Country shortlist

Best snorkeling in India

The Double Fathom shortlist for India, ranked — 1 catalog destination. The grouping is ours; every rank and tagline is the catalog’s own.

India appears in our catalog as the Andaman Islands, and that is the whole of our coverage: this is a Bay of Bengal archipelago a long way from the Indian mainland, reached by domestic flight to Port Blair. Havelock's shallow coral gardens deliver up to 40 metres of visibility in bath-warm water, with clownfish, turtles and parrotfish metres from the sand, and the Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park rests its two richest reefs by rotating Jolly Buoy and Red Skin. It is a rare world-class reef that still carries almost none of the Western tourist traffic of South-East Asia's famous sites.

What we cover — and what we don’t

Where we cover India: the Andaman Islands only — Elephant Beach on Havelock, North Bay Island near Port Blair and the marine-park islands of Jolly Buoy and Red Skin — as one destination with three sites. That is a small slice of a large country: the Indian mainland, the Lakshadweep islands and every other Indian coast are not in this catalog. Two things belong on this page rather than in a footnote. First, the permit reality: the restricted-area permit was lifted for the main tourist circuit in 2018, but nationals of Afghanistan, China and Pakistan still need one, and separate Forest Department permits still govern the marine national park islands. Second, nothing here is a safety, security or immigration assessment — check your own government's current position and the current Indian visa and arrival formalities before you plan.

The ranked India shortlist

In catalog rank order. Rank, taglines and “best for” notes are the catalog’s own; each destination page and guide goes deeper.

Andaman Islands, India

India’s undiscovered reef

40 m viz · Coral gardens · Crowd-free

Havelock’s shallow coral gardens in bath-warm water — up to 40 m visibility on the best days, and almost none of Southeast Asia’s traffic.

India’s Andaman archipelago is the Bay of Bengal’s best-kept snorkeling secret: Havelock Island’s shallow coral gardens deliver up to 40 m of visibility in bath-warm water, with clownfish, turtles and parrotfish metres from the sand, and almost none of the Western tourist traffic of Southeast Asia’s famous reefs. This is the rare "world’s best" destination that still feels undiscovered. Plan around the monsoon: roughly June to September the seas roughen, boat and marine-park trips are frequently suspended and ferry schedules get disrupted.

Andaman Islands, India destination guide →Best Snorkeling in the Andaman Islands →

Part of the regional shortlist

This country sits inside the Indo-Pacific — the wider grouping the ranked catalog uses.

Best snorkeling in the Indo-Pacific →

Other countries on the shortlist

Each country page groups the ranked catalog by country and states plainly what this catalog covers — and what it does not.

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