Based out of Island
Vinnie's Tropical Beach Cabanas, on the island of Havelock in the Andamans, our scuba diving centre offers daily scuba diving trips to the best sites in the area, as
well as a full array of PADI & SSI diving courses, from Discover
Scuba to learning to dive (Open Water course) all the way up to Divemaster and Assistant Instructor.
Our Havelock dive center is open year-long
for scuba diving.
Please click on the links on the left to learn more about
our scuba diving services, courses, prices, accommodation, etc.
The island of Havelock is situated about 48km to the
north east of Port Blair, and can be easily reached by daily
boats. This small island offers an excellent variety of diving,
activities like fishing, snorkeling and hiking, gorgeous sandy
beaches and a chance to experience traditional village life.
As far as the islands go, it is one of the more "developed"
destinations: it recently got phone lines and electricity,
it has a handful of vehicles plying its roads (or rather,
road, as there is only one – well, one and a half –
real road on the island), and as per now-verified rumor, it
even has someone who sells ice-cream!!!
The island is roughly oval-shaped, with the
main jetty (where the ferry arrives) at the northern end.
This is village number 1 (all locations in Havelock are numbered).
Running down the north-eastern side of the island are Beaches
2, 3 and 5. We don't know what happened to 4, btw - if someone
discovers it, do let us know. On the south-western side of
the island is beach 7, with village 6 being somewhere in the
middle of the island. The rest, making up a majority of the
island's area, consists of thick forest cover.
Most resorts and activities are located in the north-east
stretch (1-5) or along beach 7.
You can walk from beach 1 to beach 5 in less than an hour.
To get to beach 7, which is some distance away, you can choose
from: the hourly bus, a rickshaw, a taxi or rent your own
moped or scooty (a gearless scooter).
The main sources of livelihood in Havelock are farming and
fishing. Until recently, timber-logging was a popular occupation
as well; however, a recent Supreme Court ruling has put an
end to all logging activities. This has resulted in not only
several local timber operations shutting down, but has also
caused the island's few elephants to become jobless. Occasionally,
the elephants can still be seen meandering around the north
west part of the island (hence the name Elephant Beach).
Villages 1 and 3 are laid-back places with small but lively
markets, which represent the social centre for the island's
few thousand residents. Village 1 is liveliest in the morning,
when the daily boats arrive and depart. Village 3 comes into
its own in the evening, with its market. Beach 7 is a little
more tourisy, but has a great sunset view (although watch
out for sandflies).
This island is where we have tied our own hammock
and set up our first base. |