[debmum]

Congrats Samba, on your marriage! What a great way to start a life-long union of love, respect and caring for each-other with a trip to India's very own heaven on earth, the Andamans. Stay blessed! Your photography and writing skills have an endearing quality that keeps them unique. I was really touched by your sweet love story that attained its logical consummation with the serene Andamans as the lovely backdrop. Wish you a blissful married life ahead!

[VMB]

Excellent travelogue Samba...This is an inspiration to everyone out here..And congrats on your marriage

[Samba]

Originally Posted by debmum

Congrats Samba, on your marriage! What a great way to start a life-long union of love, respect and caring for each-other with a trip to India's very own heaven on earth, the Andamans. Stay blessed! Your photography and writing skills have an endearing quality that keeps them unique. I was really touched by your sweet love story that attained its logical consummation with the serene Andamans as the lovely backdrop. Wish you a blissful married life ahead!

Thanks a lot and glad to know you liked my travelogue.

Originally Posted by VMB

Excellent travelogue Samba...This is an inspiration to everyone out here..And congrats on your marriage

Thanks a lot.

I would say i didn't repent a bit after the Andaman trip as we missed out on Maldives. Andaman is really one of the best place to visit in India and i must say the beach at Jolly Buoy island was one of the best beach i visited till date. I had been to Goa and Kerala and other sea sides a number of times. They are really beautiful but if any one asks me to rate the 3 best beaches of India i would rate the Jolly Buoy island followed by St marries island Udupi then Om beach Gokarna. Its entirely my take. Opinions can definitely vary from person to person.


Just for reference am attaching few pics of other wonderful beaches of India.

Jolly Buoy Island.



St Marries Island Udupi



Om Beach Gokarna



Three of my other favorite beaches.

Goa.






Alleppy



Puri sea beach

[onkar1710]

@Samba, , greetings of the day!

1. Best wishes for a happy married life!

2. Now that you have completed the tour, can you reflect upon the ideal itenerary for a family with kids?

3. How good or bad can be the cruise ship option to travel to the Andamans?

4. Is there any economical way to carry one's car (!!!) to the Andamans? Would love to be on board my own car there!

Regards!

[Samba]

Originally Posted by onkar1710

@Samba, , greetings of the day!

1. Best wishes for a happy married life!

2. Now that you have completed the tour, can you reflect upon the ideal itenerary for a family with kids?

3. How good or bad can be the cruise ship option to travel to the Andamans?

4. Is there any economical way to carry one's car (!!!) to the Andamans? Would love to be on board my own car there!

Regards!

Thanks.

Let me try to reply all your queries.

2) As you will be going with your kids so for the purpose of education i will suggest you a visit to the cellular jail is must and do not miss the light and sound show in the English version. Ross Island and North bay has something related to history too. Whether you want to visit the land of jarwa or not its entirely your take. I was not that much interested on seeing the jarwa's so i skipped it. Now the places you must visit is Jollybuoy island/ redskin from Portblair. Give at least 2 nights at Havelock and one night at Neil island. Neils is the wilder version of Havelock. So you can arrange the number of days like this.
Day1- Reach PortBlair and visit the cellular jail.
Day2- a trip to Jollybuoy Island and visit wandur beach while returning.
Day3- Port Blair to Havelock.
Day4- Havelock
Day5- Havelock to Neil Island
Day6- Neil Island to Port Blair
Day 7- Visit Jarwa's or North Bay/ ross island. It will depend on your priority.
Day 8 - return.

3) You will get enough cruise at Andaman moving from one island to other. So i will suggest save the time by going on a flight and utilize the extra time to see extra places around Andaman. Plus i have hard a lot about sea sickness so am not sure how your kids will couple up with the long journey on the Sea.

4) It wont be a good option. As PortBlair is a small city the maximum stretch you can drive will be less than 50kms one way. Then again taking your car by ferry to Havelock will be troublesome and Havelock is a small island too. Its hardly 20kms end to end. Plus if you want you can hire self driven four wheeler or two wheeler at Havelock. Then again you have to ferry your car to Neil and Neil is an island whose entire length is only 7 kms! So the amount you spend on ferrying your car you cant gent enough drive to enjoy it. So i would say against it.

If you have any more queries please ask me.

[Apple Master]

This is a beautiful and detailed travelogue. A guide for anyone planning to visit Andaman, which includes me. Thank you Samba for sharing your experience.

Wishing you again a happy and prosperous married life.

[sansvk]

Wow really inspired by this travelogue, this should get me going. Never thought Andaman's would be so beautiful. Wondering why I paid so much to visit Bali.

[Samba]

Originally Posted by Apple Master

This is a beautiful and detailed travelogue. A guide for anyone planning to visit Andaman, which includes me. Thank you Samba for sharing your experience.

Wishing you again a happy and prosperous married life.

