Scuba diving in the Andamans: a beginner guide

The Andamans are the easiest place in India to learn to dive. The water is warm year-round. Visibility runs twenty to thirty metres on a good day. Most dive operators on Havelock run one-instructor-per-diver programs for beginners. Here is what to know before you book.

Discover Scuba: the half-day taster

A discover-scuba program is a half-day program built for total beginners. No certification. No swim test. No prior experience. You get a thirty-minute briefing in a classroom on the basics: breathing through a regulator, equalising your ears, hand signals. Then you head out to the dive site by boat, which takes fifteen to twenty minutes.

On site, you do another fifteen minutes of skills practice in shallow water with your instructor: clearing your mask, sharing a regulator, controlling buoyancy. Once they are confident you have the basics, you do a thirty-minute dive at six to ten metres depth.

You stay with the instructor the entire time. Most operators run one instructor per diver. Some run two divers per instructor on busy days. Insist on one-to-one if you are nervous.

Price: ₹4,500 to ₹6,000. Photos and video on USB are usually included.

Best for people who want to know what scuba feels like before committing to certification. Or people who will only ever do this once.

PADI Open Water: the four-day certification

If you think you might dive again, get certified. PADI Open Water is the globally recognised entry-level certification. It is good for life and recognised by every dive operator anywhere.

Plan four days. Day one is classroom theory and confined-water practice in a pool. Days two through four are open-water dives. Five dives total, including some skills under pressure (mask removal, regulator recovery, controlled emergency ascent).