The Best Beaches To Visit in Goa, India
Goa was our favorite place in all of India. We had the flexibly to rent a scooter and we did our due diligence to visit as many recommended beaches as we possibly could. Over the course of a couple of days we made it to 9 beaches. Below you can find our real thoughts on all of the beaches we visited.
Morjim Beach
This beach is located south of Ashwem Beach. It has a very relaxed vibe. You can go here to lounge around, nap, chill out …you get the point. This beach has plenty of food shacks that offer beach chairs. One thing to note about this beach is that it is known by the locals as “Little Russia”. If you are on a budget, this might not be the best beach since it has pricey food and shops when compared to the other beaches.
Querim Beach
This is another super relaxed beach and it is also known as Keri Beach. Once you reach the port/ferry that crosses you to Tikol, there will be a dirt path that takes you underneath a bridge. If you follow this path, you will reach the northern tip of Querim Beach. This is the most secluded area of the beach. When we visited in the morning, there was only one other person there. This area is perfect for relaxing, reading a book or doing some yoga. We were lucky enough to catch some dolphin action! It was such a beautiful sight.
If you travel a little more south, you will find a more lively Querim Beach. It is still relaxing, but here you will find a few more people. There are restaurants available with lounge chairs for you to enjoy. Here you will find the Ajoba Hindu Temple.
Ashwem Beach
We found this beach to be very peaceful. We ended up staying an entire day at Cafe Orion relaxing, working and watching the waves in front of us. The people were very friendly and they have good food at decent prices. This beach offers lounge chairs for you to lounge around and spend an entire evening here. This beach is great for pictures! It has some nice red rocks on the water with palm trees in the background making it very picturesque!
Arambol Beach
One of my favorite lively beaches! This beach is also one of the hippiest we experienced. We ended up spending a whole day just relaxing and lounging on the beach chairs. We were looking to try some Fish Thali (a delicious Goan dish) and when asking around we were told to visit the "This Is It" Shack. The restaurant is towards the end of Arambol Beach near the colorful shacks below Arambol Hill. The beatiful rocks near the colorful shacks make for a gorgeous scenery. "This Is It" has great lunch specials: Fish Thali for 150 INR ($2.38USD) and a Two for One special on beer! We got 2 Tuborg Beers for only 70 INR ($1.11USD). We grabbed a couple of lounge chairs and spent a beautiful evening here. From this location, you can also visit Arambol Hill and Sweet Water Lake. Arambol Hill will give you some great views of the beach. Sweet Water Lake is a fresh water lake which is said to be very nice and great for a swim. Although we did not go there, it was very accessible from were we were. If you are into shopping, you will also find lots of shop lining up the streets leading to Arambol Beach.
Vagator Beach
This is a great beach to visit after a visit to Chapora Fort! Vagator beach can be seen from Chapora Fort and vice versa. We visited this beach early in the morning and since it offers various water sport activities, it is very lively. This beach does not have lounge chairs so bring your beach towel! It also does not have many choices for food so bring some snacks! You will find the best sunset spot by the rocks or on Chapora Fort.
Ozran Beach (Little Vagator Beach)
This beach was one of my favorites! It has a beautiful landscape with lots of palm trees and dramatic red cliffs as a background. Here you can find Thalassa, a famous restaurant known for it’s gorgeous sunsets and great Greek food. You can also find Waters the famous lounge with great views too! This beach has many lounge chairs you can lay on. The chairs are free, you just have to order food and drinks with the corresponding restaurant. There is also a neat monument of Shiva’s face towards the left side of the rocks near a cafe. The sunsets at this beach are gorgeous.
Anjuna Beach
When we visited Anjuna Beach there were a lot of local tourists and some westerners. People here were enjoying watersports like parasailing, jet skis, banana boat, speed boats and many more. There were also plenty of options for restaurants with lounge chairs and plenty of shops along the beach. Anjuna Beach was not what we were expecting, this beach was a lot dirtier than any of the other beaches we visited. We walked around a bit, but decided not to stay for long. From Anjuna Beach we decided to go to South Anjuna Beach instead.
South Anjuna Beach
South Anjuna Beach was a bit tricky to find. We had to stop and ask a few locals for directions. Their recommendation was to follow the signs to Curlie’s. Although a very narrow and rocky dirt street takes you to Curlie's, it ends up bringing you to South Anjuna Beach. We had lunch at Curlie’s, grabbed a lounge chair and ended up spending our entire evening here. During the day the beach is relaxed, but has a nice vibe due to the music they play. The sunset at South Anjuna Beach is a must. Make sure you get there early enough to grab a spot! The beach starts getting much busier once sunset comes. The beach is full of locals, hippies and westerners. South Anjuna Beach is home to the famous Curlie's and Shiva Valley for one reason... party! Curlie's is a popular night spot on Wednesdays after the Anjuna Market. Shiva Valley is another great outdoor shack, very popular on Tuesday nights.
Baga Beach
This beach is in a very popular area of Goa. Very close to Tito’s Lane, you will find a lot more locals than westerners hanging out on this beach. It is very big and has lots of options for food and drinks. It also has plenty of water sport activities. During the evening, all the food shacks start bringing out their table and chairs closer to the beach making it a great place to have a drink or even dinner while you watch the sunset. Later at night, all the beach shacks will start turning up their music and making it livelier to get the party started!