Andaman Marine Life and Nature Tour

Flights into Port Blair, officially renamed Sri Vijaya Puram although almost everyone still uses the old name, come in from Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and Bangalore, mostly in the morning and early afternoon. Our island representative waits outside the small terminal with a card showing your name and drives you about fifteen minutes to your hotel. On the way we hand over your ferry tickets, a printed plan and a short note on reef rules, and we check any permit questions linked to your passport. Nothing is scheduled before lunch, which gives you a few hours to adjust to the humid sea air.

Once the midday heat passes, a local guide walks you around the Cellular Jail, a colonial penitentiary completed in 1906 where the British locked away Indian freedom fighters in solitary cells. Only three of the seven brick wings survive, spokes around a tall central tower, and standing inside one tiny cell makes it easy to see why inmates spoke of these islands as Kala Pani, the black water. It gives useful context for the islands you will see over the coming week, because the forests were first cleared for settlements during this period. A small museum inside lists the names of those held here, and the view from the tower roof stretches across the harbor to Ross Island.

Toward sunset a short drive brings you to Corbyn's Cove, a curved beach lined with coconut palms where local families come to sit by the water in the evening. It is a good spot for a first look at the Andaman Sea and its colors, from pale green in the shallows to deep blue further out. If you prefer, you can return to the jail instead for the evening sound and light show, narrated in Hindi or English depending on the slot. Dinner tonight might be grilled fish at a local seafood restaurant near Aberdeen Bazaar. Overnight in Port Blair.

The alarm rings very early today, because vehicles heading north on the Andaman Trunk Road travel in escorted convoys that leave the Jirkatang check post at fixed times in the morning. The hotel prepares a breakfast box for the road, and your driver lines up at the check post well ahead of the first departure. The road then crosses the Jarawa Tribal Reserve, home to one of the indigenous peoples of the islands, and the rules here are strict and enforced by law. Stopping, slowing down to look, taking photographs or videos, offering food or trying to speak with anyone from the Jarawa community is prohibited, and we ask every guest to respect this fully.

After a short vehicle ferry across Middle Strait you reach Baratang Island, where a forest department speedboat carries you through a creek lined on both sides by tall mangroves. The prop roots of these trees hold the soft mud together, shelter young fish and crabs, and protect the coast from storm surges, and your guide explains how the forest recovered after the 2004 tsunami. Watch the branches for kingfishers and herons, and the mud for mudskippers flicking across the surface. The channel narrows until the canopy almost closes overhead, and the boat slows to a gentle pace so you can take photos of the roots and reflections.

From the landing point, a walk of about a kilometer through village fields and a short forest trail leads to the Baratang limestone caves, where water has shaped stalactites and stalagmites over thousands of years. The caves are not lit, so bring a torch, wear shoes with good grip and avoid touching the formations, as skin oils damage them. On the way back, if time and the convoy schedule allow, you can stop at the small mud volcano, where bubbles of gas push grey mud up through the ground. Your driver then joins the return convoy through the reserve, with the same rules applying, and you reach Port Blair by late afternoon. Overnight in Port Blair.

Your driver drops you at Haddo wharf in time for a morning sailing to Havelock Island, renamed Swaraj Dweep on official maps. We book seats on one of the private air-conditioned ferries, and check-in closes well before departure, so arriving early with a porter for the bags is part of the plan. The crossing takes about two hours depending on the boat and sea state, and passengers can usually step out to a small rear deck for photos. Look out over the water for flying fish skimming the waves, and on calm days you may spot dolphins near the outer islands. On arrival, a member of our Havelock staff is waiting on the pier with a car for the run to your beach resort.

Havelock is the largest island of Ritchie's Archipelago, and away from the main village its interior is mostly forest, with tall padauk and gurjan trees rising above areca palms and paddy fields. After check-in and lunch, your guide briefs you on the next two days at sea. You go through reef etiquette in detail: never stand on coral, keep your fins off the bottom, use only reef-safe sunscreen and never pick up shells or coral, which is illegal to remove from the islands. The guide also checks snorkel masks for fit and talks through the medical form needed for tomorrow's try-dive, so there are no surprises in the morning.

