Roughly 5½ to seven hours´drive (or an hourlong flight) from Dhaka, this region down south is famous for its black tea, rolling hills, rivers, and shrines. There are more than 160 tea estates here, of which around 25 regularly welcome visitors through organized tours, attached resorts, or informal access. The best-known include estates around Sreemangal (pop. 362,000), considered Bangladesh’s tea capital. Travelers come for misty dawns over emerald plantations, cycling lanes between tea bushes, forest reserves, waterfalls, and tribal villages. Sylhet City itself (pop. just over a million) can be described as lively rather than beautiful (it´s the nearby countryside that draws visitors), but it is home to Shah Jalal Dargah, the shrine – built around 1500 – to Shah Jalal, the early-14th-century Sufi saint who aided the Muslim conquest of this region and was revered as a great humanitarian. The Sylhet region is where Bangladesh feels most relaxed: cool mornings, green slopes, cups of strong tea, and a slower pace than Dhaka’s frenzy.

Read more in my post An Introduction to Bangladesh and 6 of Its Top Destinations.

Xahidur Reza