Octopus Garden Dive Centre

Octopus Garden Dive Centre sits on Havelock Island (Swaraj Dweep) in India's Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and the welcome is the point as much as the diving. It's a PADI Resort staffed by certified PADI instructors and divemasters — three instructors in all — and the promise they make is simple enough: you arrive as guests and leave as friends.

Courses for every level

First-timers can get in the water with PADI Discover Scuba Diving, which runs roughly three hours from USD 60. Returning divers shaking off the rust have PADI ReActivate Scuba Refresher (about a day, from USD 81), while the PADI Open Water Diver Course takes around four days from USD 309. Those ready to go further can add the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver over about two days, from USD 288. There's an onsite classroom, free Wi-Fi, air fills and a full rental kit — from masks and 3mm wetsuits to dive computers and regulators.

The local dive map takes in The Wall, Dixon's Pinnacle, Pilot Reef, Broken Ledge, Aquarium, Slope, Nemo Reef and Turtle Beach, with reef fish, turtles, sharks and rays, corals and anemones among the residents. Staff speak English, Hindi and Bengali, and the centre runs seven days a week, from 07:00 AM to 07:30 PM — which suits families, groups of friends and solo travellers alike.