Originally Posted by sansvk

Wow really inspired by this travelogue, this should get me going. Never thought Andaman's would be so beautiful. Wondering why I paid so much to visit Bali.

Thanks to both of you. And definitely i would say Andaman is worth giving a visit. When you plan to visit, if you need any information please feel free to ask me or PM me.

Regarding Bali i would say its worth it. In future if i get a chance will definitely give Bali a visit too.

[alphadog]

Thank you for sharing an amazing travelogue with narration and pictures that were truly outstanding. It is very nice of you to share the details of costs, hotels etc.
I am in the process of shortlisting destinations to celebrate 10 years of marriage and after reading your travelogue Andamans features quite high up there.
Thank you once again and wishing you a very happy and prosperous married life.

[pgupta]

Amazing TL. Particularly the photos are super. Although it's becoming a common destination at least in West Bengal I never had an opportunity to get some info about the places to visit. And thanks to your TL it's on my 'soon to do list' now.

[Samba]

Originally Posted by alphadog

Thank you for sharing an amazing travelogue with narration and pictures that were truly outstanding. It is very nice of you to share the details of costs, hotels etc.
I am in the process of shortlisting destinations to celebrate 10 years of marriage and after reading your travelogue Andamans features quite high up there.
Thank you once again and wishing you a very happy and prosperous married life.

Thanks a lot. Really glad to know it helped you in choosing your destination.

Originally Posted by pgupta

Amazing TL. Particularly the photos are super. Although it's becoming a common destination at least in West Bengal I never had an opportunity to get some info about the places to visit. And thanks to your TL it's on my 'soon to do list' now.

Thanks lot.


Just one thing i like to share about Andaman is, this place is getting infested by many unruly tourists. I have seen tourists dancing with loud music and hard drinks on the beach in late night(At Havelock). That totally spoils the serenity of the beach. Apart from these we have witnessed few tourists chatting among themselves with extra loud voice and they are all laughing among themselves with in the cruise. They don't even bother that they might be disturbing others. They were more interested to see a music video from Chennai express rather than seeing the sea from the cruise! Throwing plastic packets or fruit peels on the clean roads and beaches have become common. Thank god the government has appointed people to clean them. As these kind of tourists have started visiting Andaman am afraid the place will lose its serenity and will become much more commercialized in the next few years. Its high time government takes strict measures against these unruly tourists or else it will become the 2nd Goa. Beauty with unruly tourists.

So i would say if any one has a plan to visit Andaman get the trip done shortly before the place becomes too commercialized and unruly by bad tourists and it loses on its beauty.

[saildrive]

Hi friends

We friends and family are due to visit Andaman in the first week of June 2015

A total of 14 adults and 8 kids are due to leave Mumbai on 8th and back on 14th June

Needed a small and urgent help; we are getting the two options in terms of stay:
1) Haywizz in Port Blair and Havelock Inn Beach resort in Havelock
OR
2) Shompen in Port Blair and Symphony in Havelock

Let me know which of these two are the best options.

If not it would be great if you suggest me with the best options available for Port Blair and Havelock respectively; since we have kids it would be great if there is a place closer to the beach and safe too!

Wait for your urgent revert. Hope to hear from you soon.

Cheers
S

[Samba]

Originally Posted by saildrive

Hi friends

We friends and family are due to visit Andaman in the first week of June 2015

A total of 14 adults and 8 kids are due to leave Mumbai on 8th and back on 14th June

Needed a small and urgent help; we are getting the two options in terms of stay:
1) Haywizz in Port Blair and Havelock Inn Beach resort in Havelock
OR
2) Shompen in Port Blair and Symphony in Havelock

Let me know which of these two are the best options.

If not it would be great if you suggest me with the best options available for Port Blair and Havelock respectively; since we have kids it would be great if there is a place closer to the beach and safe too!

Wait for your urgent revert. Hope to hear from you soon.

Cheers
S

We stayed in Hotel Haywizz at Port Blair. Its a good hotel with decent cosy rooms and very good food.

Regarding Havelock Inn and Symphony i have no idea about these hotels. For reviews on these hotels, it will be best if you check there reviews in trip advisor. http://www.tripadvisor.in/

At Havelock we stayed in Wild Orchid and without doubt it was amazing. The beach was excellent, the room was nice & comfortable and the food was really excellent or super tasty! If i visit Havelock again in future i will choose Wild Orchid again! Plus this resort has got ample of space for the kids too.

[AJ-got-BHP]

A wonderful travelogue Samba !!

Do not know how I missed this post and that it recently came to my notice. It just made me relive my memories of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands which I had visited in the 90's in my younger days.

The photographs do complete justice to the beauty and the serenity of the place !!

The beach is one the best; rather it is as good as it gets amongst the best in the world.

Strange to know that some unwanted and ill spirited tourists are littering the natural beauty of the place and creating nuisance.

A must go place for everyone indeed to experience India out of India as rightly named by Samba. Kudos to you buddy !!