The Trigger

Family trip after a long break, planned end-to-end by me. Stakes higher than usual; nothing was supposed to go sideways. So I did the homework. Note that the rates and experiences below are for November. December prices climb steeply.

Research lived on blogs and TripAdvisor, with a clear filter: comfort first, no boundary-pushing. The trip ran Sunday to Friday — six days, the longest I had attempted to that point.

Booking sequence that saved real money:

• Lock the place list. Filter for senior-citizen friendliness.
• Book hotels four months ahead. Tourism partners overcharge for the same rooms. Book online, use coupons. Get this done early; demand spikes fast.
• Lock flights, ideally within a month of the hotel bookings.
• In parallel, talk to multiple travel and tour operators. Most ask for an advance. Take the best deal. Keep the water-sports portion open until you are on the ground; it depends on weather and luck.

Sunday

Spicejet, Kolkata to Port Blair, 2:30pm landing. Confirm a window seat at check-in. The view earns it.

And if you are lucky, you fly through a rainbow.

The airport is small. Travel firms are waiting outside with placards. Our operator, Tropical Andaman, had Rohit at the curb. Solo travellers can pick up bikes or autos at the same point. We had AC cars across the trip, run by locals who were also employees of the operator.

We checked in to J Hotel. Inland from the sea, but the rooms are large and the food is the best we ate in the islands. Front desk was unfailingly helpful.

That night was just the Cellular Jail light-and-sound show. Smart move to do this before visiting the jail itself; the show frames the rest. Steel folding chairs, long entry queues. The narration covers Andaman history, the torture inside the jail, and its place in the freedom movement. English and Hindi alternate; we caught the Hindi run. Tickets ~100 INR (usually folded into the operator’s bill).

Monday

Ferries leave on time. Plan around the timetable, not the other way around. We took Makruzz (the other strong option is Green Ocean), 8:15am out for Havelock.

We picked the middle Deluxe class (Premium / Deluxe / Royal). ~1500 INR + tax, paid through the agency. Deluxe gets you a window seat. As with every Andaman hotel: pack a lunch the night before. The 2-hour ride is AC-enclosed with tinted windows. I slept through most of it.

Havelock’s ferry drop is well-organised. Tropical Andaman had another placard waiting. We checked in to Dolphin Resort, a few kilometres from the jetty.

Mind-blowing location. Duplex cottages with glass walls. The resort has its own private beach where you can wade out without much swimming and, at high tide, swim across a kilometre. Hermit crabs everywhere on the sand. Clean, quiet.

Post-lunch we left for Asia’s best beach, also known as Radhanagar. Crowded but well-maintained. Crystal-clear water, changing rooms on site.

I have not swum in a friendlier beach. The water reads less salty than usual ocean; I could pull a 360 underwater the way you do in a swimming pool.

Tuesday

We left luggage at Dolphin’s front desk and went to Kaala Pathar beach. Quiet stretch with rocks and twisted trees that everyone uses for portraits. Coconuts at 40 INR each.

Then we collected bags and drove to scuba (3500 INR per head). They run a health-and-fitness NOC and have a hard age cap on the older end. Bad luck arrived: someone had spotted a freshwater crocodile in the ocean that morning, and the forest department had suspended scuba and snorkelling across Havelock. Done.

Annoyed and relieved, we let the operator route us to lunch at a place called Something Different. Normally I refuse off-itinerary detours; they tend to be margin extraction. I gave it a pass this time because they were also covering the ride to the ferry, and food across Dolphin and beyond had been mediocre. The road in is muddy and rough.

Something Different is a top-3 restaurant on Havelock for a reason (data I confirmed once Wi-Fi cooperated). The interior is a deliberate jumble: regular dining, a library, vintage toys, floor seating, denim crockery, every abstract idea bolted on. The food was the best we ate in the entire trip. My Google review.

Walk to the back of the restaurant. There is a forested, deserted beach behind it that holds the mangrove energy.

We caught the 5pm return ferry to Port Blair. No security check this direction; counter-side ticket verification and you board. By evening we were checked in at the Megapode Resort, the government property named after the local bird.

Wednesday

The other tentpole of this trip was Jolly Buoy. The pun was warranted.

Departure 6:30am for the bumpy drive to Wandoor jetty. Pack breakfast the night before; most hotels will do this if you ask. The site is forest-department controlled. Confirm with your operator that your name is on the day’s list. Aadhaar or passport is mandatory at the ticket counter.

No-plastic zone. Refundable water bottle at the Wandoor counter for 10 INR plus 200 INR refundable security. Entry to Jolly Buoy: 35 INR. The boat ride is another hour, threading through mangroves.

