Most people who message us about island hopping think Havelock and Neil are the whole story. They are not even half of it. Havelock sits inside a group of more than fifteen islands called Ritchie’s Archipelago, and beyond the two famous ones there is a ring of empty islands that most tourists never see: South Button, the Lawrence islands, Inglis, and a few rocky outcrops most tour packages skip entirely.
I run a dive centre in Havelock, and our boats go out to these islands almost every week in season. So this is the real version of island hopping here: which islands you can visit, what it costs, the permits nobody warns you about, and when the sea simply says no.
What Ritchie’s Archipelago actually is
Ritchie’s Archipelago is the cluster of islands sitting about 20 km east of the main Andaman landmass, in the Bay of Bengal. The big names are Havelock (officially Swaraj Dweep) and Neil (Shaheed Dweep). Around them sit Outram, Henry Lawrence, John Lawrence, Sir William Peel, Wilson, Nicholson, Rose, Inglis, and the three Button islands: North, Middle, and South Button.
Havelock and Neil have jetties, hotels, scooters, and ferries. Almost everything else in the archipelago is uninhabited and protected. No resorts, no shops, no overnight stays. You visit by boat for the day, you follow the rules, and you leave it exactly as you found it. Honestly, that is the whole appeal. These islands look the way Havelock probably looked fifty years ago.
One thing I should clear up, because tour packages get this wrong all the time: Ross and Smith islands are not in Ritchie’s Archipelago. They are up in Diglipur, in North Andaman, hundreds of kilometres away. If a package bundles them into a Havelock island hopping day, ask more questions.
The islands, in plain terms
Here is how I would describe each one to a guest sitting in our dive shop.
Havelock is the base. This is where you stay, eat, dive, and start every trip from. Radhanagar Beach is here, the dive shops are here, and our centre is a few minutes from the jetty in Govind Nagar.
Neil is the slow island, about 18 km south of Havelock, still farmland and paddy fields between the beaches. Bharatpur for water sports, Laxmanpur for sunset, Sitapur for sunrise, and the Natural Bridge rock formation at low tide. Many honeymoon couples end up liking it more than Havelock.
South Button is a tiny rock in the sea, one of the smallest national parks in India, and the water around it is some of the clearest I have seen anywhere in the Andamans. The reef starts shallow and drops into deep blue. This is the island I tell people to pick if they can only do one.
Henry Lawrence and John Lawrence are big, forest-covered islands just east of Havelock, 54 and 35 square kilometres of mangrove and jungle with almost zero visitors. Shallow coral patches close to shore, beaches with nobody on them.
Inglis is a white-sand island further east with a snorkel reef sitting in just 2 to 4 m of water. It is often the first stop on our private charters because even complete non-swimmers can float over the reef in a life jacket and see everything.
Long Island sits just north of the archipelago, technically in Middle Andaman, but for a Havelock-based traveller it works as the far end of the same trip. Locals call it the blue planet of the Andamans. More on it below.
How an island hopping trip with us works
We run island hopping trips from Havelock on our own boats, with our own crew. The outer islands are not on any ferry route, so a chartered boat is the only way to reach them.
A typical trip leaves Havelock early, when the sea is at its calmest, and cruises east past the Button islands. We stop near South Button for snorkelling, pass the Lawrence islands, and turn back after lunch. Half-day trips run around 4 to 5 hours, full-day trips around 7 to 8 hours. Snorkelling gear, life jackets, drinking water, light refreshments, and GoPro photos and videos are included, and a guide is in the water with you at every stop.
On cost: a shared group trip is about ₹7,000 plus 18% GST per person, and a private charter for the whole boat (up to 8 people) is ₹40,000 plus GST. That sounds like a lot next to a ₹1,500 ferry ticket, and it is. You are paying for a boat, fuel, crew, and permits to reach islands that have no other way in. If you want something lighter on the pocket, our Elephant Beach and Havelock island hopping trip stays closer to home and costs much less.
Message us your dates before you finalise anything, because permits need lead time. Which brings me to the next part.
Permits and rules nobody warns you about
Havelock and Neil are easy. Indian travellers just need a government photo ID for ferries and hotels. Foreign travellers no longer need the old Restricted Area Permit for the main inhabited islands either, under the current rules that run till the end of 2027. A valid passport and visa is enough, and your hotel handles the registration paperwork.
The protected outer islands are a different matter. South Button, the Lawrence islands, and Inglis all need special-area permits from the Forest Department. These cost ₹500 per person for Indians and ₹2,500 for foreigners, per site, and they usually have to be arranged three to five days in advance. When you book with us, we handle this. If you are planning independently, do not turn up at the jetty expecting to sort it on the day. It does not work that way.
A few rules on the islands themselves, and they are enforced properly:
- No landing on South Button. Boats anchor off the reef and you snorkel or take a dinghy. The shallow coral shelf is the reason.
- No overnight stays, no littering, no touching coral. Standard reef behaviour, the way any real diver behaves anyway.
- There is a small camera fee at South Button, around ₹50, and it is cash only. There is no payment machine floating in the sea. Carry some cash.
- The islands have fixed visiting hours, roughly sunrise to sunset, and the Forest Department does check.
