Andaman Islands

The Andamans are the exposed tops of a submarine mountain chain, and they behave like it: steep forested interiors, fringing reef within swimming distance of the sand, and water that stays around 28°C all year. Port Blair is the entry point and holds the Cellular Jail, completed in 1906, whose surviving wings and the evening account given there are the reason to spend a first day in town rather than rushing to a ferry.

Swaraj Dweep — most people still say Havelock — is the centre of gravity. Radhanagar on its western side is a long, shelving, almost empty beach; the dive sites off the eastern shore run from shallow coral gardens suitable for a first open-water dive to walls and wrecks for logged divers. Shaheed Dweep, the old Neil Island, is smaller, flatter and slower, and the better place to end a week.

When to go. November to May, with visibility usually best from January to April. The south-west monsoon from late May to September brings heavy rain and cancelled ferries. Parts of the archipelago are protected tribal reserve and are not open to visitors — that is not a formality, and we do not run anything near them.