Gem Mine Tours
Descend a working mine in Ratnapura, tour the gem market, and watch stones cut the traditional way.
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Sapphire Trails takes you to the source of the world's most celebrated gemstones. Descend a working mine, choose your own Ceylon sapphire, and wear it home as a piece designed by hand. Sri Lanka's first professional gem tours.
From an hour underground to a four-day proposal journey, every experience ends with a real Ceylon stone in your hand.
Descend a working mine in Ratnapura, tour the gem market, and watch stones cut the traditional way.
Choose a rough stone and our master jewellers design and set it into a piece that is entirely yours.
A bespoke multi-day journey from the mine to the ring to the moment she says yes.
Buy certified loose sapphires at the source, with an expert verifying every stone.
This is not a museum. You climb down into a working Ratnapura mine, feel the cool earth, and watch gravel become gemstone. Our head gemologist is beside you the whole way, reading each stone as it appears.
Pick your Ceylon sapphire at the source, then sit with our jewellers to shape the setting. In four to seven days it becomes a finished piece, made by hand, that no one else in the world owns.
Choose the experiences you want and see an instant estimate. Send it to us on WhatsApp and we will tailor the details.
Sri Lanka has produced the planet's finest sapphires for over two thousand years, from the Blue Belle of Asia to the Ceylon sapphire in Kate Middleton's engagement ring. When you buy on the trail, you buy from that same soil.
Explore Ceylon sapphires
★★★★★"The mine descent was the highlight of our whole Sri Lanka trip. We held a rough sapphire that came out of the ground in front of us, then chose one to take home."
Emma & JamesUnited Kingdom
★★★★★"I proposed at a waterfall with a ring we designed together from a stone we picked at the mine. Nothing about it felt like a tour. It felt like ours."
Daniel R.Australia
★★★★★"As a collector I have bought stones all over the world. Buying at the source in Ratnapura, with an expert beside me, was a completely different level of trust."
Khalid A.United Arab Emirates
Gem tours start from $160 per person for an individual, and from around $100 per person for small groups. That includes the working-mine visit, the gem market, and traditional cutting demonstrations, guided by our head gemologist.
Yes, when you buy at the source with certification and an expert beside you. Every stone on the trail is verified by our head gemologist and comes with documentation, so you never rely on a seller you have just met.
Yes. A loose certified sapphire is small and easy to carry home in your hand luggage. Keep the certificate and receipt together as proof of value for customs when you arrive home.
Most custom pieces are handcrafted in four to seven working days, so you can choose your stone early in your trip and collect the finished ring before you leave.
We are in Ratnapura, Sri Lanka, the country's gem capital, around two to three hours from Colombo. It makes an unforgettable day trip or an overnight stay with luxury hospitality.
Tell us when you are travelling and what you dream of owning. We will design a trail that ends with a stone, and a story, that are entirely yours.