Travellers' Checks | India’s exotic, untouched Andaman Islands get first luxury hotel
Plus, Aerotel London Heathrow opens soon and the contents of Terminal 1 go on auction – everything from baggage carousels and seating to artwork and wall clocks up for grabs
India’s mystical Andaman and Nicobar Islands are best known for their remote location, uncontacted tribes (most notably the infamously inhospitable Sentinelese), beautiful beaches and snorkelling and scuba-diving sites. The three old passenger shipping routes from Kolkata, Chennai and Visakhapatnam still serve the capital, Port Blair, but take several days each way and are best suited to the time-rich, cash-poor and strong-of-stomach.
Most foreign visitors fly into Port Blair from one of several major Indian cities, and the once hard-to-get Restricted Area Permits are now issued on arrival; but the islands are still relatively undiscovered by foreigners. This may soon begin to change, though, with the arrival of the Taj Exotica Resort & Spa, Andamans – the archipelago’s first international luxury property.
Headquartered in India, Taj operates several high-end properties around the world, including London’s Taj 51 Buckingham Gate Suites (one of the best hotels in the British capital) and the neighbouring St James’ Court, A Taj Hotel, as well as The Pierre New York, just off Central Park on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.
The sprawling new 19-hectare resort in the Andamans is located on Radhanagar Beach, on Havelock Island, named after the now little-remembered Major General Sir Henry Havelock (1795-1857; other tributes include a statue in London’s Trafalgar Square, and Havelock MRT station in Singapore). This lovely stretch of sand was ranked eighth among TripAdvisor’s top 10 beaches in the world for 2017, and was the only beach in Asia to make the list.