Where to Stay in Port Blair, Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands

What is Port Blair known for?

Port Blair is the capital and largest city of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a remote Indian union territory in the Bay of Bengal. The Cellular Jail defines it. Best known for that colonial-era prison turned national memorial, the town also keeps the Samudrika Naval Marine Museum and serves as the base for islands scattered across the sea.

The islands do the rest.

What are the main landmarks in Port Blair?

The Cellular Jail is the great landmark of Port Blair, a colonial-era prison built on the harbour and kept as a national memorial. The jail marks a hard chapter. Raised under the colonial administration in 1858, the settlement grew around the prison, and its history still draws visitors to Port Blair.

The sea frames it all. Nearer the water, the Samudrika Naval Marine Museum tells the story of the Andaman Sea and the reefs around South Andaman Island.

What is the history of Port Blair?

Port Blair began as a colonial penal settlement, established on South Andaman Island in 1858. Few towns in India carry so hard an origin. The sea kept it apart.

Far out in the Bay of Bengal, the islands were chosen for a prison colony, and the Cellular Jail rose to hold those sent across the water from the mainland. Prisoners and settlers built the first town on the island. Distance was the point.

After the colonial era closed, Port Blair became the capital of the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It grew into the only real town. The union territory's only notified town, Port Blair also serves as the headquarters of the South Andaman district, the administrative heart of a scattered island chain.

Between the Bay of Bengal to the west and the Andaman Sea to the east, it holds the seat of government far from the Indian mainland. The old prison still stands above the harbour. Officially named Sri Vijaya Puram, the town carries a new name over a long and difficult past.

The sea still rules it.

Where is Port Blair?

Port Blair sits on South Andaman Island, set between the Bay of Bengal to the west and the Andaman Sea to the east. Water surrounds it. The town curls around a natural harbour on the eastern shore, dropping to the sea across a small tropical island far from the Indian mainland.

South Andaman district spreads around it. Chennai and Kolkata lie far off on the mainland, across a wide reach of the Bay of Bengal.

What is the climate of Port Blair?

Port Blair has a warm, humid tropical climate, held even all year by the surrounding sea. The ocean softens it. Heat and humidity hold through the year, and the monsoon brings heavy rain to South Andaman Island, sweeping in off the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.

Sharp seasons never come. The sea keeps Port Blair mild where the mainland would swing between extremes.

How do you get to Port Blair?

Port Blair is reached from the Indian mainland by sea and by air, the long crossing from Chennai and Kolkata over the Bay of Bengal. The islands lie far offshore. As the only notified town of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Port Blair is the single point of arrival, and its harbour and jetty send boats on to the outer islands.

Everything passes through here. From Port Blair the district of South Andaman opens outward, boats fanning across the Andaman Sea to the reefs and beaches beyond.