Overview
About Marina Park, Gandhi Park & Aberdeen Bazaar
Marina Park runs along the harbour below the town, and in the last hour of daylight it fills up: families on the promenade, children on the play equipment, ice-cream carts, and the Water Sports Complex jetty at one end where the Ross Island boats come in. The Sound and Light installation and the memorial to the 2004 tsunami are here too.
Gandhi Park sits on the rise nearby, terraced and green, with views over the harbour and a modest set of gardens that make a decent early-evening walk. Neither park will occupy more than an hour, and neither is trying to.
Aberdeen Bazaar is the other half of the picture — the commercial centre of Port Blair, a dense grid of shops selling everything from mobile phones to fishing tackle, with the clock tower junction at its middle. This is where you buy a SIM card, change money, pick up a sarong or find a chemist. Food here is cheap and good: fish curry and rice, Bengali sweets, South Indian breakfast, and the seafood stalls that set up in the evening.
Together they are the antidote to a week of monuments and boat jetties, and they cost nothing.
Why people come here
- Harbour promenade at Marina Park, best in the last hour of light
- 2004 tsunami memorial on the waterfront
- Gandhi Park's terraced gardens and harbour views
- Aberdeen Bazaar for SIM cards, money changing and everyday shopping
- Evening street food and seafood stalls around the clock tower
Things to do
What to do here
Walk the Marina Park promenade
Harbour views, the tsunami memorial and the boat jetty, busiest and best from five o'clock.
Shop Aberdeen Bazaar
The place to sort a local SIM, exchange currency and buy anything you forgot to pack, before you head to islands where none of that is easy.
Eat at the evening stalls
Fish fry, chowmein, Bengali sweets and South Indian tiffin around the clock tower junction after dark.
Gandhi Park at dusk
Terraced gardens on the rise with the best free harbour view in town.
Getting there
How to reach
On foot
All three are within walking distance of each other and of most central Port Blair hotels.
By auto
Autos run everywhere in town for very little; agree the fare before you get in.
Best time to visit · Year round · 5 pm onwards
Midday is hot and the bazaar is at its most chaotic. Everything here improves after five, and the promenade is genuinely lovely at sunset.
Good to know
Travel tips
- Buy your local SIM here. Coverage on Havelock and Neil is patchy and mainland SIMs often struggle.
- Change money and draw cash in Port Blair — ATMs on the smaller islands run dry regularly.
- The bazaar largely shuts by 8 pm. It is not a late-night town.
- Alcohol is sold only at licensed shops with limited hours; plan ahead if it matters.
Gallery
Marina Park, Gandhi Park & Aberdeen Bazaar in pictures
Port Blair (South Andaman)
Combine it with
Tour packages
