Andaman is one of the most underrated tourist destinations in India. The beaches here are some of the best beaches in India and the color of the sea is most of the time just breathtaking and is comparable to exotic Mediterranean and Indian Ocean beaches. It was a long 10 day tour but we (me and my wife) thoroughly enjoyed the trip. She was a bit grumpy about the tan she got from the equatorial sun after the trip but if you need a tan then you don't have any reason to be grumpy.
Our flight from Kolkata to Port Blair landed at around 10 am. After reaching the hotel, we took shower and had lunch and headed out for a little sightseeing in Port Blair. Samudrika Museum was closed at lunch time so we went to Anthropology Museum by auto. It was good in explaining the inhabitants of Andaman and some of its history and was interesting.
We went to the Cellular jail after that and in the evening saw the light and sound show there. We had dinner at a restaurant in Aberdeen Bazar and called it a day. It was a light day keeping in mind that we were starting for North Andaman the next day at 3 am in the morning. Photos for this day below. If you want detailed review about places, hotel, restaurants and tour operators please visit my tripadvisor profile - https://www.tripadvisor.in/Profile/himadrigorai
We started our journey at 3:30 am and even that was half an hour late!! I woke up at 2 am and thought is this a leisure trip or I am going back to an ill prepared exam in my school days. But we had to catch the first convoy at 6 am in the morning to cross the Jarawa reserve checkpost 1.5 hours away from Port Blair. We reached at 5 am and we were still behind 100 cars in the convoy. Our driver was a grumpy and serious-looking Tamil ex-army-man living in Andaman (if you can imagine one!!) and he was really unhappy that we were 30 minutes late and behind 100 vehicles in the convoy, even though we reached one hour before the start. Perils of starting at 3:30 am in the morning!!
The convoy started at 6 am and the view of the dense forest was surreal. I wouldn't have been surprised by a certain 'Tarzan' jumping in front of our car from a tree. This is a perfect location if an Indian director wants to shoot a 'Tarzan' or 'Jurassic Park' movie. However, I was surprised to see Jarawas, a lot of them. In the middle of the forest, the Jarawa children were naked and happy. At the end of the forest, the elder Jarawas were wearing Ray Ban sunglasses and pair of Levi's, stolen from or gifted by tourists, and restless to get more. They are getting the addictive taste of civilization and they don't know what vicious trap they are falling into.
We reached Baratang cave ferry point at around 7:30 am and went to the island other side by the large ferry. Then we took the speed boat for 10 people to Baratang Limestone cave. The group tickets are arranged by the tour operators or drivers but you, as a tourist, need to stand in the queue to get the permit, at least one of you. This is true everywhere in Andaman. It's beautiful and it's full of Indian bureaucracies.
The speed boat ride was awesome. In the beginning, we were going through the channel with the dense Mangrove forest on both islands beside us. But the last stretch was through a narrow canal inside the mangrove forests and it was again a Jurassic park moment. The limestone cave was 1.5 km from where the boats left us and the walk was interesting. Don't miss the exotic village 'nimbu-paani' on the way to re-energize at 31 degrees C. The nimbus (lemons) can aspire for a Guinness book award for their size and amount of juice that can be extracted from them. Please... I am only talking about lemons.
The cave was good but those who have seen other bigger limestone caves (such as Bora caves in Vizag, India) can give it a miss. For first-timers like us, it was enjoyable. Some photos below.
We came back to Baratang at 10:30 am and started our journey to Rangat at 11 am. After crossing another small Jarawa reserve area in Middle Andaman, we reached Rangat around 2 pm and had lunch there. After that we visited Aam Kunj and Morrice Dera beach and Dhani Nala Manogrove walk and beach. Photos below.
We reached Mayabunder, our place to spend the night, at around 6:30 in the evening. It was already dark. We checked in after long 15 hours of travel. But we were relaxed that the next day start is at 7:30 am. It's another thing that it is still earlier than when I typically start my office but it's all about perspective, especially when you start a day at 3:30 am!!
We start for the Ross and Smith Island today through Diglipur town. We are excited (sorry, I am excited and my wife is grumpy about the tan, a search of costly tan removal spas in Kolkata excites her again.... yaaayyy).
