Here I am riding a motorbike on Little Andaman Island
My Trip to the Remote Andaman Islands of India
I’d been itching to visit the remote Andaman Islands of India for an entire decade. My urge kicked off when I became a PADI Dive Master and Instructor in Thailand back in 2004. As I taught diving around SE Asia I heard divers talk about the Andamans more and more frequently.
The island archipelago is situated in the vast Andaman Sea between India and the SE Asian peninsula. Although governed by India, the islands lie much closer to Thailand and Myanmar. However, they are not easily accessed.
Nobody at all can reach them from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, or any other country for that matter. India allows access only by domestic flights from a few select Indian cities or by long 2-5 day ferries from Chennai.
Their inaccessibility has made a visit to the Andamans even more mysterious and desirable to me. I’d heard and imagined incredible, pristine tropical islands lined by long, white empty beaches backed by swaying coconut trees, dense untouched rain forests and vibrant coral reefs teeming with colorful reef fish and marine creatures, all barely marred by visitors or tourism. How I longed to get there!
Finally in late 2013, I braved my imagined horrors of India by setting out on a 3-month self-dubbed ‘Easy Trip to India’. Quite happily, my Indian travels proved to be extremely easy, laid-back and relaxing. I first traveled around the Indian Himalayas for two months then excitedly flew from Delhi to the Andaman Islands in early December for one month of relaxation and adventures immersed in nature. Including, of course, scuba diving!
Neil Island
Not surprisingly, the Andamans were one of my most-anticipated destinations of my entire trip. I had prepared many great adventures for myself there.
I planned to lounge on tropical powdery-white beaches; swim, snorkel and suntan; ride a helicopter to one of the Andaman’s most remote islands; take a day-long, escorted bus journey through Andaman island’s wild interior jungles, apparently full of a rather hostile forest tribe who throw arrows at passing vehicles; and celebrate Christmas by scuba diving on pristine coral reefs. I also hoped to throw back a few cocktails, beach side, on New Year’s Eve.
Upon my arrival in the capital, Port Blair, I was soon confronted with an unexpected bonus. Internet connections were so bad that I was forced into an off-grid one-month vacation. Darn! I had planned to report live from the Andamans with photos and stories of adventure. But I had to quickly scrap that idea.
primary forest at Little Andaman seen from helicopter
After several stressful & hectic days in Port Blair pre-scheduling posts, comments and greetings, I was free for one entire month. Free from the internet. Free from blogging, writing, photo-editing, publishing posts and the ka-zillion other tasks I normally do in the course of a blogging work week.
That vacation did me a world of good! And I have to confess that not once was I remotely tempted to write a single story, edit any new photos, make schedules or even open my computer. Well, ok, I did watch several DVDs during the long evenings.
Instead, I completely immersed myself in little-touched tropical islands. As envisioned, I lounged, suntanned, swam and snorkeled. I read several books while sitting in forests surrounded by massive tropical trees. I cycled lazy roads through shady forests and past meadows with cows and goats. I visited waterfalls, a lake, remote beaches and local villages. I became thoroughly unwound and de-stressed.
my helicopter in the Andaman Islands
My absolute favorite experience was riding a helicopter from Port Blair to Little Andaman Island. In fact, that helicopter ride was my #1 best experience in India! Read more about that here.
Sounds perfect, right?
The truth is, however, that glowing report is just half the story. I can more accurately sum up my visit to the Andaman’s as a mixed bag.
Although I did ride a helicopter, marvel at the gorgeous trees and beaches, and get completely de-stressed, all the places I visited somehow always seemed not quite ideal. I was always dealing with some difficulties or other.
Port Blair, capital of the remote Andaman Islands
To start with, I ‘lost’ a total of 9 days of my 30-day vacation being stuck in Port Blair town. I initially wasted nearly a week there dealing with sticky-slow internet connections before I could go off-grid and enjoy my vacation. While not a bad town, it’s certainly nothing special either.
Later I got stuck in town waiting to catch ferries since all tickets were sold out long before I reached the ticket offices. I also got stuck in Port Blair on Christmas day! Instead of diving on pristine reefs as I’d planned, I experienced the first ever ‘non-Christmas’ in my life.
Port Blair offered nothing special to do, eat, drink or buy as Christmas treats. I attempted to save the day by going to a spa. Ironically, that turned out to be the absolute worst massage of my life! I would have rather skipped it than endure the 45 minute ‘oil slide’ lying on a hard wood table.
Because of the lost days, I only had time to visit two of the four islands I’d wanted to see. I also had to skip the armored-escort bus trip through the interior jungles.
As for the two islands I did visit, namely Little Andaman and Neil Island:
my favorite bungalow resort on Neil Island
Bungalow Resorts
Little Andaman Island is gorgeous. However, I greatly disliked the bungalow resort set-ups. They were all situated away from the beach, on the far side of the island’s sole road, and consisted of rows of unattractive thatched bungalows set out in open fields, with no gardens, shady trees or visual beauty.
Even worse, a steady stream of traffic flowed by along the adjacent road. I never appreciate having to deal with traffic noise when I’m submersed in a tropical paradise. I visit such natural places to get away from modern world noises.
On the plus side, resort owners were friendly and helpful and the rooms were quite inexpensive at 150-250 rp per night / $2.50-4.00 US
On Neil Island the bungalow resorts were much more ideal. They had shady gardens, little to no traffic noise and were clean & tidy. Most of the local owners were very friendly and helpful. Thatched bungalows cost 200-400 rp per night. But Neil posed other problems (below).
main beach at Little Andaman Island
Beaches
The beaches were gorgeous, but they were all horribly infested with sand fleas, especially at Little Andaman. My first attempted stroll on the beach was a nightmare. Within five minutes I was completely chomped by itchy, painful sand flea bites which continued hurting for several days afterward.
