Neil Island (Shaheed Dweep)

Neil Island is small enough to cross on a bicycle in half an hour, and that is exactly how it should be seen. Bengali settlers cleared it in the late 1960s and named the villages after the Ramayana, Bharatpur, Laxmanpur, Sitapur and Ramnagar, and their banana, papaya and gourd plots still earn the island its nickname as the vegetable bowl of the Andamans. Boats dock beside Bharatpur Beach, where the reef begins a few metres from the sand and glass-bottom boats drift over staghorn coral and parrotfish; it is the easiest snorkelling in the islands for children and first-timers.

Laxmanpur, a fifteen-minute ride west, is a long shallow sweep for sunset, and a walk over the rock shelf at Laxmanpur Beach No. 2 leads at low tide to the Howrah Bridge, a natural coral arch standing over tidal pools full of urchins and small fish. On the far side, Sitapur Beach faces east into a limestone cliff and gets the first light of the day. In between there is very little to do beyond eating fish thalis at the roadside dhabas near the jetty, watching the cows walk home along the single tarred road, and listening to the island go quiet after nine at night.