The hook
The largest mangrove forest on earth, a vast tidal labyrinth of channels and half-submerged trees at the mouth of the Ganges, and the last stronghold of tigers that have learned to swim.
01Why it's worth it
Where the great rivers of the subcontinent finally empty into the Bay of Bengal, they build the Sundarbans, an immense forest of salt-tolerant mangroves laced with tidal creeks, shared between Bangladesh and India and the biggest such forest in the world. It is a strange, amphibious wilderness of mud, roots, and water that rises and falls with the tide, and it shelters an astonishing range of life: spotted deer, crocodiles, dolphins, countless birds, and, most famously, the Royal Bengal tiger, which here has adapted to swim between islands and has a fearsome reputation among the honey collectors and fishermen who work the forest. You explore it by boat, sleeping aboard as you wind through the channels, watching the banks for wildlife, though tigers are rarely seen. It is wild, humid, and genuinely remote, and it doubles as a lesson in a fragile delta ecosystem on the front line of rising seas.
02How to experience it
Take a multi-day boat trip from Khulna or Mongla, living aboard as you cruise the channels with a guide and forest rangers. Watch the banks and waterways for deer, crocodiles, and birds, and keep expectations modest on tigers. Go in the cooler dry season, and choose responsible operators.