Sreemangal, Bangladesh

Sreemangal, in Moulvibazar district, is the centre of Bangladesh's tea industry and the country's easiest nature getaway. It sits about a four-hour drive or a comfortable train ride from Dhaka, and a long weekend is enough.

The landscape is the draw: mile after mile of manicured tea gardens on low hills, brightest and greenest in the monsoon and just after. You can walk or cycle the estate roads in the early morning, watch pluckers at work in season, and visit the Bangladesh Tea Research Institute area. Sreemangal is also where the famous "seven-layer tea" was invented — a glass of distinctly coloured, separately floating tea layers, served at a couple of well-known stalls in town.

Lawachara National Park, a patch of semi-evergreen rainforest a short drive away, has marked trails of 30 minutes to three hours. With a local guide you have a chance of seeing hoolock gibbons (listen for their whooping calls), capped langurs, and abundant birds; a railway line and a road cut through the forest.

Other half-days: the Baikka Beel wetland sanctuary for waterbirds (best in winter), Madhabpur Lake with its lotus and views of tea hills, the Khasia punji villages where families grow betel leaf on the slopes and welcome visitors for tea, the Nurjahan and other tea estates, and the small Magurchhara gas-field forest walk. Ham Ham waterfall is a longer, tougher trek in the wet season.

Food in town is simple Bangladeshi fare — bhorta, fish, khichuri on a rainy day — plus the tea itself everywhere. A few resorts and eco-cottages sit among the gardens; the town has budget hotels near the station.

October to March is the most comfortable time, with clear, mild days and good birdwatching. The monsoon (June–September) is when the tea is greenest and waterfalls run, but trails get muddy and leeches appear in the forest.

The Dhaka–Sylhet trains stop at Sreemangal; from the station, reserved CNG auto-rickshaws or a hired car and driver cover the estates and Lawachara, which are spread out. Hiring a car for a day is the practical way to see several sights.