Travel: January Recharging on South Goa Beaches

January is the UK’s worst month I reckon. On the slide out of Christmas and New Years partying, everyone’s broke and it’s freezing and quite possibly wet. Which pretty much makes it the best time to escape to India for some Winter sun. South Goa beaches were the chosen destination.

We stayed on Palolem beach at Dreamcatcher’s resort, a series of beach huts set in a palm tree forest.

 Palolem beach is at the centre of a chain of beaches that run along South Goa’s Arabian sea coast. It has a perfect crescent shaped beach and along it are a range of accommodation, bars and restaurants.

There’s lots of shopping to be done. I returned with lots of homeware and fabrics but also clothes, jewellery, second hand books, DVDs, mendhi and more are available.

Of course the food was going to be amazing. It’s predominately vegetarian but with lots of meat options as well. Interpretations of European dishes sometimes missed the mark but any local option was almost always awesome. Definitely try the 10Rupee samosas on street stall just off the beach.

The nightlife is pretty chilled out compared to North Goa – there are a couple of silent discos and one outdoor club Leopard Valley a short tuk yuk ride away.

Patnem beach is just south of Palolem, with a quieter more chilled out vibe and some lovely restaurants. We loved eating the fresh seafood and fish at the restaurants there. Particular faves were April 20 and Casa Fiesta.

Also loved the shop Jooli on Patnem beach which had a lovely curated selection of clothes and homewares.