Andaman Islands

The scene is small and land-based. Most divers stay on Havelock, with Neil as the quieter alternative, and centres run a two-tank morning off boats launched from the beach or the jetty, adding an afternoon dive or a course session after lunch. Boats are open and the crossings to the island sites are short. The pace is unhurried, and the usual pattern is a few days of diving folded into a beach trip rather than a dedicated week of three tanks a day.

Depths are modest, with most of the diving between about 5 and 30 m, and current is usually manageable, so the same pinnacle runs as a gentle drift one day and a static circuit the next. Visibility swings with the season and the rain, from around 10 m in the shoulder months to 30 m on the best days. The sand between the reefs is where the small life sits, and several sites are dived slowly for that alone rather than for any wide-angle view.

Barren Island is the outlier: a long open-sea crossing east of the main group to black sand slopes and steep volcanic rock, run as a full day or an overnight and only in settled weather, with landing on the island itself generally off limits. The season governs the rest. The southwest monsoon from June through September brings rough seas and rain and most operators simply stop, while December through March is the calm, clear stretch and April into May tails off. It suits divers who want quiet reefs and do not mind modest infrastructure.