Bangladesh travel guides, city by city

Quick answer · where to go in Bangladesh

Start in Dhaka for the Mughal old city, the river ghats and Louis Kahn's parliament, then pick one direction and commit to it. South-west for the Sundarbans and the mosque city of Bagerhat. South-east for the beach at Cox's Bazar and the hills above Bandarban. North-east for the tea gardens around Srimangal. The dry window runs November to February, when the roads and the river routes both run to timetable.

All regions Dhaka Chattogram Sylhet Khulna Rajshahi Barishal Rangpur Mymensingh

Jump to City guides Fun fact Stereotypes Famous Bangladeshis Food FAQ

2 Bangladesh city guides

Sorted by what travelers are saving this month.

Dhaka

Asia · 10 picks

Cox's Bazar

Asia · 10 picks

Fun fact

One number worth knowing

Bangladesh has three UNESCO World Heritage sites and five entries on UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list, including Jamdani weaving in 2013 and, in 2023, the rickshaws and rickshaw painting of Dhaka.

Stereotypes, sorted out

The clichés you have heard, what is actually true, and how to fit in.

"Bangladesh is nothing but floods and disasters"

The realityFlooding is real, seasonal and concentrated in the monsoon, and the country has built one of the world's most effective cyclone warning and shelter systems around it. Travel between November and February and you will not see any of it.

"It is a smaller version of India"

The realityThe language, the literature and the calendar are Bengali, and the cooking is its own. Hilsa in mustard, Sylheti shatkora beef and Chattogram's mezban are made nowhere else.

"There is nothing here worth seeing"

The realityThree UNESCO World Heritage sites: the Sundarbans mangrove forest, the fifteenth-century mosque city of Bagerhat, and the Buddhist vihara at Paharpur.

"It is too hard for an independent traveller"

The realityTourist numbers are low, which is exactly why it is easy. English is used in hotels and on signage, invitations to tea arrive constantly, and the country is small enough to cross by train.

Rickshaws, hand-painted, everywhereTea in a small glassCricket on any spare patch of groundRice at every mealTraffic that never quite stopsMonsoon rain measured in feet

Cultural notes that actually help

Eat with your right hand, and expect a second helping to land before you have finished the first.
Take your shoes off before entering a home or a mosque, and cover shoulders and knees at religious sites.
The weekend is Friday and Saturday. Government offices close, and Friday midday prayers empty the streets for an hour.
Assalamu alaikum works as a greeting anywhere in the country, and gets a warmer answer than hello.
Ask before photographing people, particularly women, and expect to be asked for a photograph yourself.
Alcohol is not sold openly. A few licensed hotel bars exist in Dhaka and Chattogram, and most meals are dry.

Famous Bangladeshi faces

The names behind Bangladesh's sport, letters, art, cinema and music. Pick a field.

Muhammad Yunus

Nobel Peace Prize 2006, for microcredit and the Grameen Bank

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

Independence leader, and the country's first head of government

Kazi Nazrul Islam

The rebel poet, recognised as Bangladesh's national poet

Fazlur Rahman Khan

Dhaka-born structural engineer behind the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Center

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed

Founded BRAC in 1972, now the largest non-governmental development organisation in the world

Shakib Al Hasan

The only cricketer ranked the world's number one all-rounder in all three formats

Zainul Abedin

Painter of the 1943 famine sketches, and founder of art teaching in Dhaka

Humayun Ahmed

Bangladesh's best-selling novelist, and the writer who shaped its television drama

Mashrafe Bin Mortaza

Fast bowler, and the captain who made Bangladesh a one-day side to fear

Niaz Murshed

First chess grandmaster in South Asia, at 21 in 1987

Musa Ibrahim

First Bangladeshi to summit Everest, in May 2010

Nishat Majumder

First Bangladeshi woman to summit Everest, in May 2012

Begum Rokeya

Bengali feminist writer whose 1905 story Sultana's Dream imagined a world run by women

Tahmima Anam

Novelist, and the first Bangladeshi to win the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book

Muhammed Zafar Iqbal

Physicist turned novelist, and the country's most-read writer of science fiction

Marina Tabassum

Architect of Dhaka's Bait Ur Rouf Mosque, an Aga Khan Award winner in 2016

SM Sultan

Painter who put oversized, muscled peasants at the centre of rural Bengal

Tareque Masud

Directed Matir Moina, the first Bangladeshi film to take a prize at Cannes

Zahir Raihan

Filmmaker of Jibon Theke Neya, and of the 1971 documentary Stop Genocide

Runa Laila

Playback singer whose career runs across Bangladesh, Pakistan and India

Sabina Yasmin

Playback singer, and one of the voices of the 1971 liberation war songs

Ayub Bachchu

Guitarist and frontman of LRB, the band that took Bangladeshi rock mainstream

Must-try Bangladeshi food

The everyday plates first, then what each region cooks. Pick a category.

