Andaman Islands

The Andaman Islands are the part of India that most Indians never quite believe is India until they see it. Set in the Bay of Bengal roughly 1,200 kilometres off the country's east coast — geographically closer to Myanmar and Thailand than to the mainland — this is an archipelago of some 200-odd islands fringed with white coral sand, backed by dense tropical rainforest, and ringed by some of the clearest, most biodiverse water anywhere in the subcontinent. For travellers used to India's crowded heritage circuits, the Andamans offer something almost entirely different: a slow, salt-air, boat-and-beach kind of trip.

The islands carry two very distinct identities, and a good visit honours both. The first is as a beach-and-diving destination. Havelock Island — officially renamed Swaraj Dweep in 2018 — is the headline draw, home to Radhanagar Beach, which was named "Best Beach in Asia" by Time magazine back in 2004 and remains one of the finest stretches of sand in the country. Its quieter neighbour Neil Island (Shaheed Dweep) trades in a gentler, slower pace of shallow lagoons, low-tide reef walks and sunset points. Around both, and off North Bay near Port Blair, lies a reef system that has turned the Andamans into India's premier scuba-diving and snorkelling hub, with warm water, gentle beginner sites and dramatic dives for the certified.

The second identity is historical and far more sombre. Port Blair, the capital and the point through which almost every visitor arrives, is dominated by the Cellular Jail, the colonial-era prison the British called Kala Pani — the "Black Water" — where hundreds of Indian freedom fighters were exiled, isolated and tortured. A visit to the Andamans that skips the Cellular Jail and its evening Light and Sound show misses the emotional heart of the place. The surrounding islands — Ross Island (Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Island), with its jungle-swallowed British ruins, and the atmospheric memorials scattered around the harbour — carry the same layered weight of penal-colony history and the freedom struggle.

There is a third, quieter presence that shapes any responsible trip here: the islands' indigenous peoples. The Andamans are home to some of the world's most isolated tribal communities — the Great Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarawa and the uncontacted Sentinelese — who live in legally protected reserves that are strictly off-limits to visitors. Large parts of the archipelago, including the entire Nicobar group to the south, are closed to tourism altogether to protect these communities and the ecosystems they depend on. Travelling here means accepting real limits: certain areas cannot be entered, certain people cannot be approached, and photography of tribal communities is not merely discouraged but illegal.

Practically, the Andamans reward a trip of five to six days built around a Port Blair base and one or two island-hops. Because everything runs on ferries, boats and weather, the islands ask you to slow down and build slack into your plans — a lesson the sea teaches quickly. Do that, give the Cellular Jail the reverence it deserves, spend your days in the water and your evenings watching the light fade over the Bay of Bengal, and the Andamans deliver one of the most complete and memorable trips in India.