Amazing stay, not cheap for Indian standards but it worth every ruppie!! We did some excursions like diving, kayaking and renting a motorbike to discover the island. Note that your cellphone is is useless because there is no reception out there. My opinion is that 1 week of relaxing there is more then enough though.
chiel
Phew..this place is simply heaven!!
The sea is very picturesque and the resort cottage too . We were awe stuck at the beach destination. I would reccommend this place to all the people who want a calm and peaceful holiday. However if someones looking at some action like clubbin,watersports, shopping, this isnt the place to be......
we simply enjoyed our stay here-thanks to the staff and management.
Had always heard about the andamans .... and after thorough research figured that Barefoot @ Havelock was just about what we wanted. We stayed here for 4 nights with friends and had a great time at the resort , with rajan ( the elephant ) and at the pristine beach .... snorkelling in the lagoon was lot of fun ... Unfortunate we could not do scuba diving ....but our snorkelling trip to middle & south button island was great... Well there is so much to see in this world that i would never wanna visit a place twice but this one is just way too tempting ! :)
Had the best coffee ever while commuting from port blair to havelock on a vessel.... !
Oh ! n how i miss those chocolate pancakes ! woo hoo ....
Difficult to get there (2 hour flight from Culcutta to Port Blair then a 2 - 4 hour ferry crossing to Havelock), not easy to get back from (overnight stay in Port Blair) but what a privilege to stay there. Havelock Island is 'in the middle of nowhere' Barefoot resort is 'further towards the edge of nowhere'.
Barefoot staff are top notch - their organisation is first class - we were met off the plane, transferred to the port, met at Havelock Island and transported across the island to the resort. There are no papers, tv, internet and any uk Vodafone mobile will not work either. The rooms (individual lodges in the jungle) are very clean, well appointed and spacious. Barefoot has only 4 air con rooms so they are to be recommended. It's very hot, very humid but perfect.
Restaurant food was amazing considering where we were. Menu is varied, the lunch menu is available most of the day and very modest prices. They will prepare a packed lunch if you ask them at breakfast.
The thing that struck me was BareFoot does not rip off the guests. For example, a litre bottle of water which can be bought in Delhi for R20 sells to guests at Barefoot for R25. We have paid R100 for the same thing in many Indian hotels.
Havelock is a snorkelers paradise. I thoroughly recommend the day trip to Button Island followed by lunch on a deserted beach on John Lawrence Island. I have never seen such fantastic corals. We also enjoyed the evening fishing trip organised by Barefoot. We caught about 15kg of fish in 3 hours using a line from a dunghi and the best bit? We selected 4 (including a barracuda) and took them back to the resort and the kitchen cooked them for dinner. The charge on the bill for cooking the fish? R250
We had no trouble with sand flies and the anti-mosquito regime was very good.
In fact if I wasn't now back in the UK, I'd go back tomorrow and stay for a month.
The Café del Mar incorporates the Barefoot Scuba centre, along with some huts, and is situated on Beach #3 (opposite side of the island from Barefoot Resort), and about 10 minutes walk from the small town on Havelock.
There are two types of accommodation – ordinary palm huts (think some may have private bathroom, but some certainly don’t as there is a shower block) and duplex ‘cottages on stilts’ which are closer to the sea. We stayed in a duplex cottage, which is all I have experience of.
The cottages were the normal basic backpacker style huts, but built on stilts with an airy balcony. Downstairs was a tiled shower room, reached via the open-to-the-world outside staircase.
Although basic and very simply furnished, the rooms were spotlessly clean, with daily sheet and towel change.
The onsite restaurant was run by what looked like three guys way too young to be able to cook properly……but it turned out that they were great cooks and we had excellent meals here. The value for money of the fish was amazing. One evening we were shown a whole large fish, which we assumed was being sold by weight. It reappeared beautifully cooked and tasted great, and when the bill came we had been charged 120INR for enough fish for two people to feast on.
This place had a lovely laid back atmosphere, partly related to the high proportion of divers. It also had two completely soppy cats onsite, and a puppy that showed every sign of landing up with the same temperament. All of them were clearly very well treated and added to our enjoyment.