After starting at 7:30 am from Mayabunder we reached Ross and Smith at around 10 am. The experience of booking the ticket for speed boat to Ross and Smith from Diglipur jetty was really bad. Please check my TripAdvisor profile https://www.tripadvisor.in/Profile/himadrigorai for review. This place is for happiness and bad reviews can go to the review portals.
However, the Ross and Smith Island was out of the world. These are two islands connected by a sand strip during low tide which vanishes under water during high tide. A unique experience in India at least, and again the beach, the island and the colors just stun you. Photos below.
We took a dip in the clearest of sea waters possible and thoroughly enjoyed it. There were changing room and shower rooms with thatched doors without locks. But you can make do with these things in a remote island where no one stays at night. There was no locker facility as well but possibility of theft is probably the least of the threats in Andaman.
After Ross and Smith, we had our lunch of whole Silver Jack (Kakori) fish at Pristine beach resort and visited Kalipur beach after that. This beach is a turtle nesting ground between December and April but it happens only during the night.
We were coming back to Port Blair today. We customized our tour to see everything during the onward journey. So we spent this day chatting and sleeping inside the car and enjoying the natural beauty outside. We reached Port Blair at around 7 pm.
A few words about our hotel Sea n Sand in Mayabunder. This was really basic and service and food was poor. But you don't have other better option in Mayabunder. It's better to stay in Diglipur, but the downside is you need to travel more for your onward and return journeys.
Today we are going to the famous Havelock Island. We booked a 6:30 am government ferry through a local agent and we reached Havelock at around 9 am. The name of the agent was Akbar Ali (+91 9679511543) and he was really helpful. He confirmed about a government ferry where everyone else could not. After reaching the Havelock jetty, we booked a cab and reached hotel. We took a shower and rented a Scooty from the hotel. After that we headed towards a decent and cheap restaurant for lunch. I heard a lot about Welcome restaurant and I understood from the locals that it had moved from Market area and it's now near Kalapatthar beach. We went there for lunch and had whole masala Red Snapper Indian style. The nutella-banana pancake was good too (it was actually a variation of Bengali Patishapta.. interested about more? take help from a friend called Google).
We visited Kalapatthar beach after that and it was a pristine beach with clear waters. It rained just before and it was cloudy but on a sunny day I think it would be more beautiful.
We had plans to go to Radhanagar beach but we were doubtful whether the fuel in the scooty will last that distance. We stopped at the petrol pump 5 km before the beach but it stopped giving petrol before we could get any. So we abandoned the plan and came back to our hotel. Photos for this day below.
This was an eventful day at Havelock. Probably too many events to our liking. But boy, we did enjoy it. We started our day with an early morning Scuba dive at 6 am with Blue Corals. They agreed to do the Try dive in Rs 3.5K per head whereas others were asking the government regulated rate of Rs 4k for early morning. Please note, from 8 am onwards the govt. regulated rate is Rs 3.5k only. But the visibility is best during early morning and we had lot of things to do on that day.
If you really like water and are not afraid of it then you should try the Try or beginners scuba dive when you don't know swimming which was the case with us. My wife has actually mild fear about water but she conquered it bravely to have one of the best experiences of her life. Simple, you need to experience it to understand it. Photos below.
We came back to hotel after the scuba dive and took our buffet breakfast at the hotel. A few words about our hotel Ocean Blue in Havelock. It's really great about everything, the facilities, rooms, people, service, food - everything was great. The only con is there is no geyser in the bathroom. The rate is comparable to other hotel in Havelock. Remember Andaman is costly and Havelock is the costliest place in Andaman.
We headed towards Elephant beach at Havelock to have some fun in the clear sea water. The speed boat leaves from the Havelock jetty and the hotel staff helped us to arrange for it. There is a trekking path as well starting about 4 km from Radhanagar beach towards jetty but this path was muddy and risky due to recent rains and we decided to avoid it even though my plan was to take it in the beginning.
We kept our stuff in the locker after reaching there and did the full mask snorkeling for Rs 1000 each. It was again an amazing experience. The visibility was better due to clear sunshine but in snorkeling you can only see things from the distance of the surface of the water. But the full mask has an effect of a lens and you see things bigger.
