Why Andamans?
It had been our
passion to visit an island. For a while we had been reading quite a lot of
Andamans. The blue, super clean beaches and amazing flora and fauna.
How to reach here ?
By Air : direct
flights from Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad ( takes about 2-3 hours)
By Ship : from
Kolkata ( takes 5 days ) , Visakhapatnam ( takes 2 days), Chennai ( takes 3
days)
Places To visit in
Andaman :
Port Blair : It's going to be the central location of your entire trip to Andamans. Since, it's the only entry and exit point for the A&N group of islands.
Beaches
- Collinpur : About 25 Kms from PortBlair, it's awesome, clean, picturesque must visit beach. the best past is very few visit the place to when we where there all we saw were locals so we it gave us time to enjoy the beach.
- Wandoor Beach : Another beautiful beach in Andamans, excellent place to spend time in the evenings and watch the sunset. The kids can have some awesome fun at the beach with some sand toys.
- Corbyn's Cove Beach
- Munda Pahad/Chidya Tapu Beach
Museums/Historical Interest
- Samudrika Museum
- Chatham Saw Mill
- Anthropological Museum
- Cellular Jail
- Ross Island
Water Sports
- Scuba/Snorkel/Boat - North Bay Island
- Water Scooter- Port Blair Jetty/Corbyn's Cove beach
Local Transport/logistical Help
- Gopal Bhai : An excellent local help, he has his rickshaw but helps you set up any local transport for local sight seeing, booking cruise tickets,home stays, light show or any kind of help that you need out in Andamans. He should be your go to guy. An amazing down to earth person who certainly helps setup transport at a nominal cost. (+91-95319 18600 / +91 9933202151)
- Charwa : (9474276508,9679520151) : A Local Driver and a very nice guy to take help for airport pickups and drops and visiting near by beaches/places. Super cool guy is very calm guy when it comes to waiting for you while you visit the beaches.
Hotels
- Marina Manor, Junglihaat : After a lot of diligence I picked up this hotel. I was not disappointed by them. Following are my reasons :
- Centrally located
- Excellent and super supportive staff
- Very good/clean rooms
- The even upgraded my second stay to family suite without any charges.
- Made an advance call the night before to check my checkout time and prepared a packed breakfast since I was leaving 6:00 AM next morning.
- They good check-in/check-out times aligning with the incoming flight timings
- The have a good restaurant to provide good food after a long day out.
Havelock Islands - One of the best and must visit islands and perform any underwater activities. The beaches here are amazingly clean and have clear water. If the weather is good you can also do kayaking and other activities and plan to take a short trek to elephant beach that is also and experience in itself.
How to reach here :
- Cruise/Ferries -
- Makkruzz - excellent service
- Green Ocean- Haven't tried
- A recommendation it to take a cruise to align with hotel check-in times at times arriving early won't help if not rooms are available.
- In case if the weather is windy/cyclonic it could cause
- Could cause Nausea & sea sickness
- Always keep an additional day between reaching back port blair and leaving from port Blair to avoid problems due to ferry cancellations( which can happen due to bad weather)
- Local Commute :
- Two wheelers ( recommended , if you are a couple/a family with 1 kid )
- Auto rickshaws : Biswajit (+91-9531842181/+91-8900909481 ) ( recommended if you are a small family)
- Taxis
- Beaches
- Radhanagar beach (Sunrise beach)
- Kalapatthar beach (Sunset beach)
- Elephant Beach - Water sports
- Scuba activities
- Auqa-nomad
- Scuba lov ( An outlet at the Sea shell resort) - Interestingly they do snorkel as well it came in handy as others refused and my 5 year old was adamant to do it.
- Places to live / eat
- Outback resorts - Simple but very well made resort.
- Sea Shell Resorts : One of the best beach facing properties on the island. Slightly costlier to the pocket. Good place to stay if you don't plan to step out of the resort a lot.
- Places to eat
- Cafe Salt water : probably the best the food on the island
- Bonova cafe : excellent food , complemented by live karaoke performance in the evenings
Neil Island
Commute :
Car : Vadivel/Nitesh Phone Numbers ??
- Natural rock Bridge beach : a guide here is a good thing you hire. He can show you some good marine life and might as well help you click some good pictures.
- Bharathpur beach :
- Water activities
- Laxmanpur beach 2 - Sunset beach
North Andamans
- Baratang/Diglipur - Limestone cave/Mud volcano
- Ross/Smith Island
