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Cellular Jail

Cellular Jail

Cellular Jail
4.5
Historic SitesPoints of Interest & Landmarks
About
Built between 1896 and 1908, this jail was home to hundreds of freedom fighters.
Duration: 2-3 hours
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  • Meens_2012
    Pune, India106 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Must visit
    Muat visit, esp for all Indian nationals. Daytime tour plus aound and light show (book sound and light tickets from govt website in advance). You can club the 2 activities also. First sound and light show is at 5.40. weekends are usually sold out esp if large groups are touring. We found a cabbie -cum-guide who wasbvery enterprising and helped us around port Blair, to Baratang and even helped us plan our itinerary ahead. He is very helpful and knowledgeable and is always on time. In fact, he suggested places and helped us visit Baratang very smoothly. Praveen: 9933288856 Very reliable. Also has pickup and drop from Airport.
    Visited February 2024
    Traveled with family
    Written February 19, 2024
  • Anxietyvlogs19
    Mumbai, India9 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Must visit
    The light and sound show is worth the money, it's already very economically priced, and it will make you emotional when you learn about all the sacrifices our freedom fighters made and all the torture they put up with to give us freedom. Wonderfully portrayed, this show is available at different times and in English and hindi. The entry to the cellular jail is chargeable separately and the light show is charged separately. You can visit andamantourism site to book tickets. There's a lot of walking to do around the jail, we opted for a guided tour which only costs 200/- INR. Definitely worth a visit, also don't miss the garden opp the cellular jail which has the statues of freedom fighters, you can also read their info on plaques installed below the statues. There are washrooms available in the premises, carry drinking water since there's a bit of walking around to do, so you'll need to stay hydrated. Wear comfortable footwear. Reaching here is easy, you can take a rickshaw or hire a scooter, while in port blair.
    Visited March 2024
    Traveled with family
    Written March 11, 2024
  • Pushkar M
    Jorhat, India32 contributions
    4.0 of 5 bubbles
    Great place. Must visit once.
    Definitely worth a visit. Can take a guide for better understanding the history n for a quick visit. without a guide also possible but for an extensive visit may take upto 2-3 hrs. The light show can be seen though not a must do according to me. Overall, must visit once.
    Visited March 2024
    Traveled with family
    Written March 20, 2024
  • SBR
    Mumbai, India41 contributions
    4.0 of 5 bubbles
    Visit to Cellular Jail, Port Blair
    A visit to Cellular Jail is a must if you visit Port Blair along with the sound and light show at night. It reminds you of the atrocities wreaked by the British on our freedom fighters especially Veer Damodar Savarkar. It also shows how the Congress Governments in the past white washed our history to ignore such freedom fighters and their contributions.
    Visited March 2024
    Traveled with friends
    Written March 26, 2024
  • vishal jarewal
    Amritsar, India49 contributions
    4.0 of 5 bubbles
    Historical
    Very well maintained jail with lots of historical significance. A must visit when on vacation to Andamans. It offers us to revisit that period of before independence and lets us feel the atrocities and punishments that Britishers used to give our freedom fighters. It truly fills u with patriotism when u see the light and sound show.
    Visited March 2024
    Traveled with family
    Written March 26, 2024
  • James c
    Oklahoma City, Oklahoma414 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Historical prison
    This is the top thing to do at port blair. I agree with the other posts about indians should visit this jail to understand the cost of freedom and who fought for it. They were subdued to immense torture. You can spend about hour and half here if you're a history buff. There is 3 floors of cells, halls of the prisoners who were here plus lots of history. The heat was a little tense but I went in march.
    Visited March 2024
    Traveled solo
    Written April 9, 2024
  • Jet07932237799
    3 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Must watch show
    One must try to go for the hindi show if one is fluent with the language. The lighting and the sound after a point feels like you're in the situation with the characters and one is so immeresed in the show and you come out of it in the real world still thinking about it. Must watch.
    Visited March 2024
    Traveled with family
    Written April 11, 2024
  • Sahil
    Kolkata (Calcutta), India25 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    A must visit
    The site is well maintained and as soon as you arrive, you can read about its history. Guides are there to help you, but unfortunately, they don't offer individual tours for a single fee, which is a bit disappointing. At night, they put on an incredible light and sound show. I really recommend seeing it because it tells the story of the people who suffered in the jail so well.
    Visited December 2023
    Traveled solo
    Written May 30, 2024
  • Andaman Shells
    Port Blair, India28 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Cellular Jail (Kala Paani)
    Cellular jail also known as "Kala Pani" is a very important place historically. We visited here in month of June 2024. It was touching experience to see museum, solitary cells, and the gallows. It all serve as a haunting reminder of the sacrifices made by India during British Rule. It is recommended hiring a guide here to understand the history of the place. The light and sound show organized here every night was amazing. We managed to book tickets for the show online in advance, as offline tickets are sold out most of the time. Overall great experience.
    Visited June 2024
    Traveled with friends
    Written September 25, 2024
  • Holleringcatfish
    49 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    A must visit place in Andaman.
    One of the most thrilling experience we ever had at any historical monument. You can re-live the struggles of the Indian freedom fighters through the light and sound show and feel proud to be an Indian. The monument has been preserved really well and maintained neatly. A walk down the corridors will remind you of the hardships the inmates had to go through. Book your light and sound show tickets in advance. A lot depends.on the weather. If it rains in the evening; shows might be cancelled. We had to face such a situation. But we managed to see the show the next evening. Photography and recording of the light and sound show is prohibited.
    Visited October 2024
    Traveled with family
    Written October 28, 2024
These reviews are the subjective opinion of Tripadvisor members and not of TripAdvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.

