Cinque Island, Andaman Islands - Timings, Water Sports, Best Time to Visit

At a distance of 26 km from Port Blair, the Cinque Island is an isolated island in the Andaman Archipelago, on the north side of Duncan Passage, between Rutland Island and Passage Island. They are part of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

Cinque Island is situated on the south-western coast of South Andaman in the Bay of Bengal. The Island is geologically classified into North Cinque Island and South Cinque Island. The two islands are connected by a sand bar and therefore are often considered a single Cinque Island. Both divisions of Cinque Island are a part of the Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park, which is popularly known as Wandoor Marine National Park.

Jolly Buoy, Redskin and Cinque are the most frequented and popular Islands of Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park. Cinque Island is surrounded by coral reef gardens that extend to a few hundred meters into the deep sea. It offers a vista of its coral reefs, sea weeds, colorful fishes, shells, starfish, sea anemones, salt-water crocodile, turtles and water snakes. This Island has also a fine sandy-beach and tropical rain-forest.

The island is famous for underwater diving and other activities like camping, game fishing, scuba diving and snorkeling. The view of submerged corals and sunset attracts hordes of nature lovers to Cinque Island. The best time to visit Cinque Island is from October to May.

There is no scheduled ferry service to Cinque Island. Chartered boats of permitted category are allowed from Port Blair and Wandoor. To visit, one may contact private boat operators in Port Blair to hire a boat with due permission from the Forest Department. Cinque Island can be reached in 3.5 hours from Wandoor and in 2 hours from Chidiya Tapu.