Andaman Island Escape

Met at Veer Savarkar airport and driven ten minutes into town. Afternoon at the Cellular Jail, walking a corridor of cells built so that no prisoner faced another, then the gallows and the museum. Stay for the sound and light show in the courtyard at dusk. Before that, an hour at Corbyn's Cove for the first swim, and dinner of grilled snapper at a place near Aberdeen Bazaar.

Board the morning catamaran from Haddo wharf for the 70 km crossing to Havelock, about ninety minutes over water that turns from grey-green to turquoise as you leave the harbour. Check in, eat a fish thali with coconut and kokum, and spend the afternoon lying under the mahua trees at Radhanagar, Beach Number Seven, before the sun goes down straight into the Andaman Sea.

Up early for Kalapathar on the east coast, where black volcanic rock sits on white sand and the sun comes out of the sea. Mid-morning, a boat to the reef: a guided try-dive on the shallow coral of Nemo Reef for first-timers, or two certified dives at The Wall for those with a card, with snorkelling at Elephant Beach as the alternative. Afternoon free with a book and a hammock.

A short ferry, about forty minutes, to Neil Island. Snorkel straight off Bharatpur Beach, where the reef starts a few metres from the sand, or take the glass-bottom boat over the staghorn. Time the walk to Laxmanpur Number Two for low tide, when the natural coral arch locals call the Howrah Bridge stands clear of the water in a field of tide pools. Sunset from Laxmanpur, then a bicycle ride back through the paddy.

Morning ferry back to Port Blair, around ninety minutes. After lunch, take the launch to Ross, now Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Dweep, twenty minutes across the harbour: the ballroom, bakery, swimming pool and Presbyterian church of the old British headquarters, all held together by ficus roots, with spotted deer and peacocks walking the paths. Carry on to North Bay for a glass-bottom boat over the coral.

A last slow morning at the Samudrika Naval Marine Museum, which lays out the reef and the islands' tribal geography better than any guidebook, and at the Anthropological Museum nearby. Buy shell work and Andaman honey in Aberdeen Bazaar, eat a plate of fish curry and red rice, then transfer the four kilometres to the airport for the flight back to the mainland.