After that, we did Banana ride and jet ski for Rs 600 per head and both were enjoyable. We also took a dip in the clear water even though my wife was getting really concerned about the tan now. We boarded the speedboats after 3 hours of stipulated time and returned to Havelock jetty and finally to our hotel to have lunch and take some rest. Photos below.
In the afternoon, my wife drove the scooty again to Radhanagar beach (she was driving the scooty everywhere in Andaman and I was just a pillion rider). Radhanagar beach was awarded the 7th best beach in the world by Time magazine in 2004 and I am wondering why it does not feature in the best beaches list now. We watched a spectacular sunset on the beach while walking towards Neil's cove, a rocky end to the Radhanagar beach at the far right side. The authorities did restrict going towards Neil's cove as it was reported that salt water crocodiles frequent there. We did not find any evidence though and we had to be content with taking picture from the entrance. Anyway it was too dark by then. Photos below.
After the sunset we came back to the hotel and then headed towards the Havelock jetty again in our scooty. I planned for a night kayaking with Tanaz at 6:30 pm. This was a surprise for my wife and she did not know exactly what we were doing. It was the first time we were going to drive a kayak on the water by our own with guidance from Tanaz and her brother Siraz, who were running the kayaking tour, and that too completely in dark and in the middle of the sea surrounding dense mangroves. In the beginning, my wife was cursing me after she knew what we are going to do, saying "do you want to die, we both are non-swimmers and who will save us if we drown in the water in the dark". My answer was simple - the life jacket will keep us afloat. My experience from the banana ride earlier on the day helped me there!! We were both nervous in the beginning but gradually we got accustomed with the circumstances and she seemed to enjoy the kayaking more than myself.
For me, the most exciting part of the unconventional endeavour was to see the bioluminescence in the water around the mangrove. Want to know more about bioluminescence, again ask your friend Google. Tanaz explained about the stars as well using a laser torch but the best takeaway for me was to see the bioluminescence in the water when we disturbed it with the kayak paddle and how my wife ultimately enjoyed the kayaking process more than everything else when she said "leave the paddle, I will drive the kayak now". We were sitting on a kayak for two persons.
Then the experience of going through the Mangrove forest canal completely in the dark also added to the charm. I must say Tanaz and Siraz are expert guides as it is unbelievable that two non-swimmers like us drove a kayak for the first time and that too through the dense mangroves in Andaman and in complete darkness. Unfortunately, we don't have any photos of the tour as it was in complete darkness and we did not carry photo devices as we were about to get completely wet. I was happy to see my wife taking a selfie with Tanaz and Siraz at the end of the tour.
On the next day, our government ferry to Neal from Havelock was at 1:45 pm but the check out time of the hotel was 8 am. We kept our luggage at the hotel reception and headed towards Radhanagar beach again a to have a glimpse of it during the day. We also tried to visit the Neil's cove again going through the jungle path just behind and parallel to the beach. But when we could not go there due to government restriction we took photos from the starting point. Radhanagar beach and Neil's cove were as astonishing with their colors and charm during daytime as they were during the sunset on the previous day. Photos below.
After coming back to hotel we had our lunch at the restaurant Anju Coco just beside our hotel. The food was good but it was very costly even in Andaman and Havelock standards. After lunch, I paid a visit to the Vijay Nagar beach near the hotel and it really surprised me how beautiful this beach was and still there were not too many people there as it is not as famous as Radhanagar. Take a look at the photos below.
We reached Neal island at around 3:30 pm and after checking in to our hotel Sarthak Residency we proceeded towards Laxmanpur beach by auto.
Laxmanpur beach is a coral beach full of dead corals at the shore and this is the characteristics of most of the beaches in Neal island. The sunset was as usual astounding as it was not very cloudy. Unlike Havelock, beaches in Neal have small thatched roof tea shops and souvenir shops by the beaches. The tea shops prepare Maggi and snacks as well. After the sunset we had tea, Maggi and pakora in one of the shops. It was refreshing to have hot tea and pakora at the beach while the remaining light was fading and light winds from sea was blowing.
We hired a scooty from the hotel on the previous day and left for Sitapur beach early morning to see the sunrise. However, it started raining on the way and we had to stop under a shade. We left when the rain stopped but the sun had already risen. Anyway we did not miss much as it was quite cloudy for a good sunrise. However, the beach was as usual scenic. We could see both Havelock and Port Blair islands. We went towards the far corner of the beach where there were some interesting rocks and uprooted trees by Tsunami.
