Who we are · Port Blair · since 2014
The team behind the trips
Tropical Andamans is a Port Blair tour operator, not a website with a call centre. We have planned island trips from here since 2014 — the founders still plan trips personally, the drivers are our own, and the office at Phoenix Bay is a real room you can walk into. This page is the honest version of who you are booking with, including the year that nearly ended us.
2014
operating since
4.9/5
on Google · last 12 months
900+
Google reviews since 2016
15,000+
travellers hosted
The founders
Vivek Lall
Founder · Executive Member, AATO
Started Tropical Andamans in 2014 and still quotes trips himself. Represents island operators in the Andaman Association of Tour Operators, and has sat across the table from tourism ministers making the case for the islands — the photos below are from the 2017 delegation to Delhi.
Navneet K
Co-founder · Head of Operations · Vice President, AATO
Runs the operations floor — the ferries, drivers, hotels and the duty phone. Currently Vice President of the Andaman Association of Tour Operators, the industry body for local operators. If your trip runs smoothly, this is whose system did it.
Membership, on paper
The AATO membership certificate — Active category, held under Tropical Andamans Tours and Travels, valid till 31 March 2027. We renew it, and this page, each term. The walk-in office remains the better check; the paper is here for the ones who like paper.
How a booking actually runs
Three promises, stated once here and repeated on every money page — because they are the answers to the three things that go wrong with tour operators everywhere.
- One written quote
Every trip is priced in one itemised written quote — inclusions and exclusions line by line, held for seven days. If it is not on the quote, ask us to add it before you pay; the quote is the trip.
- A named coordinator
From your airport pickup to your flight home, one named person in Port Blair runs your trip and answers for it — the same person, the whole way, on WhatsApp.
- An answer after payment
The oldest complaint against tour operators — ours included, once — is phones that go quiet after full payment. The duty number answers on trip days. If anything is unresolved mid-trip, escalate to the office directly; it is a real room, not a call centre.
The hard year, named
In 2020 the islands closed and this company nearly went under. Trips were cancelled by lockdown, people were holding paid advances, and for a stretch we went quiet — phones unanswered while we scrambled to survive. Some of our one-star reviews are from that period, and they are fair: whatever was happening to the business, the silence was wrong.
Every affected booking was eventually refunded or honoured — guests travelled on postponed bookings as late as 2024 — but "eventually" is not a standard. What came out of that year is on this page: written cancellation terms on every quote, and a business that would rather tell you a hard thing early than go quiet. We keep those reviews public and answer them, because the year happened and pretending otherwise would say more about us than the year does.
The team you'll actually meet
Guests' reviews name our drivers and coordinators more often than our beaches — the blue shirts, the name boards at jetties, the 3am pickups that arrived on time. They are our own team, not day-hired partners, and they are the reason a rescheduled ferry becomes a changed plan instead of a lost day.
Giri
Tour Advisor · Main Coordinator
The name guests write most often in our reviews. Giri advises on the plan before you pay and coordinates it while you travel — the jetty name boards, the added Baratang day, the resort made right when a last-minute swap went wrong.
“Mr. Giri my tour advisor planned every thing in my trip.” — Jagannadharao, Jul 2026, 5★
Varthika
Tour Planner
Builds itineraries around ferries and seasons — including telling you when a leg isn't worth it. One monsoon season she advised a family travelling with a toddler to drop Diglipur for the road conditions, and rebuilt their plan three days before departure.
“Varthika and Ajay are the best.” — Swathy, Jan 2026, 5★
“The drivers were always on time everyday— whether the tour was at 10 am or 3 am, whether in Port Blair or Havelock island. Not once did we have the driver be late on all 9 days that we stayed in Andaman.”
— Venkatesh, May 2018, 5★ Google review
The office is a real room
No. 68, Maulana Azad Road, Phoenix Bay, Port Blair 744101. Walk in before you book, or mid-trip if something needs a face-to-face fix. A note for the curious: we once ran a small scholarship for island students; it is paused, and if it returns it will be announced here first.
Contact details, map and hours are on the contact page.
Fair questions, straight answers
Why book direct with a Port Blair operator?
Because the part of a trip that goes wrong is never the flight — it is the ferry that got rescheduled, the hotel that "upgraded" you sideways, the pickup that did not show. Those are on-island problems, and we are on the island: the people quoting you are the people running the trip, watching the same sea your ferries sail on. Booking direct also means no aggregator margin, and a best-price match on any like-for-like written quote.
Who actually runs my trip?
A named coordinator in Port Blair — one person, reachable on WhatsApp, from airport pickup to your flight home. Behind them: our own drivers (the blue-shirt team guests keep naming in reviews), the office at Phoenix Bay, and the founders, who still plan trips personally. You are never handed between anonymous departments.
What happens if something goes wrong mid-trip?
You message your coordinator, and it gets fixed — that is the job. Ferries get rescheduled by operators, weather closes beaches, hotels overbook; what we answer for is what happens next: the rebooking, the alternative plan, the refund where one is due. Our reviews include those stories precisely because we do not pretend the islands never misbehave.
Are you a registered operator?
We are a Port Blair–based operator running since 2014, and an Active-category member of the Andaman Association of Tour Operators — the membership certificate is on this page, held under Tropical Andamans Tours and Travels and valid till 31 March 2027. Our co-founder currently serves as AATO Vice President and our founder as an Executive Member. And you can still apply the better check: walk into our office at Phoenix Bay before booking anything — the people, the fleet and the room are real and inspectable.
See the proof
- Guest reviews — the rating, with its provenance.
- Tour packages — what we actually sell.
- Contact & office — WhatsApp, phone, walk-in.
- How we plan trips — the buffer rules that define us.
How this page stays true
Written by the founders and the Tropical Andamans team, as of July 2026. The association roles are current as of writing; the numbers are the same canonical set used across the site (Google rating over the last 12 months, reviews since 2016). Photographs are our own, dated in their captions. When something here changes — a role, a policy, the scholarship — this page changes with it.
Talk to the people, not a portal.
Send your dates and questions — a named person in Port Blair replies, and the same person runs your trip.