I actually considering leaving the island immediately, within two hours of arriving! I had gone to Little Andaman primarily to enjoy unspoiled beaches. I certainly could not do that while getting eaten alive!
Quite luckily I discovered that both my sunscreen and the local cream mosquito repellent kept the nasty pests at bay, at least for 1-2 hours at a time. Thanks to those creams I was able to stroll the beaches at sunrise and sunset, suntan at midday and take the occasional swim.
(But I couldn’t help to remember all the great beaches in SE Asia, which present a much nicer experience without the sand fleas!)
the only attractive sunset I saw during my 1 month vacation – Neil Island
Sunrises and Sunsets
Sunrises and sunsets everywhere in the Andamans during my month-long visit were nothing to write home about. In fact, I saw only one striking sunset. Perhaps I just had bad luck? In any event, I’ve seen infinitely better sunrises and sunsets in Thailand, Malaysia and Bali, Indonesia.
palak paneer & naan
Food
All over the Andamans I did eat a lot of delicious Indian food. But I had to wait 30-60 minutes for each and every meal. For an entire month. That meant wasting 2-3 hours a day sitting in nondescript restaurants waiting for food. It also meant planning way ahead. It meant I had to stop whatever I was doing (reading, suntanning, swimming) extra early to get to a restaurant to order then sit & wait.
I’m accustomed in SE Asia to quickly popping into any of dozens of restaurants, pointing out what I want, and begin eating within five minutes. I definitely did not enjoy wasting so much time every day waiting to eat.
coastline of Little Andaman from helicopter
Coral Reefs
The worst thing by far about the Andamans, and a huge, huge disappointment to me, were the coral reefs. Simply put, they’re dead now. Very sad but true.
While there I was told various stories about what happened. Some locals claimed it was the 2004 tsunami, and that may be true for some reefs on particular islands. A dive instructor at a local shop claimed it was El Nino that brought in an algae that decimated the reefs.
I believe the most trustworthy story came from some Italian divers I met there. They had dived the Andamans four years ago. They said the reefs had been absolutely gorgeous. This time they found the reefs not even worth diving anymore.
They reported that about two years ago the seas surrounding the Andamans had heated up, causing coral bleaching. Corals can withstand water temperatures up to 30C / 86F for a short time. If the water stays that temperature for a prolonged time, or gets hotter, then the corals die.
While I was at Neil Island, I snorkeled just off-shore around the whole island. At most places the corals were 80-95% dead. Quite a variety of reef fish still live there, but certainly not in the huge numbers and varieties I’m used to at SE Asia’s better reefs.
At Neil Island I only found one decent off-shore reef, which had about 50-70% live corals and somewhat larger fish populations.
For me, the reefs were barely worth snorkeling. So I completely skipped scuba diving.
According to the dive instructor at Neil Island’s sole dive shop, the reefs below 16-18 M were not damaged at all and are still intact. It might have been worth checking out a couple deeper dives, but the prices were double what they are in SE Asia. I wasn’t keen on paying double to experience questionably healthy reefs.
Summary:
As you can clearly see, my visit to the Andamans was truly a mixed bag of great experiences and disappointing / annoying realities. Here’s a summary of the good and bad points about the Andamans, from my perspective:
gorgeous trees lining a beach at LIttle Andaman
Good points:
The nature is amazing, especially the massive trees and primary forests. I don’t often get to see such gorgeous trees.
Few visitors meant near-empty beaches, roads and forests. It’s quiet and relaxing.
Delicious Indian food is available at bungalow resorts catering to westerners
Thatched bungalows cost as little as 200 rp per night
Cycling under shady trees along near-empty roads is very enjoyable
the islands are absolutely safe.
Local islanders are mostly quite friendly
Awesome Helicopter ride
natural rock arch at Neil Island – Andamans
Bad points:
Sand fleas on the beaches
Must wait a long time to eat
Coral reefs are destroyed
Bungalow resort set-ups not ideal
Conclusions:
I’m definitely very happy that I finally visited the Andaman Islands. I got a real 1-month vacation completely immersed in nature. I got a great tan, did a lot of exercise, lost weight, got more fit and de-stressed. And I finally fulfilled a long-standing travel dream. For me, it was worth going simply to satisfy my curiosity, ride a helicopter and see the trees.
with dogs at Little Andaman
However, I’m not sure I would eagerly recommend the Andamans as a travel destination. Flights costs at least $200-400 US Rtn to fly there and back from mainland India. Although nature is quite magnificent, the coral reefs are decimated and other less-than-ideal conditions make the worth of visiting questionable, in my opinion.
Several very similar islands still exist in SE Asia, all of which are much easier, faster and less expensive to access.
I certainly have no desire to return to the Andamans. Once was enough to satisfy my curiosity. If the reefs were still in pristine condition instead of decimated, I might feel quite differently.
I wish I had a much more glowing report about the Andamans, but there’s the facts and personal perspectives.
QUESTIONS:
If you’ve been to the Andamans, what was your experience?
Do you recommend going?
If you haven’t been there, does my trip experiences change your ideas about visiting?
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Hi! I'm Lash, an American nomadic world traveler who's been traveling solo since 1998. I’m passionate about traveling the world nomadically and then sharing it all with you. I hope to inspire you to travel the world, to entertain you with tales from the road, and to help you reach your travel dreams. Welcome! 
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