Andamans Archipelago Travelogue
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 part is very few visit the place to when we where there all we saw were locals so it gave us time to enjoy the beach in solitude.
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: A beach to do some decent water sports laze around and have kids enjoy bathing in the water.
Munda Pahad/Chidya Tapu Beach: A beautiful and a must visit place to experience the flora and fauna to Andamans. Trek to the top of munda pahad is a must do activity. The entire route is mesmerising and breath-taking
Museums/Historical Interest
Samudrika Museum : a good place to understand the history/geography of Andamans. Moreover to see some unseen fishes beautiful fishes. Also, to seem some amazing corals and marine life.
Chatham Saw Mill : Good place for quick short visit if you are with kids to have them understand how are big trees logs converted into different size and shapes of logs
Cellular Jail : the most significant place from a historical standpoint for Andamans. As this was the place where freedom fighters were deported and locked up during the pre-independence era.
Ross Island : The island from where britishers ruled the entire archipelago
Anthropological Museum : Visit this place only if time permits
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 were our 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
They 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 :
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 Transport
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 (Sunset beach) : One of the most beautiful beaches in the entire Andamans, super clean and beautiful.
Kalapatthar beach (sunriew beach) : Another beautiful beach and clean sunrises are best experienced here.
Elephant Beach : Known for the water sport activities that can be done there. There are two routes to reach there one is by the sea other is by foot a small 40-45 minute trek ( which is presumably the best way to reach there)
Underwater activities
Auqa-nomad : we did our Scuba with them, very good and well trained guys. helped us enjoy the scuba well.
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 on doing it and the due to bad weather the Elephant beach was out of bounds.
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 : The best food we had on the island
Bonova cafe : excellent food , complemented by live karaoke performance in the evenings
Neil Island : An adjacent island to havelock has a few very beautiful beaches. It has a few good points to visit like the natural rock formation bridge and a laxmanpur beach.You can make a choice to stay at Neil island or just visit in the morning and leave by the evening. If please to do a day tour take a car and the person should take you to place around easily.
Commute :
Car : Vadivel :+91-7063914650/+91-8900904045
North Andamans
Baratang/Diglipur - Limestone cave/Mud volcano
Ross/Smith Island
Travel Tips
The sunrise and sunset in Andamans is very early in the day. The sunrises at around 5-5:15 and sun sets by 4:45 so schedule your visits to the places appropriately plan your day well so that you can visit the beaches in board day light.
Also the weather can be a little tricky once in a while so make sure you carry umbrellas as well as sunscreen lotions.
If you are travelling with kids carry/buy some beach toys for them to enjoy on beaches.
If you enjoy taking photos while on holidays, I would strongly recommend this selfie stick cum tripod : MI Selfie stick tripod
Book your flights at least 3-4 months in advance to get an optimal cost
Best time to visit Andamans in between Nov & February
A good thing that I learnt as a part of this trip is try to look for family rooms which usually has 2 beds, The rooms are spacious and they also make your stay very comfortable at a slightly more cost
Book your cruise and flights well ahead of time so that you don’t have to struggle getting them at the last moment.
My Itinerary :
Day 1 : Portblair - Collinpur & Wandoor beach
Day 2 : Portblair - Ross Island,Corbyns cove beach,chidya tapu
Day 3 : Havelock - Radahanagar beach
Day 4 : Havelock - Scuba & Kalapatthar beach
Day 5 : Havelock => Neil => Portblair : Visit Natrual Bridge & Lamxanpur beach 1 on Neil Island
Day 6 : Portblair - Samudrika, Chatham saw mill, cellular jail, local shopping at mid point
Day 7 : Travel back to mainland.
If time permits you should also plan to visit the Northern part of Andamans. The baratang,Ross & Smith Island, mount harriet, barren island
