Bangladesh Tourism Board
Beautiful Bangladesh
Bangladesh Tourism Board
Beautiful Bangladesh
Most countries get four seasons. Bangladesh counts six, and turns into a different country for each one. Come in July and the forests are underwater. Come in January and the same land is gold, dry and full of birds.
Hover any picture to bring it back into colour. Click it and we will work out whether you need a visa.
The SundarbansMangrove, tiger, tide
Visit The Sundarbans TodayCheck if you need a visa →
Cox's Bazar120 km of unbroken sand
Visit Cox's Bazar TodayCheck if you need a visa →
Sajek ValleyWake up above the cloud
Visit Sajek Valley TodayCheck if you need a visa →
Saint Martin'sThe only coral island
Visit Saint Martin's TodayCheck if you need a visa →
RatargulRow through a flooded forest
Visit Ratargul TodayCheck if you need a visa →
Srimangal150 tea gardens
Visit Srimangal TodayCheck if you need a visa →
Old DhakaA river port that never stopped
Visit Old Dhaka TodayCheck if you need a visa →
BandarbanGorges and waterfalls
Visit Bandarban TodayCheck if you need a visa →
Tanguar HaorAn inland sea, every monsoon
Visit Tanguar Haor TodayCheck if you need a visa →
BagerhatA mosque city from 1450
Visit Bagerhat TodayCheck if you need a visa →
PaharpurThe monastery of Somapura
Visit Paharpur TodayCheck if you need a visa →
KuakataSunrise and sunset, same water
Visit Kuakata TodayCheck if you need a visa →
Every one of these has a full guide in Destinations.
The rivers double in width and the whole delta floats.
Ratargul swamp forest goes under twenty to thirty feet of water and you row through the canopy.
Best in Sylhet, Bandarban, Barishal
Every line on this map is a real, named river, drawn from survey geometry. Watch the pulse: that is the direction the water goes, off the Himalaya, across the delta, into the Bay of Bengal. It does this on a schedule, every year, and the whole country is arranged around it.
Hover any point. Nine of about ninety places worth the trip.
Sundarbans tigers cross tidal channels between islands. Three day boat safaris out of Khulna and Mongla, with forest department guides.
Read more →
In Srimangal a man worked out how to layer seven densities of tea in one glass. It should not hold together. It does.
Read more →
Ratargul is a freshwater swamp forest that spends the monsoon under 20 to 30 feet of water. You go in by rowing boat, through the branches.
Read more →
Monsoon boat racing. Boats up to 30 metres long, villages on the banks, drums setting the stroke.
Read more →
Jamdani weaving near Dhaka is on the UNESCO intangible heritage list. Two weavers, one loom, six months for a single sari.
Read more →
The national fish, and an argument. Chandpur claims the best. Go in the monsoon, eat it with mustard, and take a side.
Read more →
From November the wetlands of Sylhet fill with migratory ducks and waders off the Central Asian flyway. Bring a boat and a flask.
Read more →
Dhaka's rickshaw painting joined the UNESCO list in 2023. The workshops in Bangshal will paint you anything, including you.
Read more →
Bengali new year, 14 April. Giant papier mache birds, elephants and suns carried through Dhaka by art students since 1989.
Read more →Rickshaw painting entered the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list in December 2023. Dhaka has roughly a million rickshaws. Do the maths.
Ten dishes worth building a trip around. Rice, river fish, slow beef, and a sweet course the country takes seriously.
Raw mutton, aged rice and potato sealed in a pot and cooked slowly over coal. The wedding dish, and an argument about which shop does it best.
Hilsa steamed in mustard paste and green chilli. The national fish, in the dish that treats it with the most respect.
Rice and lentils fried down together with whole spice. What the whole country eats when the monsoon arrives.
Beef cooked down for hours until the gravy turns almost black. Chattogram's signature, and not remotely subtle.
Prawns in coconut milk, sweet and thin enough to drink. Best where the prawns come out of the water an hour earlier.
Mashes: aubergine, dried fish, potato, coriander, chilli. Five or six of them around a plate of rice, and it beats most restaurant food.
Crisp hollow shells filled with spiced potato and chickpea, dunked in tamarind water. Negotiate the chilli level before you commit.
Steamed rice cakes with date palm molasses in the middle, made only in the cold months and sold from pavement stoves.
Sweet yoghurt set in an earthen pot, which is half the flavour. Bogura's is the one people carry home on the bus.
Dense syrup soaked sweets, a Tangail speciality since the nineteenth century. Buy a kilo. It will not last the drive.
Independent vlogs by travellers with no connection to us. Watch them here, or open them on YouTube where the creators get the credit.
24 min
I Tried Bangladesh's Craziest Street Food
SeanTravels
Old Dhaka, eaten street by street, with the prices and the reactions left in.
36 min
I went on a spontaneous trip to Bangladesh
Flora Gonning
A solo traveller books it on impulse and films the whole thing, awkward moments included.
19 min
I Can't Believe They Eat This in Bangladesh Streets
Lost Borders
Street kitchens, night markets, and the food nobody puts on a tourism poster.
Dhaka, paddle steamer to Barisal, floating markets, Kuakata, back up through Khulna to the Sundarbans.
See itinerary 02 / 6 daysKhulna to Mongla, three nights on a forest boat, Kotka and Hiron Point, ending at the mosque city of Bagerhat.
See itinerary 03 / 8 daysChattogram, Rangamati and Kaptai Lake, then Bandarban for Nilgiri, Boga Lake and the Nafakhum falls trek.
See itinerary 04 / 5 daysSrimangal gardens and Lawachara forest, Ratargul by rowing boat, two nights on the water at Tanguar Haor.
See itinerary 05 / 9 daysMahasthangarh, Paharpur, the terracotta temples of Dinajpur and Puthia, ending in the Mughal quarters of Old Dhaka.
See itinerary
Around a million foreign visitors a year, in a country of 170 million. You will not be queuing behind anyone.
