Getting around the Andamans — autos, scooters and ferries

Moving around within an island is easy and cheap. Moving between islands is where the money and the planning go, and where the choice between a private catamaran and a government ferry is the one decision worth getting right before you arrive.

Getting around

Autorickshaws are the workhorse, and they are good. In Port Blair they generally run on the meter, which makes them both cheap and predictable — a rarity in Indian tourist towns and worth appreciating. On the smaller islands expect to pay more and to agree a fare up front.

There is no app-based ride hailing. No Rapido, no Ola, no Uber — for two-, three- or four-wheelers. That was still the case as of March 2026, and as far as we know it has not changed since.

Plan on the older methods: flag an auto, phone for a cab, or rent your own two-wheeler. None of it is hard, but arriving with a ride-hailing app as your fallback plan will not work.

Cabs are easy to get but you phone for them. There is no rank to walk up to outside the obvious spots; numbers circulate online and through hotels. If you would rather not chase one down, use the enquiry form on this site and we will arrange it.

Getting between islands: private vs government boats

For the inter-island crossings — Port Blair to Havelock and Neil, mostly — there are two systems, and most visitors should use the private one.

The private operators are the names you will see advertised everywhere — Makruzz, Nautika, Green Ocean and ITT Majestic among them. They run air-conditioned catamarans on fixed schedules, and you can book them online in advance.

Travelling with a small child? Budget for a full fare. The private operators charge full price for any child over one year old — there is no infant or toddler rate. Parents routinely arrive expecting a discount that does not exist, and on a route already costing two to three times the government fare, a third full ticket is a real jump in the family total.

Factor it in when you are pricing the trip, not at the counter.

What some parents do. Nobody is asked for a birth certificate. Operators have tried to enforce the full charge in the past and have largely stopped bothering — in practice they take the parent’s word on a child’s age, because there is no way to check and nothing to gain by arguing about it. Only a small number of families do this at all, so it has never become a problem worth policing.

The authorities have nothing to do with any of it. This is a private ferry and a fare question — not a legal one.

If you do declare a child just over one as under, be consistent: book that way and say the same at the counter. The realistic worst case is being asked to buy the full ticket on the spot, which leaves you exactly where you would have been anyway.

Decide before you book rather than improvising at the desk. And if paying outright is worth more to you than the uncertainty, pay — it is not a large sum against the cost of the trip.

Private ferries cost roughly two to three times the government fare. That sounds like the wrong recommendation until you try to buy a government ticket.

Government ferry tickets are genuinely hard to get. They are released and typically sell out on the Saturday for the whole of the following week. Miss that window and there is nothing to buy. A handful of agents will attempt the booking for around ₹200 extra per ticket in commission, but they cannot guarantee a seat.

The result is a booking process with a lot of moving parts, a fixed weekly deadline and no certainty at the end of it. That is a fair amount of cognitive load to carry on a holiday, and it is best suited to the adventurous, to people with flexible dates, or to long-term stayers who learn the rhythm and plan around it.

If your trip has fixed dates and connecting flights, pay the private fare and buy the certainty. If you have time and patience, the government boats are considerably cheaper and perfectly good.

Scooters and motorbikes rent from around ₹500 a day in most places with any tourism. Expect that to rise in the October–May peak season, when demand is high and the good machines go first. Take the helmet, check the brakes, and remember the roads are narrow, wet in patches and shared with people who know them better than you do.

Rules worth knowing

• Being in the water after 5 pm is restricted in many places. This is not arbitrary — light goes fast, and rescue is a long way off. Lifeguarded beaches clear people out; unpatrolled ones simply become a bad idea. Plan swimming for the earlier part of the day.
• Drone flying is prohibited in a number of locations, Port Blair especially. The islands are a substantial defence installation and the rules around aerial photography are taken seriously. Do not assume a beach is fair game because it looks empty; check before you fly, and accept that the answer is often no.

Related guides

• Island life — who lives here, how the territory is governed, and why haggling works the way it does.
• When to visit — the season month by month, what the rain really does, and the tides that change every beach.
• Power, internet and money — rolling blackouts, which SIM to carry, and why UPI beats cash here.
• Eating and drinking — late-night food delivery, the 2-litre bottle rule, and the 5 litres of spirits you may fly in.