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DREAMVACA

India

Andaman Islands

White sand, glass water, and a ferry timetable

Flight from India
5.5 hrs
Currency
INR
Best months
Dec – Apr
Visa
No visa needed

The place

The Andamans are closer to Myanmar than to mainland India, and it shows — 572 islands of rainforest and reef, of which about a dozen are open to visitors. Havelock, now Swaraj Dweep, has Radhanagar, which still tops most lists of the best beach in Asia. Neil, now Shaheed Dweep, is smaller and slower. Port Blair holds the airport, the Cellular Jail and the ferry terminal.

This is India's best snorkelling and diving by a distance. The reef at Elephant Beach and North Bay starts in chest-deep water and is shallow enough for a non-swimmer with a guide, and Havelock has PADI schools that will certify you in four days.

The one thing that ruins Andaman holidays is the ferry. Private catamarans — Makruzz, Nautika, Green Ocean — run two or three sailings a day between the three islands, they sell out weeks ahead in season, and rough weather cancels them without appeal. Never plan a same-day ferry-to-flight connection, and never plan the last ferry of the day on the day you fly home.

Best months

Best time to visit

The months in gold are when Andaman Islands is at its best — weather, crowds and price together.

  • January: high 30°C, low 23°C. Light showers. Recommended month to travel.
  • February: high 31°C, low 23°C. Dry. Recommended month to travel.
  • March: high 32°C, low 24°C. Dry. Recommended month to travel.
  • April: high 32°C, low 25°C. Light showers. Recommended month to travel.
  • May: high 31°C, low 25°C. Monsoon.
  • June: high 30°C, low 24°C. Monsoon.
  • July: high 30°C, low 24°C. Monsoon.
  • August: high 30°C, low 24°C. Monsoon.
  • September: high 30°C, low 24°C. Monsoon.
  • October: high 30°C, low 24°C. Wet.
  • November: high 30°C, low 23°C. Wet.
  • December: high 30°C, low 23°C. Light showers. Recommended month to travel.

Gold = best months to travelDroplets = how wet the month isHigh / low °C

Holiday Packages

Holidays here

See all
A curve of white sand backed by dense green forest5N / 6D · Flights included

Emerald Islands, 5 Nights

Port Blair 2N · Havelock 2N · Neil 1N

Three islands with air included — the Cellular Jail and its light-and-sound at Port Blair, Radhanagar’s white crescent on Havelock, snorkelling off Elephant Beach, and the Natural Bridge at Neil. Private air-conditioned ferries between the islands in base class, not the government boat that sells out a month ahead.

₹49,900 on MakeMyTrip

from₹42,951per personView details

*Indicative — final price confirmed on live availability.

Worth your days

What to do

  • A wooden boat pulled up on the sand in the early daylight

    Radhanagar at five in the evening

    Two kilometres of white sand with a treeline behind it and no construction at all, because the beach is protected. Sunset is the event and the light is worth the wait. There is no shade at midday and no shacks selling anything, so carry your own water.

  • A scatter of small forested islands in a shallow blue sea

    Snorkelling at Elephant Beach

    Reached by a twenty-minute boat from Havelock jetty or a muddy forty-minute walk through the forest. The coral starts about fifteen metres out in chest-deep water. Use a licensed operator whose guide gets into the water with you — the current here sets outward.

  • A curve of white sand backed by dense green forest

    Scuba at Havelock or Neil

    A discover-scuba dive — no certification, one instructor to one diver — is about ₹4,500 and takes a complete non-swimmer down to eight or ten metres. A PADI Open Water course is four days and roughly ₹28,000–32,000. Nemo Reef, The Aquarium and The Wall are the sites people come back for.

  • The Cellular Jail and its evening show

    The Kala Pani jail held Savarkar and hundreds of Indian revolutionaries in single cells designed so no prisoner could see another. Do the daytime visit and then the six o'clock light-and-sound show, which runs in Hindi and English on alternating evenings — check which one you are booking.

  • Sunrise at Sitapur, Neil Island

    Neil has three beaches and each does one thing: Bharatpur for the glass-bottom boats, Laxmanpur for the natural coral bridge at low tide, and Sitapur for the sunrise. The whole island is 18 square kilometres — hire a scooter or take one of the shared jeeps and you have seen it in a day.

  • Baratang, once

    A long day from Port Blair: a two-and-a-half-hour road convoy through the Jarawa tribal reserve, then a mangrove creek boat to the limestone caves and the mud volcano. It is worth doing once. Inside the reserve, stopping, photographing or offering anything to the Jarawa is a criminal offence.

Indicative

What it costs

Spending money on the ground, per person per day — food, local transport and entry tickets outside your package.

