Lakshadweep on Samudram cruise is the best way to reach these islands for Indians and cover prominent ones like Minicoy
Lakshadweep is one of the rarely visited places in India, due to remoteness, limited transport options and the permits required. We had the chance to visit the beautiful islands on Samudram cruise operated by the government.
Best time to visit
Cruises operate only in dry season from October to May only. This is the best time even for travel through flights
Permits
Agents can arrange permits for you. If travelling on cruise, permits are automatically arranged without having to apply
Flights vs cruise
Lakshadweep has 36 islands, out of which only 10 are inhabited. Tourists are allowed only on some islands like Kavaratti (the capital), Agatti (which has the airport), Kadmat, Minicoy, Bangaram, Kalpeni. You will have to rely on local boats that don’t have set schedules to travel between islands. Point to point connections might be limited, so best to arrange in advance
Cruises give you an opportunity to travel with a group, which didn’t make us feel bored at any point
We personally preferred a cruise which covers 3 islands and particularly Minicoy. If you go through flights, you typically end up covering Agatti and 1-2 more islands like Bangaram/ Kadmat. Minicoy is not possible to cover, so definitely take a cruise
Cordelia vs Samudram cruise
If your intent is to experience a luxury cruise, go with Cordelia. Cordelia has options to board at Mumbai, Goa.
If you want to see more islands at reasonable cost, go with Samudram cruise. You will not have any entertainment options on the ship, but you will hardly be spending time on board, so didn’t feel the need to have any entertainment. Kochi is the only boarding point for Samudram
Cost is another factor to consider. Samudram cruise for 5 days 4 nights costs 40k per person
- Twin sharing Diamond: 40k per person
- Four sharing Gold: 30k per person
Cordelia cruise from Kochi would cost between 55k- 90k depending on cabin choice
My personal preference is to go with Samudram
Samudram booking process
It is difficult to plan in advance. The tickets are released at a short notice, typically only a month before the travel. There is a lot of politics, bureaucracy and corruption with tussle to promote private cruises vs. Government one during
Samudram website has booking options, both for cruise and independent island visits for Bangaram and Kadmat/ Kavaratti resorts
On Samudram cruise, there are about 50-60% seats going through agents and rest available directly for booking on the website. We never got tickets on the direct route, so decided to try the agent route. The seats through agents are at the same price and we heard it is easier to get one through agents as they manage to book faster than us trying directly online. We still failed to book as they get lapped up as soon as the portal opens. Island Getaways Kochi is a reputed agent who tried to help us a lot and returned the money promptly when they couldn’t manage to book seats
The cruise keeps getting cancelled during maintenance periods. There was once fire on MV Kavaratti which resulted in suspension for months
We tried our luck again after a few months to book directly. We were lucky this time and the booing got confirmed. The decision to go was impromptu after seeing available tickets
There is one departure every week typically and schedule of islands change a bit on each departure. Ensure you have Minicoy on the list- it has clear blue waters similar to islands in Maldives and is closer to Maldives than to India
You have option to book 2 sharing or 4 sharing cabins. 4 sharing cabins are much fewer in number (only four were available vs 180 two sharing cabins). The cost difference is not much, so go with two sharing
Side note: You can get LTA certificate on the portal post travel with travel and tour costs mentioned separately. I did have some issues claiming even the travel cost from my employer which is marked separately since accommodation is included. I had to get this claimed during return filing later
Reaching the boarding point
Kochi Willingdon island is the boarding point. Willingdon island is an artificial island which you can reach by taking cabs. You are advised to arrive at 9 AM on Day 1. You can get your name tags and caps at the office after checking. Bags might be screened before you are allowed to board. There are car arrangements to take you to the cruise boarding point. Luggage will arrive in a separate vehicle. You can identify them at boarding point and they will be sent to your cabin directly
Expect some waiting time for all the passengers to board and bags to be loaded. The actual departure time was post lunch around 2:30 PM
Cabin Allocation
This was quote haphazard due to some tech glitch, but we heard was an exception only during our travel and is quite streamlined otherwise. Couples who booked cabins were allocated different ones, families with multiple cabins were spread out on different floors. There was a whole lot of exchange discussions happening on the first day as the tour managers were not proactive in sorting this out. Towards the evening, some people were left confused on which cabins to go to- including me. The tour managers had to then get involved to ensure people had beds to sleep on
There were no issues second day onwards, people had figured out optimization logic and stuck to final allocations
The cruise experience
We were on MV Kavaratti. It is a transport ship for the locals with some cabins reserved for tourists. I actually liked this no-nonsense cruise more than the fancy ones. It is not wobbly and none of the passengers had sea sickness.
It had clean cabins, good home style food, fully operational showers within each room and all the comfort one could ask for. We were well fed several times a day with morning tea, evening snacks in addition to breakfast, lunch and dinner. Lunch and evening snacks were typically on the islands while morning tea, breakfast and dinner were on the ship
During sunrise, watch out for dolphins that jump around- we saw many close to Agatti
The ship goes to nearby islands during the day after dropping you off and comes back in the evening for pick up. It travels between islands in the night and reaches the deck in the morning
Activities
One activity per day is included in the package. We had glass bottom boat ride in Agatti, snorkelling in Pitti island near Kalpeni, kayaking at Minicoy
Additional activities like scuba diving (3k per person) was available on payment at Agatti, speedboat, banana boat was available at Minicoy. There was a mad rush to register as the manager mentioned it is limited slots for only the first ones to register. Finally everyone who wanted to register managed to complete it. It was an average experience, you do get to see some fishes and corals, but the dive is quite short
You don’t need to know swimming to do snorkeling or scuba diving. The life jackets can support you
Cars are arranged on the islands for sight seeing. We saw the lighthouse in Minicoy, aquarium in Agatti, Tshirt factory and museum in Kavaratti. There were local dance performances arranged in Kalpeni. We had village visit in Minicoy where we saw Mahadhoni used in boat race, got an introduction to matrilineal and education system. Minicoy had 93% literacy rate
Adventure on the last day
We had booked at 1:30 PM train as the arrival time is supposed to be 11 AM. You get a sailing time estimate the previous night – we were supposed to be on time. I had booked two sets of train tickets for travel back home on 2 consecutive days in case we get delayed. I did not cancel them as we were supposed to reach on time
We did reach Kochi by 11 AM, but the disembarkation process did not start from some reason. It was 1 PM by the time we managed to come out. We rushed to the train station and reached at 1:32 PM, but just missed the train!
We then took the same train the next day. Book your flights/ trains in the evening or the day after arrival to be on the safer side
What we really liked
There were many things!
- The clear blue waters of Minicoy
- Views from Minicoy Lighthouse
- The food on the cruise and islands. We never had any stomach issues throughout
- Our first scuba diving experience
- The people we met
- Experience of staying on board