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Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Popular mentions

4.5
4.5 of 5 bubbles3,512 reviews
Excellent
1,954
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1,171
Average
320
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46
Terrible
21

Gopi R
Bengaluru, India34 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2020
Great experience. I highly recommend reading up on the cellular jail beforehand and then visiting it. Guided tours are expensive and I was not entirely convinced about the quality of the explanations.
Getting tickets for the Sound and Light show is a Hassle and I recommend booking well in advance online (until July you will probably have to do it in the Mainland itself as Port Blair Internet connectivity is very poor)
Written February 28, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

klsingtour
Bangalore District, India14 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2020
Light and sound show in the evening , ( ticket Rs 150 online booking available) is very good narration of british brutality on Indian freedom fighters. show starts from 515 pm every hour , upto 815 pm. tickets are available online as well. Gives us all a sense of patriotism. We visited the jail in the day time. even though renovation work is going on, we could see the marvellous construction and history of cellular jail
Written February 27, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Kushal360
Kolkata (Calcutta), India51 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2020
It seems difficult to get suitable words for the icon.

The cellular jail probably epitomizes the struggle suffered by the Indian freedom fighters (then undivided India).

The museums and the corridors, as well as the "cells", show the prices that they had paid so that we can enjoy our freedom.

The visit to the cellular jail was like a pilgrimage a sacred place sanctified by the blood, sweat (and lives) of so many freedom fighters.

I feel it is worth visiting the galleries to know about the history and to have a look at the long list of freedom fighters who were put there (mentioned on the walls of the central tower).

It was a trip to express my gratitude and homage to the bright young men who lost their youth (and even lives) to set India (then undivided Inia) free.

Climbing the floors may be a little difficult for some as the steps are steep. For them, the ground floor cells can offer a good idea - as the cells were almost similar.

Watching the light and sound show was an added attraction.
Written December 13, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Panda & Fig
London, UK41 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2020 • Couples
Everyone seemed to rave about the cellular jail so we thought we would take a look for ourselves. It opens from 08.00 to 16.00 but there is a lunch break between 12.30 and 13.30 when it shuts. There are also light and sound shows in the evening.

The jail is located about 15mins from the jetty and it isn't something that you can see from miles away as you drive towards it.

The entry fee is R30 per person but for foreigners, we were surprised by the hike to R100. Guides cost R200 or if you're a foreigner... R500.

There are a few halls with informative displays of photographs, paintings and extracts from prisoners' diaries. The history behind the jail is immense and interesting albeit tragic.

Then you can wander the grounds and see some life-sized models of prisoners in chains and the tools they were forced to work with as part of their hard labour punishment.

Deeper into the jail you can then climb the watch tower and walk down the spokes of cells, entering some of them to learn how dark and cramped they were.

Once you've seen one cell however there is no need to see any others as they are identical. The view from the watch tower is worth a few pictures.

Overall the jail is worth a visit and good value for money, even at foreigners' prices, though I actually found it a little underwhelming. There is still a lot to be learned from the experience, however. Guides are not necessary and the visit should last around 1.5 hours.