Shoestring

₹2,000

a day, per person

Street food, public transport, one paid sight

Comfort

₹5,000

a day, per person

Sit-down meals, taxis, a tour or two

Luxury

₹15,000

a day, per person

Fine dining, private car, premium experiences

Visa

Visa snapshot

No visa needed

This is a domestic holiday. Carry a government photo ID for hotel check-in and any flight — Aadhaar, PAN, passport or driving licence.

Practicalities

Know before you go

What to eat

Vegetarian or Jain? Safe picks here: Bengali vegetarian thali, Grilled fish and coconut prawn curry, Pure-veg South Indian at Port Blair, Coconut water and island fruit, What to carry from home.
  • Bengali vegetarian thaliVegetarian

    The islands were settled largely from Bengal, so the everyday veg food is Bengali — aloo posto, begun bhaja, cholar dal, rice. It is the most reliable vegetarian meal on the islands and you will find it in Aberdeen Bazaar in Port Blair and on the Havelock main road.

  • Grilled fish and coconut prawn curryVegetarian

    What the islands are actually famous for — red snapper, barracuda and tuna landed the same morning, and prawns cooked in coconut milk. Said plainly so nobody is surprised: almost every kitchen here is a seafood kitchen first, and a vegetarian one second, if at all.

  • Pure-veg South Indian at Port BlairVegetarian

    Port Blair has a handful of genuinely pure-vegetarian places doing idli, dosa and a South Indian thali, and a Gujarati-run kitchen or two that come and go with the season. Havelock and Neil have three or four between them, so book a hotel that will cook vegetarian rather than relying on finding it.

  • Coconut water and island fruitVegetarian

    Tender coconut at ₹40 on every corner, plus papaya, pineapple and the local banana. This is genuinely how a lot of vegetarian visitors get through the middle of the day on Havelock, and it is no bad thing.

  • What to carry from homeJain friendly

    There is no Jain restaurant anywhere in the Andamans, and everything on the islands arrives by ship, so choice is thin and prices are high. Gujarati groups routinely carry thepla, khakhra, dry farsan and ready-to-eat packets — do the same, especially for the ferry days, when you may be at sea through a mealtime.

Set a meal preference — vegetarian, Jain or halal — when you book and we brief every hotel and restaurant on your itinerary.

What to bring home

  • Coconut oil, virgin coconut products and island honey from the government Sagarika emporium
  • Cane and bamboo baskets, and Nicobari mats, bought through the co-operative rather than a beach stall
  • Pearl and mother-of-pearl jewellery, from a shop that can show you its source paperwork
  • Wooden craft in padauk and gurjan, which are locally regulated timbers — ask for the receipt
  • Andaman spices — clove, cinnamon, nutmeg — grown on the islands themselves
  • What NOT to buy: turtle shell, giant clam, sea fan and coral in any form are illegal under the Wildlife Protection Act, and carrying them is an offence at the airport

Getting around

Veer Savarkar International Airport at Port Blair (IXZ) is the only way in, with direct flights from Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and Bengaluru; from Ahmedabad and Mumbai it is one stop and most of a day. Between the islands it is the private catamarans, booked online weeks ahead, or the cheaper and slower government ferries, which are hard to book from outside the islands. On Havelock and Neil, autos and rented scooters. Mobile data now runs on the Chennai submarine cable and is far better than it was, but still drops on Neil and vanishes entirely on a crossing.

Good to know

  • Ferries cancel for weather, particularly between May and September, and the queue for the next sailing is long. Keep a full buffer day in Port Blair before your flight home rather than trusting the morning boat.
  • Indian citizens need no permit for Port Blair, Havelock, Neil or Baratang. Foreign nationals need a Restricted Area Permit, issued on arrival. Nicobar is closed to tourists entirely, and North Sentinel is prohibited to everyone.
  • On the Andaman Trunk Road through the Jarawa reserve, photographing, filming, stopping or offering food to the Jarawa is a criminal offence prosecuted under the tribal protection regulation. Convoys are timed and escorted for that reason.
  • Coral cuts infect fast in the tropics, and the shallow reefs carry stonefish and lionfish. Wear reef shoes, never stand on coral, and do not touch anything, however still it is.
  • Medical evacuation from Havelock or Neil means a boat to Port Blair, and anything serious means a flight to Chennai. Take travel insurance that explicitly covers scuba diving, and carry cash — ATMs outside Port Blair are unreliable and UPI drops with the network.

Travel Guide

Read the full travel guide

Month-by-month weather, money, plugs, food, shopping and the small things nobody tells you.

Andaman Islands travel guide