We came back to hotel to have breakfast and took some rest. We headed towards Bharatpur beach at around 10:30 am. Bharatpur beach is similar to Elephant beach at Havelock. You can do snorkeling, scuba dive and water sports. The total package cost here including the glass bottom boat is lower than Elephant beach, so you can do the snorkeling and water sports here. Snorkeling experience would have been probably a bit better here as they take you to the sea through boat whereas at Elephant beach it is done generally near the beach. As we did everything at Elephant beach we only had the glass bottom boat ride. The water was again crystal clear and we could clearly see a lot of corals, fishes and even a turtle. The boat driver was telling us the names of the fishes as well. As the boat took us to many areas, this was the best option to see the underwater life in Andaman if you don't want to go in the water. We took the customary dip at the water after the glass bottom ride and came back to hotel to take a shower afterwards. Please note, there was no locker facility at Bharatpur beach but people kept their stuff in one place and it was safe.
We took lunch and some rest before we visited Natural Bridges at Laxmanpur 2 beach. This beach was really interesting as we had to walk on dead corals where the sea water was trapped and there were a lot of fishes, sea cucumbers and dead and live corals. We could see everything as the water was clear. We stood on a huge dead brain coral to see a colorful dead finger coral beside it. The two natural bridges were also good photo subject. They are huge pillars of rock that has formed as a bridge through millions of years of erosion through sea water and now they are above sea as the sea has receded. We could not go to the second bridge as it was getting dark and no other people were going there. We took a photo from the distance. Again the sunset was amazing there. I know this is getting cliched but I don't have too many words or articulation capability to explain such beauty of raw nature. Photos below.
We came back to hotel in the evening after some souvenir shopping at Laxmanpur 1 beach and took rest.
We were going back to Port Blair today. Our ferry was Green Ocean at 9:45 am. The sea was quite turbulent today and the high speed ferry was swinging a lot and quite a few people got seasick. Thankfully, my wife was not one of them even though she has mild motion sickness. We reached Port Blair at around 11:30, had shower and lunch in the hotel and got the bad news that our tickets for Jolly Buoy island on the next day could not be booked as no ferry will be running due to turbulent sea. In the afternoon, it was very windy, very cloudy and there were heavy rains intermittently. We cancelled our plan to go to Chiriya Tapu to see sunset as we would have seen nothing in this bad weather. We just spent a lazy afternoon in the hotel and went to Light House restaurant at the end of Aberdeen Bazar. We ordered whole Masala fried sea pomfret (big version of silver pomfret). It was nice accompanied with beer and was enough for two.
Today was our last full day of Andaman trip and we were supposed to got to Jolly Buoy. But the ferry service was cancelled due to high wind and turbulent sea. So we decided to spend a leisurely day in Port Blair. We went to Samudrika Museum at around 11 am by auto. There were good collection of live fish and dead corals and shells. Then we visited Aquarium which has kind of similar collection of fishes and corals. We thought of visiting Ross island which is a 10 minute ferry but even that was closed. So we took our lunch at New Lighthouse Restaurant beside the Aquarium and ordered a butter garlic King fish steak. It was served with butter rice and salad and was nice. After lunch we visited Marina park and Sagarika souvenir shop and then came back to hotel to take some rest.
In the evening, at 7 pm, I booked the TSG Bella Bay luxury cruise dinner which sails around the Port Blair islands while you enjoy a live Nicobari band and have a buffet dinner. The dinner was not extravagant but the food quality was good especially for the price of Rs 2400 per head which includes the 2.5 hour cruise fare. The live band performance was good but they performed only bollywood songs. The cruise condition was good and they served alcohol at the bar as well at extra cost. Overall this was a nice experience at Port Blair on our 5th marriage anniversary. One information, you need to pre-book your return journey from Junglighat jetty from where this cruise operates as it gets completely deserted and there is no other transport available at 9:30 pm when the cruise returns.
Today we were returning to Kolkata after our 10 day Andaman trip. Our flight was at 10:20 am and we went there by a pre-booked auto. I pre-booked a window seat this time for our return journey and took some photos of Andaman from the flight. It was an excellent trip. Bye bye Andaman. Hopefully we will meet again.
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