Shorshe ilish

Hilsa, the national fish, poached in a mustard seed paste. Bony, and worth the work.

Panta bhat

Rice left overnight in water, eaten with fried hilsa, green chilli and raw onion. The Bengali new year breakfast.

Bhorta

Anything mashed with mustard oil, onion and chilli: potato, aubergine, dried fish. Every meal carries one.

Bhuna khichuri

Rice and lentils cooked down with spice, beef or egg. What the country eats when it rains.

Chingri malaikari

Prawns in a coconut milk gravy, served in the shell.

Kacchi biryani

Raw marinated mutton and rice baked together over a layer of potato. Old Dhaka's wedding dish.

Morog polao

Chicken and fragrant rice, milder than biryani and the standard for a family occasion.

Beef tehari

Short-grain rice fried yellow with beef and mustard oil. Lunch, from a cart, in a foil box.

Bakarkhani

A layered, biscuit-hard flatbread from Old Dhaka, broken into a glass of tea.

Mezban beef

The Chattogram feast dish: beef in a heavy spice paste, cooked for a whole neighbourhood at once.

Kala bhuna

Beef fried down with spice until it turns almost black. Chattogram's other signature.

Shatkora beef

Beef cooked with shatkora, the bitter Sylheti citrus that cuts straight through the fat.

Shutki

Dried fish, pounded into a fierce bhorta. The taste that divides the country.

Fuchka

Hollow crisp shells filled with spiced potato and tamarind water, eaten in one bite.

Chotpoti

Chickpeas, potato and boiled egg in a tangy broth, with a wedge of lime on top.

Jhalmuri

Puffed rice tossed with mustard oil, chilli and raw onion, handed over in a paper cone.

Mishti doi

Sweet yoghurt set in a clay pot, caramel brown and eaten with a spoon.

Chomchom

Dense oval sweets from Porabari in Tangail, rolled in khoya.

Roshogolla

Spongy cheese balls in sugar syrup, served cold at the end of anything.

Pitha

Winter rice cakes, steamed or fried, filled with date molasses and coconut.

Cha

Milky, heavily sugared tea from a roadside stall, in a glass. The country's default pause.

Seven-layer tea

Srimangal's party trick: seven tea strengths stacked in one glass without mixing.

Borhani

Spiced, salted yoghurt drink, poured beside biryani to cut the richness.

Bangladesh travel FAQ

Do I need a visa for Bangladesh?+

Most nationalities do. A 30-day visa on arrival is available at the international airports and land ports for a restricted list of countries, but it is issued at the immigration officer's discretion rather than by right, so applying at a Bangladeshi mission before you fly is the safer route. Confirm the current rules for your own passport before you book.

When is the best time to visit Bangladesh?+

November to February. The monsoon has drained away, the air is cool and dry, and the roads and river routes both run to timetable. March to May is hot and dusty, and June to October is the monsoon, when flooding closes routes at short notice.

How many days do you need in Bangladesh?+

Ten days to two weeks. Dhaka takes two or three, and everything after that is a journey: the Sundarbans, Cox's Bazar and the Sylhet tea country each sit the better part of a day apart, and the delta does not reward rushing.

Is Bangladesh safe for travellers?+

Ordinary travel is straightforward, foreign visitors are still rare enough to be met with genuine curiosity, and hospitality comes fast. The usual big-city rules apply in Dhaka, political demonstrations are worth walking away from, and parts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts have permit requirements that change. Read your government's current advice before booking.

How do you get around Bangladesh?+

Trains for the long runs north and east, overnight launches down the rivers to Barishal and Khulna, and buses for everything in between. Dhaka has a metro on MRT Line 6, and domestic flights cut the haul to Cox's Bazar or Sylhet to under an hour.

Top 10s across Bangladesh