The Islands

India's islands are not one proposition. The Andamans sit in the Bay of Bengal, nearer Myanmar than the mainland, and are at their best from November to April — Havelock and Neil for the reefs, and a colonial ruin on Ross Island that most itineraries drive past. Lakshadweep is the opposite coast and a harder door: ten inhabited atolls, permit-only, a pole-and-line tuna economy the UN rates among the cleanest fisheries anywhere, and boat transfers the southwest monsoon closes from June. We plan both around the permit calendar first and the weather second, because the permit is the thing that actually fails.