St. Martin's Island

Bangladesh's only coral island in the Bay of Bengal

Bangladesh's only coral island, lying 9 kilometres south of the Teknaf peninsula at the southern tip of the country. The island is small — about 8 square kilometres — with coconut palms, a sandy shore, and a fringing coral reef. The water is clear and the pace is slow; this is a genuinely different experience from the mainland.

Boats run daily from Teknaf during the tourist season, roughly November through March; the journey takes two to three hours each way. In the monsoon season (April to October) the sea is too rough for regular boat service and the island effectively closes. Day trips are possible but an overnight stay allows you to experience the island in the evening after the day visitors have gone. Accommodation is simple. The reef snorkelling is worth doing even though the coral has seen better days — visibility is usually good and the fish life is still reasonable by South Asian standards.

things to do sight swimming
A story
St. Martin's Island is locally known as Narical Gingira — Coconut Island — and was only attached administratively to Bangladesh in 1947 at Partition. Before that it was part of the same maritime zone as the Arakanese coast to the east. The island's coral reef, though degraded by overfishing and boat anchor damage, is the only coral ecosystem in Bangladesh and contains species found nowhere else in the country's waters.

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