Must-Do Activities in Andaman

If you do one thing in the Andamans, make it this. A try dive, also called a discover dive, needs no swimming. You get a short briefing in shallow water, then an instructor takes you down to the reef and stays with you the whole time.

Havelock has the most dive centres and the best sites. If you want a certification, an Open Water course there takes about three to four days. Keep at least a day between your last dive and your flight home.

You float on the surface with a mask and life jacket while a guide tows you over the reef. Parrotfish, clownfish and brain coral are all within a few feet of you.

North Bay is the easy option from Port Blair. Elephant Beach on Havelock has more coral, and Jolly Buoy has the clearest water of all when it is open.

You wear a heavy helmet that is fed with air from the boat, climb down a ladder and walk along the seabed a few metres below the surface. You breathe normally and your face stays dry, so it suits people who wear glasses or are nervous in water.

Guides walk with you and hand you fish food, so the fish come right up to the glass.

By day you paddle through mangrove creeks with a guide. The night trip is the one people talk about afterwards. Tiny plankton in the water glow blue-green when your paddle or hand moves through it.

The glow is strongest on nights with little or no moon, so check the moon calendar when you book. It is very faint on a full moon night.

You are strapped into a harness under a parachute and a speedboat pulls you up over the bay. From up there you can see the reef as darker patches under the turquoise water.

It depends on the wind, so rides are often stopped on rough days. Book it early in your trip so you have a spare day if it gets cancelled.

Short, fast and loud. The banana boat is the group favourite: four or five of you sit on an inflatable tube, a speedboat pulls it round the bay and then tips everyone into the water.

Corbyn's Cove is the handiest spot, about 15 to 20 minutes from Aberdeen Bazaar, so it fits easily into your arrival day.

For grandparents, small children or anyone who would rather not get wet. The glass panel in the floor of the boat lets you look straight down at the coral in shallow water.

The semi-submarine goes a little further out and has a lower deck with windows below the waterline, so you see the reef from the side.

Most visitors go to Elephant Beach by boat, but you can also walk there through the forest from the main road near Radhanagar. The trail crosses tall trees, a muddy stretch and a section of mangrove before it comes out on the beach.

Wear shoes that can get wet and start in the morning. After heavy rain the path gets very slippery.

Radhanagar faces west, and the sun goes down straight into the sea at the end of a long, wide curve of white sand. Get there an hour early for a swim in the flagged area while the lifeguards are still on duty.

On Neil, Laxmanpur Beach is the sunset spot, and the Natural Rock Formation at its far end is worth a walk at low tide.

Chidiya Tapu means "bird island". The forest here runs right down to the shore, and in the early morning you can spot parakeets, white-bellied sea eagles and several birds found only in the Andamans.

Come back in the evening for the sunset from Munda Pahad beach. Swimming is not allowed here.

A long day, but a very different one. You drive north, cross to Baratang by vehicle ferry, then take a speedboat through a narrow mangrove creek and walk the last stretch to the caves, where the stalactites hang from the roof.

The road passes through the Jarawa Tribal Reserve. Stopping, taking photos and offering food are not allowed on that stretch.

The show tells the story of the freedom fighters held here by the British, told with lights and voice-over in the jail courtyard. Walk around the wings during the day and come back for the show the same evening.

Tickets for the show sell out in peak season, so book in advance where you can.