Multi-day Tours21.9497° N 89.1833° E
01 / 03The Sundarbans is where Bangladesh stops being land. Ten thousand square kilometres of tidal mangrove straddle the border with India, cut by channels that fill and empty twice a day, and there is no way through except by water. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997 and holds the world's largest surviving population of Royal Bengal tigers — perhaps a hundred on the Bangladeshi side. Be honest with yourself about that: people go years without seeing one, and the forest is worth the trip regardless. What you will reliably see is spotted deer at the waterline, estuarine crocodiles, macaques, kingfishers and eagles, and a horizon that does not contain a single building.
You travel down from Dhaka and board the boat, which becomes your hotel, restaurant and viewing platform for the next three days. Mornings start early — first light is when the forest is awake and the light is worth having — in small craft that can get up the narrow creeks the main boat cannot reach. Afternoons are for the wider channels, watchtowers and village stops. The cook works with whatever the day's catch was, and eats with the crew. Nights are quiet in a way that is difficult to describe to anyone who lives in a city. Bring binoculars, a long lens if you own one, and clothes you do not mind sweating through.
Day 1
Travel to the forest, board the boat, and begin cruising through mangrove channels.
Day 2
Early morning wildlife spotting, village visit, and canal exploration.
Day 3
Final forest excursion before returning to Dhaka.
from
$433/ adult
Old Dhaka · 6+ hours
A full day on foot and by car through the oldest quarter of Dhaka — the Pink Palace, the Star Mosque, the Armenian Church, the narrow lanes of Shankhari Bazaar, and the river port that has kept the city fed for four hundred years.
from$72/ adult
Reserve
Sylhet Division · 3+ days
Four days northeast into tea country: Sylhet's shrines and rivers, the tea estates and rainforest of Srimangal, and the seven-layer tea that locals will tell you cannot be made properly anywhere else.
from$721/ adult
Reserve