Written March 10, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Kumar Krishnaswamy
Bengaluru, India128 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2020 • Friends
Cellular jail is probably the most venerated jail in Indian History and famously known as Kala Pani. It had a bunch of freedom fighters incarcerated and who kept the freedom movement on. Let me share my perspectives. The jail is maintained very well by the Govt and the museums, for a change were well lit and quite informative. And I could see that the entire jail was being renovated. Factually speaking the jail was built well and K felt that the rooms were spacious and had a window etc considering the fact that they were meant to accomodate hard ened criminals from a British perspective. The star shape gives a feel of open spaces etc. Hence, dont expect a dungeon kind of place with no headroom etc. The claim to fame of this jail was Robert Barry who was notorious for his torture of the prisoners. The story is heart rending and we need to be thankful and proud of our forefathers who got us freedom.the big let down of this place was the sound and light show. In today s world of technology it was anachronistic. I was reminded of the bioscope vendor who figures in LIC ads. Please do not waste money or time on this. It is nothing but badly coordinated voice , light and so called music. Time that the authorities wake up to this travesty and either have the latest and technically sound program or simply scrap it.
Written February 11, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Jyotsna2013
Mumbai, India17 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2021
A must visit monument. Go twice- once during the day for a quick walk through the museum room after which you hire a guide(available onsite) to take you through the monument.
Later come back for the sound and light show. These tickets need to be booked beforehand . The show is full. Also you need to figure whether you want the English/ Hindi show as they are available on certain days of the week.

We had booked our car through Gopal( +919531918600) and he had organized the sound & light show tickets for us.In fact he organized the car for us throughout the Andaman trip.

Visiting the Cellular Jail is an amazing experience and one had only learnt about it at school.
Written April 26, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Poopyscoop
Brighton, UK1,302 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2020 • Couples
Really pleased we visited the jail.

It’s quite busy but there is lots of information, which sets out about the history of the jail itself and some of the stories of what happened there.

The buildings have been maintained really well and walking around you get a real sense of its past.

A good place to visit.
Written March 14, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

NitinV81
New Delhi, India284 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2020
Feeling of pride and sorrow both fills your heart when you visit such a place. A request to spend time here to learn the unknown facts about the struggle and not just pass across as a tourist destination. The picture gallery is very informative and host some of the rare pictures of Andaman and its growth. You are also taken aback by learning about the atrocities and inhuman behavior our heroes had to undergo.

The light and sound show compliments the visit and must not be missed. You can choose between English and Hindi and take the tickets accordingly.

The roof and the light tower gives a magnificent view of the jail as well as the city. Evening breeze lets to forget the heat and tiredness.

Try to visit the cell on the first floor in which Late Veer Savarkar was kept.
Written April 5, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

MumbaiRiders
Mumbai, India2,005 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2023 • Solo
CELLULAR JAIL" is situated on a hill at Atlanta point in close proximity to Marina Bay. Joined a small guided tour brushing up my own history knowledge of the Indian Independence movement besides the luxury of visiting sites studied in text books during my school years.A very well maintained museum within the "Cellular Jail" complex consisting of different sections. The construction of the prison started in 1896 and was completed in 1906. The original building was a puce-coloured brick building. The bricks used to build the building were brought from Burma.The building had seven wings, at the center of which a tower served as the intersection and was used by guards to keep watch on the inmates.The wings radiated from the tower in straight lines, much like the spokes of a bicycle.Each of the seven wings had three stories upon completion. There were no dormitories and a total of 696 cells.Today only 2 wings of the former 7 wings of the jail are preserved as a museum.Visited the 3 storey prison building and the cell at the extreme end of the 3rd floor in which Veer.Damodar.Savarkar was kept prisoner.After Sunset there is a "Light and Sound" show on the grounds of the "Cellular Jail".The "Sound and Light" show is World class and requires advance booking.If visiting Port Blair a visit to "Cellular Jail" as well as "Sound and Light" show is mandatory.
Written November 12, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Dr R Dev Das
Port Blair, India2 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2019 • Family
It reminds everyone particularly the Indians that what a price our forefathers have paid for the independence of our mother land. But for their selfless sacrifices we would not have seen this day. A must visit place for all patriots to pay homages to our freedom fighters and for the new generation it's an eye opener.
Written November 13, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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Cellular Jail - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2025)

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