How To Get To To Neil Island In Andamans

If you want to visit Neil Island in the Andamans, you will probably have to travel to Havelock from Port Blair first. The ferries to Neil Island from Port Blair are infrequent and as of right now, there seem to be none. So you will have to go to Havelock first and then catch a ferry from there to Neil Island.
 
I am guessing the the main reason for this is more people traveling to Havelock than Neil from Port Blair. Even the people who plant to visit Neil Island, mostly go to Havelock first. Thats just how most travel itineraries are made.
 
I remember when we went towards the end of 2017, there were ferries plying to both Havelock and Neil from Port Blair. The ferries to Neil were fewer but they were there. I remember while planning our travel itinerary we had to decide which island to go to first Neil or Havelock. Neil Island is well know for scuba and snorkelling because of it’s beautiful coral reefs.
 
As of the time of writing this post, there seem to be no direct ferries from Port Blair to Neil Island. So plan your trip to go to Havelock first, go to Neil from there and catch a boat back to Port Blair from Neil Island.
 
Check out the travel schedules of the ferries online. You will get to know how many ferries are going between which islands. The main ferries go between Port Blair, Neil and Havelock. There are many other smaller islands that lie a few miles off shore of these islands. The local tour boats will take you there. 
 
Neil Island lies almost halfway between Port Blair and Havelock. It is smaller than Havelock and offers less… or more.. depending on how you look at it. If you thought Havelock was a quiet place, Neil will out do it by far. It is really quiet a small island and you can from one end to another in probably one hour.
 
The main beach is the beach you see when you get off the ferry, where the main dock is.  It offers all kinds of water sports activities. We couldn’t really explore the beaches  or the activities because the area at that time was feeling the effects of a close by cyclone and all activities had been shut down. There was no one on the beach in the morning apart from us.
 
Apart from that there is a beach that the locals call the sunrise beach. But like all other sunrise and sunset beaches, it has the same thing to offer. It’s just something to say to the tourists to make a beach interesting. More on that later in other posts about the individual islands. Neil island also has the famous ‘natural bridge’ on a rocky and coral beach. You will have already seen many pictures of it online.
 
Earlier using a sea plane used to be an option, but from this year sea planes have been discontinued. Another option is to book a private boat. This is of course a more expensive option but will make financial sense if you are traveling in a larger group of people.
 
However, at the end of the day, going to Neil Island via Havelock after spending a few days there first, makes perfect sense as well.

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