Andaman Islands — Six Nights with Ross & North Bay

Met at the airport and into town, with Corbyn's Cove for the afternoon. The Cellular Jail follows — completed in 1906 with seven wings radiating from a central tower, of which three survive, built so that every cell faced the back of another block and no prisoner could communicate. The evening sound-and-light show in the courtyard narrates the transportation of political prisoners here and is performed in Hindi and English on alternating nights.

The morning ferry across, about two hours on a private high-speed boat, and straight to the west coast in the afternoon. Radhanagar is two kilometres of white sand with rainforest behind and nothing built along it, and the sunset there is what most people came for. The flags mark where it is safe to swim; the current beyond the southern headland is strong and the patrol is not decorative.

A boat round the coast to Elephant Beach, with a packed lunch included. The reef begins close enough in to snorkel straight off the sand — hard and soft coral, parrotfish and angelfish over the shallow section, and turtles with some luck. Snorkelling is optional, subject to availability on the day and charged separately. If the sea closes Elephant Beach, the day goes to Kalapathar Beach instead, or that part of the trip is refunded. The time left afterwards is free, and on Havelock that generally means the beach nearest wherever you are staying, or a dive if you have arranged one.

A short crossing south to Neil, flat and quiet and small enough to cycle end to end. Bharatpur has the shallow, sheltered water; Laxmanpur is the sunset beach. The natural coral bridge at Laxmanpur's northern end stands out of the reef and is only reachable at low tide, so the tide decides the hour. The pace here is the point of the island rather than a limitation of it.

The ferry back to South Andaman in the middle of the day. The afternoon takes the Sagarika emporium for shell, cane and padauk work, and the Samudrika naval marine museum or the anthropological museum — the latter is the more substantial account of the archipelago's indigenous peoples, some of whose islands remain entirely closed to outsiders and are policed as such.

A full day on the water. Ross Island, twenty minutes offshore, was the administrative headquarters of the penal settlement — a church, a bakery, a ballroom and the chief commissioner's house, abandoned after the 1941 earthquake and the Japanese occupation, and now held together and pulled apart by the roots of the trees growing through the walls. Deer wander it freely. North Bay in the afternoon is the reef side and the base for the group's water sports. Glass-bottom boat rides and the other activities are optional, and are arranged and paid on the spot. Lunch at North Bay is included.

Transferred to the airport for the flight back to the mainland. Departures from Port Blair are concentrated in the morning, so this is usually an early start. The itinerary deliberately puts the Ross and North Bay day before it rather than trying to fit the crossing in on a departure morning, which is the mistake that most often costs people a flight here.