In the late afternoon you drive across the island to Radhanagar Beach, whose powder-fine sand bends for about two kilometers below tall forest on the western shore. The beach faces the setting sun, and lifeguards mark safe swimming areas with flags, which you should always follow because currents can be strong. A short trail at the northern end leads through the trees to a smaller, quieter cove locally called Neil's Cove. Stay until the light fades, then head back to the village area, where small restaurants grill the day's catch of snapper, barracuda or squid with spices and lime. Overnight in Havelock.

Mornings are the best time on the water, before the wind picks up, so you leave early for Elephant Beach, reached by a short boat ride from the jetty or, at low tide, by a forest walk of around forty minutes. The name comes from the elephants that once worked in the island's timber camps, not from wild animals. Here a guided snorkeling session takes you over a shallow reef close to shore, where brain corals and branching staghorn grow in clear water. Your guide stays alongside you, points out what lives in each patch, and keeps the group well away from the swimming areas used by glass-bottom boats and jet skis.

Look for clownfish tucked into anemones, parrotfish crunching on dead coral with their beak-like teeth, butterflyfish moving in pairs and the occasional blue-spotted stingray resting on the sand. Some areas of the reef were bleached during warm-water events, and your guide explains how corals recover when water temperatures fall again. Green sea turtles feed on seagrass beds around the island and are sometimes seen by snorkelers and divers, though this is never guaranteed. If anyone in your party is not a confident swimmer, life jackets are available, and a glass-bottom boat offers a dry view of the same reef from above.

After lunch, the try-dive begins with a session at a certified dive center, where an instructor explains breathing, equalizing and hand signals before practice in shallow water. You then head out by boat to a sheltered site for a dive of about thirty to forty minutes, with the instructor holding your hand or harness the whole time and depth limited to beginner levels. A doctor's certificate may be needed for anyone with heart, lung or ear problems, and children's age limits apply. Diving rules say you should not fly within a day of a dive, so the underwater sessions sit early in the week and leave a safe gap before your flight home. Overnight in Havelock.

Today is planned around the tide. If water levels suit, the day starts with a guided mangrove kayaking trip in one of Havelock's sheltered creeks, paddling stable sit-on-top kayaks between walls of roots. Mangroves here act as nurseries for many reef fish, and with care you can spot juvenile snappers and archerfish in the shallows, fiddler crabs waving one oversized claw on the mud and egrets fishing along the edges. Your guide shows you how to paddle quietly, avoid grabbing roots and keep your distance from birds. The trip lasts around two hours and finishes before the heat of the day, with breakfast waiting back at the resort.

The middle of the day is open, with several options to pick from. Certified divers or those who enjoyed yesterday's try-dive can book a second dive at an outer site, where reef sharks, moray eels, schools of fusiliers and, with luck, a hawksbill turtle add to the picture. Snorkelers may prefer a boat trip to a reef further offshore, which usually means clearer water and fewer people, while anyone who would rather stay dry can take a forest walk inland with a guide to look for butterflies, lizards and birds such as the Andaman bulbul. These activities are optional extras, booked locally depending on weather and sea conditions, and our team helps you pick the best one.

Turtle nesting takes place on a few remote beaches of the islands between roughly December and April, and the forest department and conservation groups run monitoring programs during that period. Public access is limited, so we never promise a nesting or hatchling event, but our team keeps in touch with local contacts and will tell you if something suitable is open during your stay. Once evening comes, a stroll on Kala Pathar beach close to the village is worthwhile, where black rocks dot the sand and the afternoon light catches the water. Eat at the resort tonight or try a family-run place by the market. Overnight in Havelock.

