Dhamrai's Rath Yatra is one of the best known in Bangladesh: in the month of Ashar (June or July) crowds pull a three-storey wooden chariot about half a kilometre from the Madhab temple to Gopnagar, with a month-long fair around it. The chariot you see today was built in 2010, replacing one burnt in 1971. Away from festival time, the lanes off the main road hold old merchant houses and a few workshops that still cast statues and household ware by hand, and some welcome visitors.
- Best time
- June–July for the Rath Yatra, or November to February
- Give it
- Half a day
- Cost
- No entry fees; bus from Gabtoli under ৳100 each way; rickshaw in town about ৳30–50
How to get to Dhamrai old town
About 40 km north-west of central Dhaka, just past Savar. Buses from Gabtoli bound for Manikganj or Aricha stop at Dhamrai bus stand; a rickshaw takes you into the old town.
More to see in Dhaka
Photo: Farha Fawzia Atashi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Lalbagh Fort লালবাগ কেল্লা
An unfinished Mughal fort of 1678 in the old city, with a mosque, a governor's hall and the tomb of Pari Bibi set among lawns.
- Best time
- November to February
- Give it
- 1–2 hours
- Cost
- Entry roughly ৳20–30 for Bangladeshis, more for foreign visitors; rickshaw from Azimpur about ৳50
Photo: Mahbub Hossain Shaheed (mahosha), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Ahsan Manzil আহসান মঞ্জিল
The pink, domed palace of the Nawabs of Dhaka on the Buriganga riverfront, now a museum of the family's rooms and portraits.
- Best time
- November to February
- Give it
- 1–2 hours
- Cost
- Entry roughly ৳20–40 for Bangladeshis, more for foreign visitors; a boat across the river about ৳20–50 a person
Photo: Saiful Aopu & Nahid Sultan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons National Parliament House জাতীয় সংসদ ভবন
Louis Kahn's concrete-and-marble parliament, wrapped by a lake on a campus of about 200 acres, is one of the great buildings of its century.
- Best time
- November to February
- Give it
- About an hour
- Cost
- Free to view from outside; rickshaw from Farmgate about ৳30–50
Photo: Azim Khan Ronnie, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons National Martyrs' Memorial জাতীয় স্মৃতিসৌধ
Seven pairs of concrete triangles rising to a single peak at Savar, in memory of those who died in the 1971 Liberation War.
- Best time
- November to February
- Give it
- 1–2 hours
- Cost
- Entry free; bus from Gabtoli about ৳50 each way
Photo: Asivechowdhury, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Kalakopa zamindar houses কলাকোপার জমিদার বাড়ি
A cluster of 19th-century merchant and zamindar mansions on the Ichamati river in Nawabganj, with the odd temple-house of Khelaram Data.
- Best time
- November to February
- Give it
- Half a day
- Cost
- No entry fees; bus from Dhaka about ৳100 each way; rickshaw around the houses about ৳150–200