The ferry parks 100 feet off the island so anchors do not damage the coral bed. You transfer to a glass-bottom boat in life vests. Even the brief view through the tinted glass is something else.

Six coral varieties in this patch with rich biodiversity and active fish. The full glass-boat package is 1000 INR per head. The operator narrates as you go: which fish, what species, what is unusual about each. Thirty minutes of live Discovery.

The island itself is small. Limited refreshments, makeshift restrooms, deep sand. Swimming is allowed within a marked zone, watched by coast guard. The fish are so unhabituated to people that they nibble your feet without flinching. Boats leave at 2:30pm.

Thursday

Next morning, the guide handed us access passes (580 INR per person) for Rajiv Gandhi Water Sports Complex. The complex is the hub for information, ferry service, and motorboat rides; the jetty is locally called Aberdeen. The water around it is shallow with fish schools and starfish.

First stop: Ross Island, entry 30 INR. The British-era capital of Andaman.

The island is layered with colonial ruins, fearless coconut-thieving deer, and male peacocks crossing the paths.

Second stop: North Bay, entry 10 INR. Known for food stalls and water sports.

North Bay packs the longest activity menu of the trip:

• Semi-submarine — 1850 INR
• Scuba diving — 3500 INR
• Snorkelling — 500 INR (half mask) / 1000 INR (full mask)
• Glass boat to spot dolphins — 1850 INR
• Sea walking — 3500 INR

Conventional wisdom: skip most of these here. Scuba and snorkelling are better at Havelock and Neil. Glass boats are better at Neil and Jolly Buoy. Sea walking and the semi-submarine are exclusive to North Bay. We took the semi-submarine. Disappointing experience plus seasickness.

The semi-submarine has aircraft-style interiors and safety system. The viewing glass is heavily tinted; an occasional curious orange fish bumps the panel. Coral visibility was poor and the seabed here is in noticeably worse shape than Jolly Buoy.

Friday

Last day. Checked out and went back to the Cellular Jail, this time the daytime visit: monochrome photographs, walking through the cells, the gallows up close, the names of prisoners engraved on the pillars. The Sunday-night context paid off here. The watchtower at the top opens to a panoramic view of the cell wings and surrounding islands.

Quick stop at the Fisheries and Anthropological Museums before the airport — budget an hour minimum. Fisheries holds species in formaldehyde, mummified swordfish and dolphins, higher-level coral types, and aquariums with rare carp and lobsters. The Anthropological Museum covers the indigenous tribes: photographs, cultural distinctions, weapons, hut models, all built from samples collected in the field. The exhibits on tribes still surviving outside modern contact are the part that stays with you.

Back to the small airport for the flight to Kolkata. Spicejet again. The runway sits up against the waiting area; the takeoffs are a show on their own.

Field Notes

• Bake costs into the operator deal upfront. Cruise, permissions, entry fees — get them on the email itself.
• Pick the month deliberately. November runs cooler than December and significantly cheaper. Mid-November is also when Jolly Buoy opens for its 6-month window.
• Scuba is conditional. Age limit, fitness clauses, ~36 disqualifiers. Even after passing all of them, a wandering crocodile can shut the day down. Plan for both outcomes.
• Jolly Buoy beats Red Skin. They alternate every six months for coral recovery. Red Skin is smaller and consistently worse-reviewed. Time the trip for Jolly Buoy.
• Why I skipped Neil. Neil is similar to Havelock and only earns the visit if you plan to cycle the island or do water sports. Not our setup.
• Why I skipped mud volcano and limestone caves. The walk and the trek are not senior-citizen friendly. If you do not have that constraint, do them; the scenery shifts.
• Cellular Jail accepts debit cards only. Specifically debit, not credit. Confirmed at the gate.
• Skip the base cruise package. The price gap to the upgrade is small and the base experience is not worth it. Avoid the government cruises entirely; they are slow and run-down.
• Order: light-and-sound first, museum and jail later. The narration gives you the context to actually read the artefacts.
• Window seat. Afternoon flight. Both directions. Thank me later.
• Eat at J Hotel. The food is the best part of the property.
• Dolphin’s food is poor. Stick to veg. Better: Coco Restaurant, ~1.5 km away. Pricier, but it is food.
• Megapode food is fine. Cafes, restaurant, buffet. Nothing standout, nothing bad.
• Book hotels six months out. Especially government hotels. They sell out that early.
• Makruzz / Green Ocean security check is real. Treat it like an airline. Do not pack lighters or anything else you would not put through baggage screening. We lost a lighter.

One Recommendation

Book Dolphin Resort. Eat at Something Different. Spend more nights at Havelock than at Port Blair.

And here, a hermit crab.

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

Sayantan