A short ferry ride takes you south-west to Neil Island, officially Shaheed Dweep, the smaller and slower of the two visitor islands. You can cycle around most of it in an afternoon, and village life centers on vegetable farms that supply much of the archipelago with greens, bananas and coconuts. After landing, your driver takes you to a simple beach resort and leaves time for a rest. Neil's coastline is mostly fringed by shallow reef flats rather than deep water, which makes it less suited to swimming but excellent for watching marine life on foot at low tide, as long as you move carefully and stay on rocks and sand.

The tide table decides when you visit the Natural Bridge at Laxmanpur, a rock arch formed by waves cutting through old coral limestone. At low water a local guide leads you along the exposed reef flat, where rock pools hold sea cucumbers, starfish, small octopuses, hermit crabs and brightly colored sea slugs. Water shoes help on the sharp surface, and the golden rule applies here as on the reef: look but never lift or turn over animals, because many die once exposed to sun and air. Your guide also points out fossil corals inside the arch itself, a reminder that this island grew from a reef lifted out of the sea.

Later you can snorkel at Bharatpur Beach, where a short boat ride takes you to a patch of coral in calm, clear water, or relax on the wide sands of Laxmanpur Beach 1 for the sunset. Neil has only a few roads and almost no traffic, so the evening is quiet, and you may hear geckos calling from the trees and see the glow of fishing boats out at sea. If the sky is clear and there is no moon, the stars are bright enough to make a short walk worthwhile. Dinner is at the resort or at one of the small cafés near the market, which serve fresh fish and simple island curries. Overnight in Neil.

If you wake early, a walk to Sitapur Beach on the eastern tip of Neil gives you a sunrise over the sea and the chance to see white-bellied sea eagles patrolling the shore. Back at the resort for breakfast, you then check out for the late-morning catamaran to Port Blair. This crossing is quicker than the Havelock run, and a car is waiting at Haddo to take you into town for lunch. If you missed anything on Day 1, the Samudrika Naval Marine Museum is worth an hour, with clear displays on Andaman reef life, corals, shells and the island's indigenous peoples, and it helps you put a name to the fish you saw underwater.

By mid-afternoon you set off for Chidiya Tapu, around an hour's drive to the wooded southern point of South Andaman, in the company of a local naturalist who has birded these trails for years. The Andaman Islands are home to more than twenty endemic bird species and subspecies, and the forest trails here give a fair chance at several, including the Andaman woodpecker, Andaman treepie, Andaman drongo, Andaman serpent eagle and Andaman cuckoo-dove. Bring binoculars, wear earth-toned clothing and keep voices low; your guide uses patience and knowledge of feeding trees rather than recorded calls, which disturb birds and are not part of our ethics.

The best activity comes in the last hour of light, when parrots, imperial pigeons and hill mynas fly overhead to their roosts and the forest becomes noisy with calls. The trail ends near a rocky beach facing west toward small islands, where the sun sets over the water and you can look back on a week of reefs and forests. Mosquitoes are active at dusk, so long sleeves and repellent are useful. On the drive back to Port Blair, your guide helps you complete a list of the birds, fish and other creatures seen during the trip, which many guests enjoy keeping as a record. Overnight in Port Blair.

Keen birders can head out at dawn with the naturalist for an hour at the Sippighat wetlands on the edge of Port Blair, where paddy fields and shallow pools attract herons, egrets, waders and, in winter, migrating ducks and shorebirds from the north. Your last dive was on Day 5, so the gap before flying is comfortably long. Following breakfast and check-out, the car heads to Port Blair airport with time in hand, because security lines at this small terminal can move slowly and many mainland flights depart around midday. Our island representative waits with you until your bags are through the entrance scanner.

Connections from Port Blair run to Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and Bangalore, where you can join international flights home or continue your trip in mainland India. If you would like more nature, we can add Kabini in Karnataka, Thattekad in Kerala or the Western Ghats birding routes to a future trip. Please leave all shells, coral and sand in the islands, as taking them out is against the law and bags are checked at the airport. Safe travels home, and may the reefs, mangroves and forest birds of the Andamans stay in your memory for a long time.