Has anyone been in Palolem recently?

Cosy is not a word that springs to my mind when thinking about Palolem, however, 3 weeks ago, Palolem was doing business as usual. Plenty of budget places to stay. Plenty of pancake restaurants. Plenty of kashmiri salesmen and tacky souvenier stalls.

8 years in Goa = a long time re; tacky development.

you may want to take number 3's suggestions with a pinch of salt D....there seems to be a concerted spamming effort on its behalf right now

Hey magali...i was in arambol with my freinds from belgium judith and anne both from antwrep......though anne is a permanent resident of arambol...yeah palolem is kewl option...go for it we enjoyed it to the core ...........

Hi,
Was in Palolem around New Year (peak season!) after 14 years.
A big change, but we still liked it.
Much more acco, shops and restaurants, but still nice and laid back.
If you want a quieter beach just walk 20 minutes south to Patnem beach (you can stay there as well).
An other option is Gokarna (5 stops by train to the south). Mix of an genuine holy Indian village and nice beaches (especially Kudlee).

Don't want to spend 1500rps in taxi fair? Why don't you take the bus?

Hi
After many trips to India over the past 25 years we decided to give Goa a go this year. We enjoyed Panaji because of its Portugese history and we loved the food but the rest of Goa was not for us, far too mant tourists crammed onto beaches and too many tourist hassels. Even the less popular Goan beaches were not as pleasant as other Indian destinations so no need to go there again.

However we went 100ks north of Panaji to Malvan in Maharashta and stayed on Takarli Beach which was really great.

Malvan has a distinctive cusine , It is a really beautiful unspoiled place with very friendly people. There is a great fort on an island off the coast. The beach is a huge white sandy expanse and would take a day to walk its length. There are fishing boats and villages and shady palm fringed lanes and waterways. This is a place to chill out for a while and we loved it.

You can stay at a few guesthouses that are springing up near the river or at the hotel on the water in Malvan itself (good food) or at the Maharashtra Tourism Bungalows about 5ks south of Malvan. (book in high season) You will only find Indian tourists and it is real India. By the way for some reason people don't stare or bother you on the beach.

Travel slowly and find real India before it is gone forever
Howard

Everybody: Thanks for some good advice!

Kayden: yep, I would love to take a bus just like in the good old days... Problem is that I'm traveling with my one year old baby this time, and he would give me a hell of a time on the bus... 3 days ago I did a 30 minutes bus ride to Mapusa with the little one on a local bus, and that seemed just to be enough for him ;-)

Also: I heard Agonda is nice and laid back, and that there is basicly no development? What I do need is at least a small shop or supermarket around to buy bananas for my baby (if he doesn't eat anything else, he survives on that...). Any shops in Agonda? Or just beach and huts.

And also because of the baby, I can't really stay in the most simple beach hut anymore like I used to... a simple bungalow with attached shower will do though...

I am however happy to hear Palolem hasn't lost its charm! We may check that out, otherwise we continue down to Gokarna (heard great thing about that place too).

Thanks a lot!

PS: I checked out the Saturday nite Bazaar near Anguna last weekend: Oh man, what a dissappointment!!

Well 'tramps' you obviously didn't go to Moira and sit by the river, beautiful countryside with the odd temple. Contrary to other belief, Goa isn't made up of Panjim and a coastline.