The Lonely planet, world’s largest travel guidebook, has ranked Bangladesh as one of the best value global destinations for the third time.
In its 2019 ranking under the value destination category, the renowned travel publishers ranked Bangladesh as the 7th value destination saying Bangladesh creates astonishingly few ripples given everything it has to offer.
Earlier, the Lonely Planet, aimed at backpackers and other low-cost travelers, had ranked Bangladesh as the number one value destination in 2011 and 2008.
This year ranking report said Bangladesh, the world’s eighth most populated country is home to diverse, exciting cities, Asia’s longest beach with an emerging surf scene at Cox’s Bazar, and the mangroves and wild tigers of Sundarbans National Park.
It said Bangladesh has always been an inexpensive destination for travellers, and UNESCO World Heritage sites are waiting to be discovered, such as the open-air museum that is the historic city of Bagerhat, where the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers meet, and the atmospheric Buddhist ruins at Paharpur.
“Visitors remain a rarity almost everywhere else, giving Bangladesh an ‘out there’ feeling that’s harder to find in many neighbouring countries,” the report said.
The list ranked Egypt’s Southern Nile Valley as number one valued destination for 2019, followed by Lodz in Poland and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park of the USA.
The Maldives, Huston of the USA and Argentina ranked 4th, 5th and 6th respectively Albania, Ecuador and Slovenia were made 8th, 9th and 10th consecutively in the list termed – “the places made for affordable adventures”- by the lonely planet.