Trip to Andaman Q&A

[Gaurav]

Hi Friends,

I'm planning a trip for Andaman for a week in the last week of Jan, please help me with what all places can i cover, the weather, activities, places to eat and not to miss the the hotels, i'm looking for good resorts with lots of open space (a good 3 or 4 start resort/hotel with awesome food/location and sceanery will do ) and extra activities

do not want to indulge in too much travelling, would like to keep 2-3 days just to relax and roam around the resort.

Thanks
Gaurav

[ken]

hi,
if u need to relax,than go to havelock island only, for more days,and their defi go to elephant beach for corals,and to radhanagar beach.its beautiful.their are many options to stay at havelock island.
and at andaman ,cellular jail [kaala paani ] is must to see,with light and sound show.if intersested in corals than defi go to marine museum.
there is flight from andaman to havelock island,they only charge 700 to 800 rs.
and if u go by ship than do book ac tickets. climate will be hot only so dont forget to take glares,cap, and only cotton clothes.

and u can contact dinesh from nirmala tours and travels ,he will look after everything as per your need.contact no-9933269719,give him my ref-- and he will co operate. for veg food, annapurna and tsg is good.tsg is better rather.
for further details feel free to contact

[Abhilash]

Hi,
If you are off for a week, plan 2 days in Portblair and the rest in Havelock. In Portblair, the must be places (I'd call them must-be than must-see, as being there is fun than seeing it).

1) Rose Island. This is a photographer's paradise. An abandoned island occupied by Navy, you'll see how nature redeems in due time.

2) Chidiya Tapu. Go there to see the sunset. Nice beach, and beautiful

3) Cellular Jail (I was disappointed by the filmy light & sound show though. I've seen better ones)

4) RedSkin / Jolly Buoy for snorkelling.

Optionally you can go to barthang etc, but thats a full day trip.

In havelock, Radhanagar is a must be-in beach. You can hire bikes and move around. Dont go by those packaged tour guides, its no fun. If you're a group of youngsters, biking is the best thing.
The other must be-in things are, Elephant Beach, Kala Pathar beach (Its quite deserted, and you'll enjoy utmost privacy and tranqulity. The entire andamans is quite peaceful that ways, for a main-lander indian). Do snorkelling. Sit near the sea during the night (if its a fullmoon day, especially), observe high tide and low tide, build sand castles, watch starry sky.

Optionally, you can also go to Neil Island. I've heard its quite nice, never been there though. But neil comes on the opposite side of Havelock from portblair.

For travel there are flights from mainland to portblair(Also ships, but u'd loose 3 days and if you get a bad one, your holiday would soar). There is a modern, fast catamaran between portblair and havelock run by a private company (MAK Cruise). The govt ships are also nice. We took one in each direction.

What we didnt know was that, there are no early morning ferries betwen havelock and portblair. We had booked for 4 nights in Havelock and were planning to leave early in the morning to portblair and catch the afternoon flight. We realized that no ferries run in the morning. The first one is at 2 PM, and then 4 PM, followed by one at 4:30 PM. We didnt see any flights (I dont think there are flights. There may be choppers, but you need to get local govt official approval and recommendation to get one, usually used for emergencies). So plan it accordingly.

With respect to hotels: I wont say there are many good ones in portblair. We stayed in Fortune, which was nice. The other 'decent' one is sarovar portico. Rest all are quite average and old.

In Havelock, there are good ones, and some of them in the order of recommendation (purely personal point of view):

1) Barefoot (Radha NAgar)
2) Silver Sand
3) Wild Orchid
4) Sea shell

Food and service in general is slow, and average in almost all the places. So keeping your expectations low on that aspect would help. We tried a few restaurants but didnt find anything extra ordinary. We researched on the net and visited some of them, but like what I said, nothing great (Not even sea food !).

have a good trip