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The Great Delta is not a booking engine. Nothing on this website takes your money, and no seat is held by filling in a form. A booking exists only when we have confirmed it to you in writing and received your deposit.
A deposit of 30% of the total confirms a booking. It covers costs we commit to on your behalf — vessel or vehicle hire, permits, and the guide's time — from the moment we confirm your seats to somebody else's exclusion.
Prices are per person in Bangladeshi taka, for the group size and sharing arrangement named in your confirmation. A price quoted in an enquiry holds for 7 days. Until we confirm a booking, prices can change — most often because a vessel operator or the Forest Department changes a fee.
What a price includes is printed on each tour's page, and that page is what governs. If a tour page and this page disagree, the tour page wins.
For any departure into the Sundarbans we must file a passenger list with the Forest Department before we are issued a permit. We will ask for each traveller's full name, age and NID or passport number. We cannot obtain a permit without them, and a permit cannot be changed after it is issued — so late name changes mean a new permit, at your cost.
Tell us at the time of booking about any medical condition, allergy, dietary requirement or mobility need. Several of our routes spend hours away from a road.
We accept bank transfer, bKash and Nagad. Bank charges are yours. Send the transaction reference with your payment so we can match it to your booking. We will always confirm receipt in writing — if you have not had a written confirmation, assume the payment has not reached us and contact us.
Cancel in writing — the enquiry form, email, or a WhatsApp message to the number on our contact page. The date we receive your message is the date we use.
Refunds are paid within 10 working days, by the same method you paid us.
Permits, park entry fees and government charges are not refundable once issued, whenever you cancel. Where any of them is in your refund band, we will show you the exact amount rather than deducting it silently.
Moving to another departure is free if you ask 15 days or more before your original date and there is room, subject to any difference in price. Inside 15 days a change is treated as a cancellation under the bands above.
Changing a name on a Sundarban booking after the permit is issued means buying a new permit. Adding travellers is subject to availability and to the Forest Department's limits on party size.
If we cancel a departure for any reason other than weather or an event outside our control, you choose: a full refund, or a transfer to another date with any price difference waived. We do not keep your deposit when the cancellation is ours.
We may cancel a departure that does not reach its minimum number of travellers. Where a tour has a minimum, it is stated on that tour's page, and we will tell you no later than 14 days before departure.
Cyclones and storm warnings, floods, hartals and blockades, a government or Forest Department restriction, an epidemic, or the loss of a vessel — none of these is within our control, and we do not profit from them. If one stops a departure, you may move to another date within 12 months, or take a refund of everything we can recover. Costs already paid out on your behalf and not refundable to us — a permit, a vessel deposit — cannot be returned, and we will show you what they were.
This section is about events that stop a trip before it starts. Weather during a trip is covered under Weather below.
Children are welcome on every tour that does not carry a minimum age on its own page.
A child's age on the date of departure is the age that counts, and we will ask for proof of age for the Forest Department permit.
Every traveller wears a life jacket on open water, and we carry child-sized jackets — but tell us your children's ages when you book so the right sizes are aboard. A child under 12 must be within arm's reach of a parent or guardian on deck, on a jetty, and on any walk into the forest.
Some routes are not suitable for small children: long river crossings, multi-day treks, and any itinerary that spends a night away from a road. Where that is true it is printed on the tour page, with the minimum age. If you are not sure, ask us before you book — we would rather turn a booking away than have a family regret it on day two.
We sail in the Bay of Bengal delta. Some weather here is not something to work around, and we would rather lose the money than the boat.
That decision is ours and it is final. It is not negotiable on the day, and no amount of schedule pressure will change it.
You choose: move to any departure within 12 months at no charge, or take a refund of everything we can recover. Permits and fees already paid and not refundable to us cannot be returned — we will show you the amount.
We refund the unused nights at the per-night rate of what you paid, less any cost already incurred that we cannot recover. If we can shorten or reroute the trip instead of ending it, we will offer that first and you are free to decline it.
From June to September, rain and river conditions can change an itinerary at short notice. Sundarban departures in that period may swap creeks, move a landing, or reorder days. The nights, the boat and the guiding stay as sold; the exact route may not.
Winter fog on the rivers can delay a morning start by a few hours. That is normal and is not a cancellation.