Royal Bengal Safar
Explore The Wild Beauty
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Ten thousand square kilometres of mangrove, a maze of tidal creeks, and the largest population of Royal Bengal Tigers on earth. We have been taking travellers into the Sundarbans for sixteen years — with our own boats, our own guides, and every permit in order.
Royal Bengal Safar was started in 2009 by a boatman's son from Gosaba who was tired of watching visitors get a rushed, careless version of his home. Every guide, cook and skipper on our roster lives on these islands.
From a single day on the creeks to four days deep inside the core zone. Every price below includes permits, guide, all meals and accommodation.
1 Day · Kolkata to Kolkata
Leave Kolkata at 5 AM, spend six unhurried hours on the creeks, and be home for dinner. The fastest honest look at the delta we can offer.
1 Night / 2 Days
One night in a riverside eco cottage and two golden mornings on the water — the sweet spot for travellers with a Saturday and a Sunday.
2 Nights / 3 Days
Our signature itinerary. Three watchtowers, two full days afloat, a village evening with Bonobibi folk theatre, and every permit handled for you.
2 Nights / 3 Days
A private double-decker launch with cabin service, a dedicated naturalist and a chef cooking Bengali river fish on deck. Limited to twelve guests.
3 Nights / 4 Days
Two long jungle safaris take you past the tourist creeks into the buffer zone, where the tide charts — not the clock — decide the day.
3 Nights / 4 Days
Three safaris, Netidhopani's thousand-year ruins and the longest stretch of core-zone waterway any operator is permitted to run. Built for patient photographers.
Anyone can put you on a boat. Here is what sixteen seasons on these waters actually buys you.
Core-zone entry passes, registered guides and passenger manifests are filed before you leave Kolkata. You never queue at a forest office.
Six licensed launches with clean toilets, life jackets for every seat and a kitchen that cooks on board — not hired at the last minute from the ghat.
Every naturalist on our roster grew up on these islands. They read tide charts the way you read a clock, and they know where the deer drink.
Bhetki paturi, crab curry, gobindobhog rice and mishti doi — cooked fresh on deck, with vegetarian and Jain menus prepared on request.
A tie-up with the rural health centre at Gosaba and a first-aid trained crew member on every departure. Rare to need, good to have.
The price you are quoted covers permits, guide fees, meals, stay and transfers. We publish what is excluded just as clearly as what is included.
Watchtowers, canopy walks, river confluences and a temple the forest swallowed four centuries ago.
The sweetwater pond that draws deer at dawn — and, four or five mornings a month, the tiger.
Half a kilometre of caged walkway, twenty feet above the mangrove floor.
Water so wide the far bank disappears. Dolphins surface here at four in the afternoon.
Crocodile hatchery, mangrove museum and a heronry that turns the trees white at dusk.
Fifty feet above the canopy, with a view that runs to the Bay of Bengal.
Tell us your dates and group size. Our Sundarban travel desk will build the itinerary, arrange forest permits and hold your boat — usually within two hours.
We saw the tiger on the second morning near Sudhanyakhali — but honestly the boat itself was the trip. Our guide Sanjoy knew every bird call, and the kitchen on board fed us better than most Kolkata restaurants.
I have been on safaris in Kaziranga and Bandhavgarh. The Sundarbans is a completely different animal, and this team understands that. Permits, tides, timing — all handled, so we could simply watch.
Travelling with two small children, I was nervous. The cottage was clean, there was a doctor on call, and someone was always keeping an eye on the kids near the deck rail. Thoughtful people.
Our college took forty students for a mangrove ecology field study. The resident biologist ran a proper session on pneumatophores and salinity gradients. The students still talk about it.
November to February is the honest answer — but the delta has something to offer in nine months of the year. Here is what each season actually looks like from the deck of a boat.
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Forget the tiger for a moment. Between the collared kingfisher, the brahminy kite and the lesser adjutant stork, the Sundarbans is one of the great birding destinations in India.
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Every boat entering the tiger reserve carries a permit, a registered guide and a passenger manifest. Here is the paperwork behind your holiday, explained plainly.
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