A weekend in Sylhet: tea gardens, swamp forest and waterfalls
Destinations · · 2 min read
Sylhet is green in a way the rest of Bangladesh is not: tea on the slopes, water everywhere, and hills that belong to the next country along.
Getting there
The overnight train from Dhaka arrives in time for breakfast and costs very little. Flights take under an hour. Buses run all night. If you are going on to Sreemangal, the train stops there too, which saves a long road transfer.
Day one: water
Start early for Ratargul, the freshwater swamp forest. It is only properly flooded in the monsoon, which is also when it is worth seeing - a small boat between submerged trees. Go at opening time; by mid-morning it can feel like a queue.
In the afternoon, Jaflong for the stone beds and the view into the Meghalaya hills, or Bisnakandi if you would rather have fewer people and clearer water. Both are around two hours from the city.
Day two: tea
Move to Sreemangal, the tea capital. The gardens are walkable, the seven-layer tea is a gimmick worth trying once, and Lawachara National Park has a short forest trail where you may hear gibbons before you see them. Madhabkunda waterfall is a longer drive and best kept for a third day.
Eating
Sylheti food is worth planning around: satkora with beef, river fish, and the strong milky tea that appears the moment you sit down anywhere.
Practical notes
Roads to Jaflong and Bisnakandi are rough in places and slow after rain. Shared jeeps run from the city, but a hired car for the day is not expensive split between three or four people, and lets you leave before the crowds.
Two nights is enough for one water day and one tea day. Three if you want Madhabkunda as well.