53 Best Places To Visit in Andaman & Nicobar in 2026

Your plane lands in Port Blair and, whether you like it or not, you will pass back through it between islands. Give it a full day at the start or end. It holds the islands’ history and most of the museums, and its jetties are where the North Bay and Ross Island boats leave from.

Cellular Jail National Memorial is the reason most people spend a first afternoon in town. The three surviving wings of the colonial-era prison still stand around the central tower, and the plaques naming the freedom fighters held here land harder than any museum caption. Come back after dark for the light and sound show, which retells the jail’s story on the walls themselves. Allow 2 to 3 hours, it is ticketed, and it is closed on Mondays.

Ross Island, now Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Dweep, is a 20-minute boat ride across the harbour. It was the British administrative headquarters until a 1941 earthquake, and the jungle has since swallowed the ballroom, church and bakery into photogenic ruins. Spotted deer and peacocks wander the paths. A boat ticket plus a small island entry fee gets you in; give it 2 to 3 hours.

North Bay Island is the water-sports hub near town and the easiest place to try the sea without a full Havelock trip. Sea walking on the reef floor, snorkelling and glass-bottom boat rides all run from here, and it is where most first-timers do their Discover Scuba. You pay a boat ticket plus per-activity charges, so it is worth booking activities as part of a customisable Andaman package rather than haggling at the jetty.

Chidiya Tapu, about 25 km south of Port Blair, is the sunset run locals make. The bird sanctuary road passes mudflats and mangroves good for birdwatching, and the point itself faces west for the day’s last light. Go in the late afternoon and it is free.

Corbyn’s Cove is the closest beach to the town centre, a curve of coconut palms about 15 minutes from the jetty. It is not the islands’ best sand, but it is an easy hour if a flight leaves you with a spare afternoon. The Rajiv Gandhi Water Sports Complex nearby runs jet skis and speed boats on a pay-per-ride basis.

Port Blair’s museum circuit rewards a slower traveller. The Anthropological Museum lays out the story of the islands’ indigenous tribes, the Samudrika Naval Marine Museum explains the reefs before you snorkel them, and the Forest Museum at Chatham Saw Mill, one of Asia’s oldest, covers the timber trade. Each is ticketed and takes an hour or so; the anthropological and marine museums close on Mondays, Chatham on Sundays. The quiet Sri Vetrimalai Murugan Temple and Viper Island, with its grim colonial gallows ruins reached by boat, round out the town’s stops. Rutland Island to the south is a quieter snorkelling day trip by charter, and Parrot Island, on the Baratang route, fills at dusk with thousands of roosting parakeets.

Havelock, officially Swaraj Dweep, is the beach island everyone pictures. It is a 1.5 to 2 hour ferry from Port Blair, and most people give it two nights. The dive shops here run two morning boats out to sites like the Aquarium and Lighthouse, and a beginner’s Discover Scuba is where a lot of first dives happen.

Radhanagar Beach, Beach No. 7, is the one on the postcards: a wide, pale curve backed by forest on Havelock’s west coast, about a 25-minute drive from the jetty. It is calm enough to swim and, because it faces due west, it is where everyone gathers at dusk. Aim to be there by 4 pm between November and April. It is free and lifeguard-patrolled.

Elephant Beach is the island’s snorkelling and water-sports beach, reached by a short boat ride or a 40-minute forest walk. The reef starts close to shore, and jet ski, sea walk, banana boat and glass-bottom rides all run here. You pay for the boat plus each activity, again cheaper folded into a package than bought on the sand. Kala Pathar, on the east coast, is quieter, named for the black rocks that frame it, and good for a slow morning. Vijaynagar Beach (Beach No. 5), lined with mahua trees, catches the sunrise and sits close to the island’s better resorts.

Neil, now Shaheed Dweep, is Havelock’s slower, smaller neighbour, about an hour further by ferry. A day and a night is plenty, and it is the island for travellers who found Havelock too busy.

Bharatpur Beach, right by the jetty, has the shallow, clear water that makes it Neil’s snorkelling and glass-bottom-boat beach; you can see coral without getting out of your depth, and rides are pay-as-you-go. Laxmanpur, a long white spit on the far side, is the sunset beach, good for a barefoot walk and shell-spotting at low tide. A short way along the same coast is Howrah Bridge, also called the Natural Rock Bridge, a coral arch the sea has carved out that is only exposed at low tide, so check the tide chart before you go.

North of Port Blair the islands turn wild. Baratang is the popular long day trip; beyond it, Middle Andaman is where the crowds thin to almost nothing.

Baratang Island is a full-day expedition and an early start, the road runs in a timed convoy through the Jarawa tribal reserve, so most trips leave before 9 am. The payoff is the Limestone Caves, reached by a mangrove-creek boat ride and a short walk to chambers of dripping stone formations, and the bubbling Baratang Mud Volcano nearby. Bring a guide for the caves and cash for the boat.

Push further and you reach the islands few tourists see. Long Island, a government ferry away, has no cars and one of the most secluded beaches in the archipelago at Lalaji Bay, reached by boat or a jungle trek. Merk Bay on North Passage Island has the kind of shallow, glass-clear water people fly to the Maldives for, and Guitar Island nearby is a quiet day-trip beach; both need a charter. Around Rangat, the roadside Amkunj Beach, Cuthbert Bay Wildlife Sanctuary (turtle nesting December to February), Panchavati Waterfalls after rain, and boat-only Stewart Island Beach reward the drive north. Karmatang Beach near Mayabunder is another turtle-nesting stretch, and Mayabunder itself is a quiet coastal stopover on the way to Diglipur.

Diglipur, at the top of the archipelago, is a 10 to 12 hour road journey or a ferry from Port Blair, so it is for travellers with time who want the islands at their emptiest. Give it a night or two.

The draw is Ross and Smith Islands, a pair of forested islands joined by a natural sandbar you can walk across at low tide, reached by boat with a forest-department permit. Saddle Peak National Park protects the archipelago’s highest point, a half-day trek best done with a guide, and the Diglipur Mud Volcanoes are the most active in the islands. Sitapur Beach catches a clean sunrise and the remote Pathi Level Beach has no facilities at all, just sand and sea, so carry your own water.

Some of the best reefs and the strangest sights in Andaman are only reachable by boat, and several sit inside protected zones with entry rules.

Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park off Wandoor protects the clearest coral gardens near Port Blair. The park runs ferries to either Jolly Buoy or Red Skin Island on alternating days to rest the reef; Jolly Buoy is plastic-free and generally open around November to May. Wandoor Beach itself is the free gateway, and Cinque Island, a diving and sandbar day trip further out, needs a boat and permit. Manglutan’s working rubber plantation is an easy inland stop on the way.

For the once-in-a-trip sight, Barren Island holds the only active volcano in South Asia, a full-day boat trip off the east coast; you cannot land, but you watch it smoke from the water with a permit. Little Andaman, a government ferry to the south, is the surf-and-waterfall island for travellers with days to spare. Aberdeen Bazaar back in Port Blair is worth an evening for grilled fish and island snacks and for shell, pearl and wood-craft shopping before you fly out.

The Nicobar Islands are largely off-limits to tourists, protecting indigenous communities and fragile ecology, and that is worth respecting rather than working around. Campbell Bay National Park on Great Nicobar, a rainforest reserve, opens only to researchers and permit-holders, so for almost every traveller the practical southern limit is Little Andaman and the boat trails around Wandoor. Treat the far south as something you read about, not a stop you squeeze in.