If you are looking for an easy escape from the ever-increasing hustle and bustle of the city of joy without draining your wallet too much, then Bakkhali is an ideal weekend destination. Located only 130 kms from Kolkata (Calcutta, India), Bakkhali can be reached in 4 hours easily by road. It is a beautiful beach covered with white sand and less crowded than the popular Calcutta beaches. Hotels are plentiful and reasonably priced; everything you need to have a very strong negotiating skills. There is not much to do in Bakkhali, but witnessing a sunset on the beach with your loved ones can be an unforgettable experience. Hope these Bakkhali weekend travel tips will make your trip more enjoyable.

Day i – We caught a direct state transport bus at 7am from Esplanade Bus Depot, Kolkata to Bakkhali. He charged us around 70 rupees each. An interesting part of this trip was crossing the river near Namkhana on a barge. The bus itself is transported from one side of this river to the other on this barge. The process took a bit of time, but it gave us the opportunity to take a quick walk around the place and take some interesting pictures of the fishing boats and other activities related to the port. The bus finally reached our destination around 11am.

We booked a paddle truck from the bus station to look up reservations at different hotels. Fortunately or can you say, unfortunately we got hotel accommodation just a 5 minute walk from the bus station and a 10 minute walk from the beach. The room was large enough with two double beds, allowing four of us to have our own space. We paid 500 rupees for the room and it was a decent bargain.

At 1:00 p.m. M., We arrived at the port of Frazerganj to experience the amazing boat ride on the Bay of Bengal. A pickup truck with oars took us to the port from our hotel in 20 minutes. We negotiated with one of the boatmen and finally rented a complete motorized boat for ourselves. The deal was to take us to the confluence point which was about 2/3 kms away in the sea. The sea was a bit rough and with mangroves on one side and an infinite horizon on the other, we didn’t need anything else to get on. But we thoroughly enjoyed our ice cold beer, which by this time had almost lost its coolness. We convinced the boatman to take us to some lonely island for a few extra dollars. And voila, he agreed. We traveled a couple more kilometers and landed on Mousumi Island. The beach was quite muddy, but there were no people around us. It was more like having a part of our own private beach. We return around 3:30 pm to the port of Frazergunj. The whole trip cost us around 400 rupees (for the boat) and 150 rupees (for the boatman).

After having lunch near a small roadside hotel, we headed to Bakkhali beach to enjoy the splendid evening. The sunset was brilliant on the beach, and as the sunlight diminished, the water level began to rise. It was a well spent evening until we decided to return to our room around 8:30 pm. Before that, we bought a chicken and gave it to a restaurant for us to cook. You can buy your food raw (meat / fish) and give it to any hotel to cook at a very reasonable price. The food arrived in our room around 10:30 am and we had so much fun with chicken curry with roti and to go with it was the deadly combination of rum and coke. The day I finished very quickly as we were too tired to do anything after dinner.

Day II – We head back to Bakkhali beach around 8:30 am after having breakfast. After spending about two and a half hours in the water, we finally returned to our hotel. We left the hotel at 12:00 and headed towards Henry Island in a mini van. Henry Island is 15-20 minutes from there. We also explored Henry Island Beach, which was uncrowded at the time. Finally, the same mini van took us to Namakhan around 2:30 PM. The Bakkhali-Henry Island-Namkhana trip cost us around 300 rupees. We crossed Namkhana and took a direct train to Kolkata. We were home at 6 in the afternoon.

Important Travel Tips and Suggestions During Bakkhali Weekend

* An ideal destination for weekends, but can get very crowded during peak seasons and holidays.

* Hotels are very cheap but you have to haggle a lot.

* There is no ATM in Bakkhali

* Use lots of sun creams and body protection solutions while in the sun.

* The water in Bakkhali is not very good.

* It is advisable to take your own transport.