Saint Martin, the only Coral Island of Bangladesh
Saint Martin is one of the great tourist places of pleasure. Every tourist people wants to go there to spend some wonderful time. It is located in the northeast part of the Bay of Bengal. And in the south of Bangladesh. It is the only Coral Island of Bangladesh. Lots of coconuts are got from here. So it is also called “Narikel Jinjira”.
Season to visit:
The Winter season is the best time to visit Saint Martin Island. To get the perfect feel of it. Winter season time is from December to February.
How to reach:
There best way to reach Saint Martin is by bus. From Capital Dhaka and also from different places around Bangladesh. There are some direct buses to Teknaf. Like Saint Martin Paribahan and Shyamoli AC bus. NON-AC bus like Shyamoli and Soudia. The AC bus fare is 2000 BDT. Non-ac fare is 900 BDT. Bus tickets can buy from Gabtoli, Kalyanpur, Saydabad and Arambag Bus Counter. From Dhaka, it takes almost 12 hours to reach in Teknaf.
From Chittagong to Teknaf it will take around 5 hours to reach. The fare is 400 BDT by bus. Bus name Shyamoli, Soudia Paribahan.
From Cox’s bazar it will take almost 2 hours to reach Teknaf. The fare will be 150 BDT by local bus.
Tour Starts:
It is better to start the journey by bus from Dhaka at 7 pm. Reach Teknaf Damdamia boat stand at around 8.30 am. From Teknaf to Saint Martin route carries by ships. Like Keari Sindbad, Keari cruise and Dine, Bay cruise and Green Line.
Day- 1
Every ship starts from Teknaf at 9:30 am. But the reporting time is 9:00 am. Depart from Saint Martin is 3:00 pm. Reporting time is 2:30 pm. All the ships start at the same time. Tourist will be given the date of the ticket and the date of arrival. So set a plan to do it perfectly. If any tourist misses the ship for any reason. Then Ship Company will not return the money. So careful about it. The ticket fare of ships by the different category is below.
Keari Sindbad: Fare starts from 550 BDT to 800 BDT.
Keari Cruise and Dine: Fare from 1000 BDT to 1400 BDT.
Bay Cruise: Fare starts 1300 BDT to 1600 BDT.
MV Green Line: Fare 1300 BDT to 1700 BDT.
After the journey starts by lunch on Naf River. Tourist can see the beautiful natural view. One side is Bangladesh and another side is Myanmar. After some time the sun comes out from the fog. The sun heat was awesome with the cold weather. After about two hours, the ships will reach Saint Martin Island boat stand.
Where to stay:
After reaching, tourists need to book a hotel room. If any tourist wants to stay nights. On Friday and Saturday are difficult to get rooms in hotels. Hotels like Abakas Parjatan ltd, Blue Marine Resort, Diamond Sea Resort, Dream Night Resort, Hotel Sea-Inn, Hotel Sea Sand Resort, and Blue Lagoon Beach Resort etc. Room rent starts from 1500 BDT to 12000 BDT. By the difference of the room.
After rent a hotel room. Take some rest and then enjoy the sea. In the afternoon to see the beach again with sunset. The entire beach was nice with the side views of hills and sea stones. Enjoying some magical moment of life there. After sunset, it’s time to take some local tour. In here the local peoples are hospitable. Chilling some moment there and around the market. At night after dinner, it’s time to get for the sleep in the hotel.
Day- 2
The next day wakes up early at 7 o’clock and gets ready for the Chhera Island. The rounded island is a part of Saint Martin. During the tide, some parts of Saint Martin’s islands are separated. For that reason, the name of this Island is Chhera Island. A boat needs to go there. The rent of the small boat- Around 200 BDT (Up to 10 people). And Rent of Speedboat- Around 350 BDT (Up to 6 people).
Cherra Island overview:
After hiring a boat then this boat will take to the Chhera Island. Around 10 Km far from Saint Martin Island. It’s good to see this island at the time of the tide. It is usually good to go West Beach in the morning time and Eastern Beach in the noon time. Walking through the roads. Tourist cannot imagine that a marine island could be so green.
Rice fields and little forest around the beach with trees. We started enjoying the ocean. In the noontime, we were on the beach again. Passing some more wonderful time with stunning views of the sea with beautiful blue sky and white clouds. Then we return to the hotel area. In the afternoon, walking around again. After dinner went to the hotel at night.
Day- 3
In the morning it’s our last day in Saint Martin Island. So we were at the sea beach again and enjoy till 12 pm. Now it’s time to check-out from the hotel and taken lunch. After lunch then we were ready to back in Teknaf. So we went to the boat stand by 2.00 pm.
The Boat will start at 3 pm. After two hours it reaches in Teknaf. Border guards will check all the backpacks. So don’t get panic and be calm. From Teknaf started our journey at 7 pm to Dhaka by Shyamoli Bus. Reached Dhaka in the morning.
The outstanding journey ended with a thrilling memory.
Tour costings:
- Bus- 2000 BDT for AC and 900 BDT for NON AC.
- Hotel- 1500 BDT (per night average price)
- Food- Breakfast- 60 BDT(per head), 120-150 per meal (per head)
- Local transport- Bytom-tom or rickshaw fare is around 20-30 taka (per head with per trip vary on distance)
- Others- own costing
Awareness:
- Rather than travel luggage backpacks is better to carry in this tour.
- Pick the best hotel to stay with budgets. But try to avoid broker if they tell you that they have the best hotel to stay. Book hotel on your own.
- You can walk easily from beach to hotel the distance is not so far. If u want to take a rickshaw or tom-tom car. The fare is very by distance mostly 20 BDT (per head).