Brahmaputra River Cruise

The ASSAM BENGAL NAVIGATION is an Indo-British joint venture, with offices in Guwahati and London, is the only company with experience of running long-distance cruises on Indian rivers.

ABN's first luxury river boat, the "Charaidew", with 12 air-conditioned en-suite cabins, has now completed three successful seasons of cruises on the River Brahmaputra in Assam. For our fourth season she has now been joined by her near-identical sister ship "Sukapha".

Wildlife and wilderness are the main features of a Brahmaputra cruise - the river bed is often 20 or 30km across, an empty world of sand spits and water with marvellous bird life and the occasional Gangetic Dolphin. The cruises here also give access to a number of India's National Parks, including Kaziranga, perhaps the finest of all, and Manas, a Project Tiger Reserve on the Bhutan border.

In the summer of 2007, "Sukapha" will be pioneering a new cruise programme on the River Hugli between Kolkata and the Ganges. Here on this more intimate waterway the emphasis is on monuments and culture, whether Hindu, Muslim or Colonial.

The Brahmaputra cruises feature visits and attractions such as wildlife viewing, village walks, visits to tea gardens, exploring country towns in cycle rickshaws, barbecues on deserted river islands, dance performances, and visits to craft workshops.

Cruises on the Hugli include sightseeing of temples, towns and villages, whether by bus, cycle rickshaw or on foot.

For season covering October 2006 to April 2007, ABN offer a combination of 7-night, 10-night and 4-night cruises, named for the Assam Despatch service, the daily mail-cum-passenger service that once plied from Calcutta up the Brahmaputra to Dibrugarh. Cruises can be combined to give 14-night durations.