Which Andaman island should you stay on

Almost everyone flies into Port Blair and almost nobody should stay there for the whole trip. The islands worth your nights are a boat ride away, and the boat ride is the thing most itineraries get wrong.

First: the names changed

In December 2018 three islands were officially renamed:

| You will see | Officially | | ------------ | ------------------------------------ | | Havelock | Swaraj Dweep | | Neil | Shaheed Dweep | | Ross | Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Dweep |

Both names are still in daily use. Tickets, timetables and government signage tend to use the new ones; almost everyone speaking to you will use the old ones. They are the same places — worth knowing before you decide a ferry company has sold you a ticket to somewhere else.

The three, and what each is for

Port Blair — the door, not the destination

The airport is here, the harbour is here, and every ferry starts here. It is a working town rather than a resort, and the reason to give it time is history rather than water: the Cellular Jail is here, and it is the reason a lot of Indian visitors come at all.

Stay one night at each end of the trip — the night you land, and the night before you fly out. Ferries leave early, flights leave early, and being on the wrong island the evening before either is how people miss both.

Swaraj Dweep (Havelock) — where most trips actually happen

The largest of the tourist islands and the one with the most in the water. If your trip has diving in it, this is almost certainly where the diving is.

It is also the busiest. In January and February you are not going to have a beach to yourself, and the boats fill.

Give it the most nights. Two is enough to see it. Three lets one of them be lost to weather without losing the trip.

Shaheed Dweep (Neil) — smaller, slower, quieter

Much smaller, much quieter, and the pace is genuinely different. People who find Swaraj Dweep too busy come here; people who want a lot of options do not.

One or two nights. It is small enough that more starts to feel like a lot.

How long the boats take

From Port Blair:

• To Swaraj Dweep — around 1.5 to 2.5 hours, depending on the boat.
• To Shaheed Dweep — anywhere from under 2 hours to around 3, again depending on which service.

Between Swaraj Dweep and Shaheed Dweep is the short hop, and it is the one that makes a two-island trip work.

Timetables change by season and by operator, and sailings are cancelled in bad weather. Treat every number above as a planning estimate and confirm the actual departure when you book it.

The mistake worth avoiding

The common itinerary is one night in Port Blair, two on Swaraj Dweep, one on Shaheed Dweep, one back in Port Blair. On paper it is five nights. In practice it is four ferry journeys, and each one eats a morning.

If you have five nights, two islands is a good trip and three is a lot of boat. If you have a week, three is comfortable.

And if the sea is up — see when to visit — the ferries are the first thing to go. An itinerary with no slack in it is an itinerary that breaks on the first bad morning.