Discover Long Island Andaman | Merkbay & Guitar Island

Overview

Long Island is an underrated place where you can find the real beauty of nature. This place deserves more fame and travels without any doubt. However, for peace, nature, and adventure-loving people, this island is not a new place. The overall dimension of this place is 18 Sq. Km and it is a relatively tiny island, but it has many things in its store for all people. It has some of the best places for scuba diving. This place is known for clean waters, a diverse marine ecosystem, and live corals. If you are an adventure lover, you can start a trekking trip from jetty point and it at Lalaji Bay. The Merk Bay beach and Guitar Islands give the peace if you need to get some break from the noisy city life. In short, it has everything to impress one and all.

How to reach Long island?

You need to reach Long Island from the capital of Andaman and Nicobar, Port Blair. You can get there by Andaman tour packages with flight or use road transport and reach the capital city. From there you can find and book cab in Andaman to reach Rangat, from there to Yerrata Jetty. From Yerrata Jetty you have to take a ferry to reach this beautiful island.

By Air: You can get to Port Blair from Kolkata, Delhi, and Chennai airports directly. The cheapest is from Chennai, and it will cost you around 11,000 rupees. From Port Blair, you can get the Govt. ferry to reach Long Island.

By Ferry: You can find ferries to reach Port Blair from Kolkata and Chennai. From port Blair, you can get Govt. ferries except for Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday to reach Long Island.

By Road: From Port Blair, you can get a state government bus or private bus to reach Rangat. From Rangat, you can catch a bus or take a cab to reach Yerrata Jetty, and from there, you can get a ferry to reach Long Island.

Lalaji Bay Beach

Lalaji beach is one of the most visited beaches in the Andaman Islands. This beach is situated on the western coast of Long Island. This beach is full of beautiful sand coastlines that provide peaceful vibes. The sight of dancing waves is amazing. One can reach this place easily using ferries from Central Andaman and Rangat. This beach s sparsely crowded, and from here, one can see the amazing views of sunset and dolphins. This place is a great spot for tourists since people who love adventure can find many activities and also for those who love enjoying the serenity, can sit and watch the waves crashing to the shores.

Activities to do in Lalaji Bay Beach

Lalaji Beach is an amazing place packed with many adventurous activities and wonderful experiences. Lalaji Bay beach is an excellent place to perform multiple water sport activities, including diving, snorkeling, skiing, and swimming. If you enjoy the diving activity and searching for the best place to dive, the lighthouse is a great place. This place welcomes you with impressive coral formations. If you are a shopping person, this place won’t give you many opportunities to fulfill your urge to shop. But you can find wonderful quaint shops to get amazing products in Havelock Island, Port Blair. If you are looking to enjoy your time on the beach, you can sit on this beach and enjoy your evening there. If you do all these activities here, the cost of Andaman tour package will become totally worth spending. You can also try scuba diving at Havelock.

Restaurants Nearby Lalaji Bay Beach

The Excel restaurant is the most popular and highly rated restaurant near Lalaji Bay Beach. This restaurant is more popular because it offers vibrant and breathtaking ocean views. The vibe of this place is excellent, and you can get dining options all day long. The menu includes all types of cuisines. That doesn’t mean you can become deprived of local delicacies. So, if you want to experience the taste of local cuisine, you can explore the delicious Red Snapper. The menu contains varieties of seafood that can make you taste the same dish again and again. If you are starving and want to enjoy some food near the beach, you can visit the Nemo cafe and the Kerala Cafe. These cafes offer some excellent food items that come with a pocket-friendly budget. If you prefer vegan food options, you can try the Fat Martin Cafe. It will give delightful meal options.

Merkbay Beach

Major family tour packages to Andaman will not include Merkbay beach in the places to visit list. This beach is situated on North Passage Island and near Long Island and Straight Island. The perfect description of this beach is sand, sun, and long beach. Even though this beach provides breathtaking views, it usually will be less crowded. This beach gives views of blue water with varieties of colorful fish and white sand. If you are lucky enough, you can see the dancing of dolphins. In this spot, still, tourism is not developed fully, and consequently, you can enjoy the calmness without the interpretation of others.

Activities to do in Merkbay Beach

Even though this place is not visited frequently by many people, it is still known for water sports such as swimming, snorkeling, bird watching, dolphin watching, boating, and scuba diving. But if you are not ready to take these types of risks, you can go for a long walk on the white sand beach and explore the forest nearby and soak your body under the sun. On this beach, you can get the opportunity of seeing varieties of fish of different sizes and patterns. Since this place will not always be crowded, it is an excellent place to take photos for your social media display picture (of course, no background change needed). If you are looking for a perfect place for the pre-wedding shoot, this is the right choice. Undoubtedly, those pictures will remain in your memory for many years. The jetty ride is available here, and it is nothing sort of an adventure.

Restaurants Nearby Merkbay Beach

Many Andaman tour operators ignore this place because this place is not developed as a full-fledged tourist place. Additionally, here no one resides; consequently, Merk Bay Beach does not have hotels, restaurants, or cafes to serve food. Hence, if you want to see one of the beautiful beaches in Andaman, you must carry some snacks and drinks while traveling. To carry food, you have some of the excellent places nearby.

You can try the varieties of seafood at Full Moon cafe and Barefoot restaurant at Havelock. These two restaurants offer delicious and hygienic seafood. Suppose you are a vegan or vegetarian and look to eat the delicious food you need to visit Annapurna Restaurant. Apart from this, you can try Sinclairs Bayview resort food or the Bonova Cafe and Pub.

Guitar island

This place is often ignored in many Andaman tour package services. Hence this island is less frequently visited by people and not explored like other places island of Andaman. The name Guitar island has aptly suited this island since it looks like a guitar if you see it from atop. This spot is surreal and beautiful. The beauty does not come only because of its shape, but also full of greenery and surrounded by a tranquil ocean. The beach of guitar island is the home to many unique creatures of the marine world. Here you can see interesting-looking plants, sea animals such as hermit crab, sand crab, and many other colorful insects. From this island, you can travel to other nearby islands if the tides are low.

Activities to do in Guitar Island

This island is explored very little, and that means you cannot see the buzzing tourist all over the place. Hence only a few Andaman Nicobar package for couple packages take you here. This island is impressively exotic with the charming beach, which invites you to lay back and relax by gazing at the blue sky and dancing waves hitting the shores. Observing the marine life here is the best thing to do. You can take a long walk on this beach and collect different types of seashells. Watch the tides hitting the shores one after another with a particular rhythm, watching the hermit and sand crabs pop out of the sand. If you are a nature lover, you would love to spend your entire day here. Also, this place is ideal to click amazing pics by having a blue sky and blue water as a background. Walking and observing all these creatures, plants, and the marine ecosystem gives unexplainable pleasure and amusement.

Restaurants Nearby Guitar Island

The major problem with the less crowded place is the non-availability of eatery or restaurant. The same issue you can see in this beautiful place. Hence, if you plan to visit here, you must bring packed food from the nearby hotels. Or you can even go back to Long Island to enjoy your food. In Long Island, you can find a couple of famous restaurants. The Blue Planet restaurant is famous for its varieties of fresh seafood. If you are craving North Indian-style food, you can try the Laxmi hotel. Also, you can try out the mouthwatering seafood available in Rangat. Here, you can find seafood cooked in local style.

Long Island