked us into a different hotel.

'How is it' I emailed Miguel, who runs the poshest agency in Sri Lanka.

'It's a contrast' he replied.

I was worried.

The worry turned out to be justified. The hotel, run, bizarrely by Ceylon Bank, was ugly, uncomfortable and one of the most disastrous places we have ever stayed in following the bullet-ridden one in India.

We couldn't get out fast enough. At 7.00am we were sitting in the back seat of the car when the driver turned round and said: 'I think Miguel just wanted you to experience something different'. Aha: the contrast.

Contrast! A couple of hours away, Tea Trails is nothing short of stunning and not just by comparison. 4 large villas, previously tea plantation houses, are dotted around Hatton. The views from each one are so soothing. You can feel the green sucking away everyday stresses from your eyes.

The rooms are lovely but you need to ask for a double bed and make sure you get it. We got two singles. 'What's this?' I asked the Butler. 'Erm...we can push them together' he replied, embarrassed.

By the evening the beds were still separated, so the service is not the usual stunning stuff you get in the boutique hotels dotted around Sri Lanka.

Moreover, a diplomat was staying over while we were there so suddenly all focus moved to her. That meant less focus on the other guests and at some point we were even 'invited' to leave the beautiful living room so that she could have the place to herself.

Nonetheless the place was just gorgeous. The food is top notch. The owner also owns a tea brand so buy loads: the prices are ridiculously cheap. The visit to the tea factory was an eye-opener  in more ways than one, including the less than enthusiastic approach the Sri Lankans adopted towards their colonisers: the British. Tee plantations, you understand, involve razing whole swaths of countryside and employing Sri Lankans at less than high prices.

Yet I would still recommend it. I would not though, for the price, give it 5 stars. So it gets four.