Andaman and Nicobar Islands - Tourism
 

More here:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/060116/15/xm72.html

I still have not gotten over there. :)

Air Sahara service to Andamans?
 

I've seen a few news articles on Air Sahara starting service to Port Blair this month; I can see the flights in ExpertFlyer, but I can't book on Air Sahara's site or any other site.

Apparently, this is likely to be an environmental disaster...
 

Time will tell if this is a good or bad thing...

An article in iafrica.com on the environmental impact of the move

There are probably not a lot of voters in the islands that can exert local political pressure for keeping it clean, while the resort developers stand to make a killing and can afford nice kickbacks for those who give them the permits.

We're planning on going to the Andamans in January, 5 nights in Port Blair/Havelock island. It was difficult finding seats in January! Apparently you can't use AA miles to get to Port Blair on S2, nor can you use airpasses on Indian Airlines or Jet Airways!

Any explanation of why Port Blair is not included as an AA redemption possibility? Air Sahara's own miles seem to be available for use on Air Sahara's flights to Port Blair, subject to availability, as far as I know.

Don't know.. I've called AA twice on this, both times the agents say they can see the flights (and according to ExpertFlyer, the B/R award classes are available), but they say the flight isn't eligible for awards. It's a new flight (just started a few weeks ago) so maybe they haven't added that route into the system? I haven't checked if awards to the Maldives are possible yet either (Air Sahara will fly there via Colombo).

When are they starting this flight? So will we be able to board the flight in DEL and get off in MLE or will it be a long stop over in CMB?

I was in MLE a few days back and the hotel staff were telling me that Jet are also starting a direct flight to MLE from BOM.

Great news! ^

Andaman & Nicobar is a territory in India and has the same diversity in culture with people from all over India living there. No muslim restriction stuff. Some parts of Nicobar which are populated by aborigines are off limits to outsiders to avoid them catching 'simple' diseases that can kill them.

Andaman is more developed in terms of tourism compared to Nicobar. As a foreigner, you need to register for a permit. This is done on landing in the airport with a mini immigration counter for foreigners. The officer fills out some paperwork with you and you are then free to roam a specified number of islands.

There are plenty of certified snorkeling and diving outfits in Andaman that will take you on day trips to islands that have amazing coral reefs and have been cleared for tourists to visit. Most parts of the nature reserve are no go areas to preserve the wild life and probably to prevent spying on the indian navy base(s).

I would suggest you buy a globetrotting guide like lonely planet and read up.
The tsunami destroyed a lot in the area, so be careful to verify info.

I went diving in the Andamans last January. We flew MAA-IXZ-MAA on Jet Airways, then took the ferry to Havelock Island.

The diving was very good, but facilities were VERY basic. We dove off a powered dinghy, that had shaken my teeth out by the time we'd spent 2 hrs on it to get to our dive site! Unfortunately my camera broke before I got to the Andamans so I don't have any underwater pics. Certainly a good variety of coral and fish. Is it worthwhile to go there just to dive? Not sure about that, I'm not the type to go somewhere just to dive, but will go if it is possible. I only did two dives while there.

Here is our trip report:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=656750

Visiting Andaman
 

Has anybody been to Andaman Islands in India...

Is it worth the hassel of getting there?

Any suggestions on where to stay?

To be perfectly honest, I'd never heard of it before this post.

I managed to find a little bit of information around the web, and it really doesn't look promising unless you're really up for a challenge. The main tourism website has dead links to hotel websites - so i can't even begin to suggest a place to stay.

It's tiny and there appear restrictions on everything. You need permission to go there, you can't photograph many things, there's rules on where you can be in daytime versus night time. etc..

Seems like a big hassle.

Best website i managed to find: http://www.diveandamans.com/home

Tiny islands with little tiny buildings dotted around them.

Please continue to follow this thread in the FT India Forum.
Thanks..
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

The andamans are beautiful, unspoiled .. you might try these.
http://www.makemytrip.com/holiday-pa...er-Andaman.htm

Also talk to an India specific travel agent like Cox and Kings or Thomas Cook

I've heard great things about it from a friend, and am planning a trip in April. While still well off the beaten path, the islands have become much more accessible in the last few years and are already transforming pretty fast. Permits are now available on-arrival at the airport and those islands open to tourism have no hassles, although infrastructure is still pretty bare-bones. A few of the really remote islands, eg. the Sentinels, are home to Stone Age tribes and off limits to everybody -- some researches were shot at by arrows when they tried to visit!

The best resource on the net, and even that's not saying very much, is probably Wikitravel:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Andaman_and_Nicobar
http://wikitravel.org/en/Havelock_Island

I stayed at Silversand Beach Resort at Havelock Islands. Pretty decent property with good location. Not the cleanest hotel though

My aunt and uncle used to live in Port Blair, and have told me that the Andamans are absolutely worth visiting. Unfortunately I wasn't able to make the trip while they were there. I gather that the tourism infrastructure is still relatively underdeveloped.

Need Suggestion about Andaman Trip!
 

Hello everybody, first time here taking suggestion from you, hope you people will give right suggestion.

I am planing to travel Andaman in Feb and March in 2014, my trip will be at least 7 days. The question is I am planing travel myself that means without taking help of any tour-operator. I wanna book air ticket and hotel through online.

Is it good to book everything by myself or i want take help of tour operator.

