The island of Andaman referred to as the pearl of Sea, is true to its claim. The beautiful island draws millions of tourists monthly, mostly Indians, coming here to for their honeymoon and also leisure trips.
It is a great place to go exploring, do island hopping or laze around in the lap of nature. This blog shares details of the islands that we hopped in our honeymoon trip to the Andaman Islands.
Living an Island life was always on my bucket list. I had planned for this trip right after I got married in Feb 2017 to take a break from the marriage chaos and relax. Many questioned me to not calling it a honeymoon trip initially, well....
My ideal honeymoon trip is a month long trip to Europe, anything less than that didn't qualify. ???? It wasn't feasible for us, to take a month long trip right after marriage, due to our commitment to our company Chimpzlab. Hence, we settled for Andaman; we were excited as we had heard a lot of stories about this beautiful island.
Our journey started from Mumbai, and we had a small but not so small layover in Chennai for about 6-7 hours, we decided to unwind at a hotel and save energy for the upcoming trip. For that, we picked the closest hotel to the airport. To our surprise, we got a great deal on Goibibo- with my GoCash+ discount it came up to Rs. 700 (Including airport transfer to and fro.) The hotel was strictly average but okay for a layover of 6-7 hours.
We took our connecting flight and finally arrived in Andaman the next day. It was sunny and humid for Feb, But it was still the right time to visit the island, as we could move around the island in a ferry (seas are not that rough) and also explore the adventure activities (sunny days are excellent for deep diving).
On our first day, we had planned to visit Ross Island - it was the smallest of all islands and also the least commercialized, which means its offerings were limited to serene environments. We chose to visit Ross Island on our first day because of its proximity to Port Blair.
Island is an ideal destination for nature walk amidst sylvan surroundings with deers, peacocks, exotic birds, etc
While the Andamans had our taste buds wanting for more, it served a great feast for our eyes. Basis my experience, it'd recommend to stay at Havelock and enjoy some great water sports activities around. If you love riding, you can rent a bike for about 400-500Rs per day and choose to explore the entire island, at least the famed tourist spots. I'd list down a few of my must visits.
Elephant Beach- Havelock Island
The most pleasing thing about this place is that I never imagined in my life a beach with such clean waters. The sparkling turquoise water, sugar-white beach sand, surrounded by Mangrove forests. Havelock Islands was a hit the moment I stepped here.
There are a total of 572 islands, but only a few are open to tourists.
Havelock is by far the most popular for its spectacular clean beaches and extraordinary adventure and thrill options that it offers. The Nicobar Islands are strictly off limits to tourists, due to the several spots of inhabited by tribals.
1. Radhanagar Beach:
It was as clean as it could get and one could imagine. I got a great chance to capture a great time-lapse video of the sunset on my Mi action camera.
Scuba Diving- Havelock Island
Advice: The best place to do Scuba diving is on the Havelock Island- there are many centres where you will get the best scuba divers who can give you the best experience of underwater diving.
2. Kala Patthar
We found an isolated place on the beach which was not accessed by the tourist crowd and spent 2 hours relaxing on the branch of a tree which was swinging by the beach.
3. Elephant Island Beach
(Can only be accessed through a boat/ferry) It is a tiny island which seems like the adventure hub of the Andamans, one can do all the adventure activities here like- Snorkeling, Banana Ride, Sea Walk, Scuba and maybe more. It's a pooled ferry to and fro from the beach, where you'd be put up with others to fill the capacity of 7-8 people. It's a great way to interact with new people but if you are an introvert like I am, you may not like it. We had planned for scuba diving on a different island, so we didn't consider doing any activities here. My husband went on for the complimentary snorkelling while I decided to stay back and unwind on the beach.
It was the creepiest of them all, here we got a chance to see creepy snakes, insects while we ventured just beyond the beach to get some clicks, the only good place here was the beach next to the port. Would recommend not to waste your one night stay here, you can arrive in the morning and leave by evening on the last ferry. It will take 2-3 hours to go back to Port Blair. On our way back to Port Blair we felt sick and nauseatic as it started to rain out of nowhere and we were feeling under the weather.
Laxmanpur Beach- Neil IslandWe were let down by food and the tourists.
Our final leg of the trip was at Baratang, which was the longest travel time, about 100KMs from Port Blair. To reach here one has to travel by road, cross a creek on a ferry through Middle Strait to reach Baratang. The Baratang island trip brings forward the tropical side of the Andaman islands. It is complete with dense forest, a chance to see the disconnected tribe, explore mangroves, beaches, exotic birds and animals, caves and more. Well, Baratang has all of these to offer.
It took us 4 long hours to reach this place and some bit of struggle. On the way, you'd be made to stop at the checkpoint which is put in place to protect the indigenous Jarawa Tribe. Visitors are supposed to wait at the check post for the gates to open at their fixed time. While passing through these tribal areas, you aren't allowed to take any pictures. Later reaching the jetty you get into a Ferry to reach on the other side of the island and from there you take a speedboat to explore the Baratang creeks and then walk for 15-20mins to reach the limestone cave. Phew.... a lot to take in. I can understand
The place is picturesque and amazing but the biggest turn off is the food on the island. There were hardly any that satisfied our taste buds. We experimented with quite a few restaurants and community kitchens and here are a few that were worth mentioning.
Havelock
Something Different- A beachside Cafe 4/5 Anju Coco- 5/5 Barefoot Bar & Brasserie 3/5 SeaShell Havelock Restaurant 3.5/5
Overall the journey to the island was beautiful if you wish to experience the world-class beaches this is your place in India.
' fill='%23359391'%3e %3cpath d='M46.1538462%2c43.5714286 L41.5%2c50 L36.8461538%2c43.5714286 L36.8670256%2c43.5714286 C36.3173077%2c42.7142857 36%2c41.6851429 36%2c40.5714286 C36%2c37.4854286 38.4535641%2c35 41.5%2c35 C44.5464359%2c35 47%2c37.4854286 47%2c40.5714286 C47%2c41.6851429 46.6826923%2c42.7142857 46.1329744%2c43.5714286 L46.1538462%2c43.5714286 Z M41.4294872%2c39 C40.6150641%2c39 39.9487179%2c39.675 39.9487179%2c40.5 C39.9487179%2c41.325 40.6150641%2c42 41.4294872%2c42 C42.2439103%2c42 42.9102564%2c41.325 42.9102564%2c40.5 C42.9102564%2c39.675 42.2439103%2c39 41.4294872%2c39 L41.4294872%2c39 Z' id='Location-white'%3e%3c/path%3e %3c/g%3e %3c/svg%3e)