These rules are why the reefs out there still look the way they do. I am completely fine with them.
South Button: the one I would pick
If your budget allows one outer-island trip, make it South Button from Havelock. The boat ride is about two hours each way, which sounds long until you are out there with flying fish skipping off the bow and not another boat in sight.
The island itself is just a green-topped rock. The point is what is under the surface. The water is deep and clean, the hard and soft coral walls are healthy, and on a good day you can hang at the surface in a life jacket and watch the reef fall away below you into blue. Snorkellers see plenty. Certified divers see more, and we arrange South Button dives for divers who want something beyond the home reefs. If you have not seen those yet, start with the dive sites in Havelock first. They are ten minutes from the jetty, not two hours.
Long Island, if you want the full day out
Long Island from Havelock is the big one. The government ferry route from Port Blair takes five to seven hours with multiple stops, which is why almost nobody goes. From Havelock, a direct boat covers the roughly 30 nautical miles in about two hours each way, so the whole thing fits in a single day.
The prize is Lalaji Bay Beach: a long, empty stretch of white sand that you otherwise reach by a 1.5 to 2 hour jungle trek from the Long Island jetty, or a short boat hop. The island has one small eco-resort and a handful of guest houses, and that is the entire tourism industry there. If you want to know what the Andamans felt like before Instagram, this is the trip.
For the most ambitious people, we also run trips to Barren Island, India’s only active volcano. It is not part of Ritchie’s Archipelago and it is a serious full-day expedition. Worth a separate conversation on WhatsApp.
When to come, and when the sea says no
From roughly November to March the sea here is flat, ferries run on time, and underwater visibility is at its best, often 15 to 25 m. This is when island hopping is easiest, and also when prices and crowds peak. October and April to May are the shoulder months: still good most days, fewer people.
June to September is the southwest monsoon, and I will not dress it up. Swells in the open sea can build to 3 or 4 m, afternoon ferries get merged or cancelled, and outer-island trips often cannot run at all. Visibility in the water drops to 5 to 8 m. If you are travelling in monsoon, keep your plans flexible, do your boat trips in the morning, and never plan a Havelock-to-Port-Blair ferry on the same day as your flight home. Keep at least one buffer day. People get stranded every single July because of this.
One tip that applies all year: book morning departures. The Bay of Bengal is noticeably calmer before 11 am, and morning crossings have far fewer seasick passengers. If you go green on a winding bus road, take a motion-sickness tablet half an hour before boarding. No shame, half my crew does the same.
Hopping between Havelock and Neil on your own
You do not need us for the Havelock-Neil leg. Private catamaran ferries (Nautika, Makruzz, Green Ocean, ITT Majestic) do the crossing in 45 to 90 minutes depending on the boat, with fares roughly between ₹1,350 and ₹3,200 plus GST and a small port fee. The government DSS ferry is slower but costs only a few hundred rupees and almost never cancels. Reach the jetty 45 to 60 minutes early with your ID, because boarding here is treated like a small airport.
A plan that works for most people: three or four nights in Havelock for diving and the outer islands, one or two nights in Neil to slow down, then back to Port Blair.
Where diving fits into all this
You can do this whole guide as a snorkeller and have a brilliant trip. But if the water around South Button makes your heart beat a little faster, that is usually the sign. A first dive in Havelock needs no swimming background and no certification. Read how that works on our beginner scuba diving page, or if the swimming part worries you, my post on scuba diving for non-swimmers answers it properly.
Questions people ask me about island hopping here
Can I visit South Button or the Lawrence islands by public ferry? No. No ferry goes there. These islands are reachable only by chartered boat from Havelock, with Forest Department permits arranged in advance. That is exactly why they are still in good shape.
Do I need to know swimming for the island hopping trip? No. You wear a life jacket for all in-water time, the snorkelling spots are calm, and our guide stays with you. Non-swimmers do this trip all the time.
How many days do I need for Ritchie’s Archipelago? Five to seven days covers it well: three or four in Havelock (diving, one outer-island trip), one or two in Neil. You can squeeze it into four days, but you will feel rushed, and one rough-sea day can break a tight plan.
Is island hopping safe for kids and older parents? The Havelock-Neil ferries, yes, very comfortable. The outer-island boat trips are longer and bumpier, so they suit reasonably fit travellers. Tell us who is coming and we will give you a straight answer for your group.
Which is better, South Button or Long Island? Different trips. South Button is about the reef and the water, best if snorkelling or diving excites you. Long Island is about the empty beach and the feeling of distance. If the sea life is the point of your trip, pick South Button.
Can foreigners do these trips? Yes. No special permit is needed for Havelock and Neil anymore, just your passport and visa. For the protected outer islands the Forest Department permit is ₹2,500 per site for foreign nationals, and we arrange it with your booking.
Come see the rest of the archipelago
Havelock is wonderful, but it is the front door, not the whole house. If you are coming to the Andamans anyway, keep one day for the islands beyond it. Send us your travel dates on WhatsApp at wa.me/919531924029 or call 095318 53676, and we will tell you honestly what the sea is doing that week and which trip fits your group. Worst case, you spent a day on a boat in the Bay of Bengal. I have had worse days.