Check tripadvisor for which hotel, and search kayak.com or expedia or whatever for the airfare. You will need a visa to get to india - search google for your nearest indian consulate.

Pretty easy to do it yourself. You'll need to get yourself to Port Blair for starters, which will involve a domestic flight from one of the main Indian gateways (Chennai tends to be cheapest and with decent schedules but YMMV).

It may be easier to buy the mainland to Andaman flight separately, with a stopover on the mainland - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veer_Sa...tional_Airport for a list of airlines and routes. The Indian LCCs, particularly SpiceJet and IndiGo, are pretty decent in my experience.

Have a look at this trip report for some recent experience - skip the bit about the flight from London to get to the detail.

where will you be flying in from????

Going slightly off topic aren't the Indian government missing a trick by not trying to attract tourists to these islands directly from Malaysia and the region by allowing direct flights, instead of via Indian mainland?

Should visits to these islands be visa free? Even Iran allows visa free travel to Kish Island.

Has this been considered already?

make sure you get the right visa too - you have to get an additional endorsement for visiting andaman islands

You can get the Restricted Area Permit on arrival at Port Blair airport.

Booking hotels/tour packages in Andaman using miles and points
 

Hi Everyone,

I am planning a trip with my better half to Andaman for 5 days. I'm looking for ways to pay for a (luxury) hotel + activities with points. Does anyone have experience of booking such activities with points?

I have 30k aadvantage, 7k ultimate rewards, 50k amex membership rewards, and 15k JetPrivilege points. I have considered and discarded the following ideas:

1. Buying airbnb vouchers
2. Using miles for budget hotels. If we need to stay in one, it probably makes sense to just use the card and preserve the points for bigger and better things.

Specifically, is there a way to use any of the points above for ITC?

Do UR or MR points transfer to Starwood? If so, Starwood partners with ITC.

not all itc properties....just the ones that are part of luxury collection....

UR can be changed to SPG. The issue is, I have changed my CSP card to Freedom to avoid the annual fee. And MR has a terrible conversion rate.

What I'm thinking of doing is booking a budget hotel using agoda.com and raking in a few AAdvantage or JP Miles

Any international flights to Port Blair (IXZ), Andamans?
 

Looks like the airport is an international one, but I can't seem to find any flights to other countries. Since the islands are so close to other holiday spots like Thailand and Singapore, I'm surprised this is still not possible. Anyone know if the govt is restricting this or airlines don't think it will be profitable?

Andaman is a strategic/naval base for India plus there are lots of indigenous tribes etc. there that India has left generally undisturbed. So probably of combination of everything. There are very few flights today to IXZ But this probably more than double what it was a few years ago.

I can't remember IXZ ever having allowed international flights.

No scheduled international flights at present but there are occasional charter flights.

There is limited infrastructure for tourism on these islands.

Even otherwise, being an international airport doesn’t necessarily mean an airport has scheduled or even charter international flights available for tourism purposes.

Andaman is very very nice and would be ideal for tourism. As is Lakshadweep (north of the Maledives).
BUT

Due to the strategic military importance and (partly) to save the pristine nature the Indian government doesn't actively promote tourism in these islands. Having anything close to the shoreline for example is not allowed anywhere in India, overwater bugalows like in the Maledives would be an absolute no go. The Indian tourist that venture there have very little respect for nature either, I recall an Andaman snorkeling tour we did in the 90s where people had no clue about the preciousness of the nature they were experiencing.

In a way I'm happy things are the way they are. The main island is overrun with government and military families and the local tribes are being sidelined in a bad way. If tourism picks up the situation will be worse. That said I doubt anyone from S.E. Asia would vacation in India? ;)

Am I right in thinking the airport is still a commissioned frigate in the Indian Navy?

Visiting the islands has something I have wanted to do for a while - especially if I get a window seat to take snaps of North Sentinel

Yes it's called INS Utkrosh even though it's a naval airbase.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/INS_Utkrosh

INS used to stand for Indian Naval Ship but I guess that term is flexible :)

They'll be following old RN custom of "stone frigates" in that respect...

BA offer a connection to there in partnership with Vistara, so that'll be an interesting one for the logbook

What does tourism have to do military issues? I can understand military places that are ultra-secretive and in such cases there is no tourism in the area at all. But its clear there is some tourism.

It looks like new trains have been planned. Is that something new or something that has always been promised but never delivered?

All things tourist in India tend to get messed up by mass domestic tourism and other things the Indian government encourages when its favorites are given preferential access to the prized cows to milk the cow and the public. Kashmir is a case in point on the direction that Andaman and Nicobar islands would go with mass tourism being opened up. But for now the GOI and its favorites can make far more money on the mainland, and so the Andaman and Nicobar islands are spared and used as a convenient propaganda piece about “pristine” India.

It’s always stood for Indian naval ship or Indian naval station as far as I used to hear it from the senior military brass that were my neighbors near Khan Market in Delhi.

I think Lakshadweep is a preferred target for those resigned to take their honeymoon within India's borders. We had a half-hearted plan to visit some years back (not as honeymooners :D), but got put off by the requirement to get special permission. Tiresome though not insurmountable, but life's too short..

I think Andaman is unlikely to have the same attraction for Indian newly-weds, and some form of protected area permits are required, with certainly a more serious version of PAP for the remoter islands. The murder of an American missionary on one of those remote islands a few years' back is unlikely to encourage tourism: and for their own reasons, the indian government is perferctly happy with that status quo.