Baga Holidays

Once a quaint fishing village, Baga has quietly become one of North Goa’s most popular resorts. It matchs its neighbour, Calangute, in the popularity stakes, and manages to pack in a thriving beach scene, a tonne of watersports, and some of the most vibrant nightlife anywhere on this coastline.

This long avenue of white sand, washed by the warm Arabian Sea, is a throbbing carnival of life in high season. It crams in watersports huts, beach shacks, plus an endless procession of masseurs, fruit sellers, tightrope walkers, and even a sacred cow or two. Fishing boats are moored at the north end of the beach, at the mouth of Baga Creek. This is the spot for some peace and quiet, especially at sunset, with a cocktail in hand.

Baga’s village streets are stuffed with riverside restaurants, small guesthouses, souvenir stalls, tailors’ shops, and also a honeycomb-hued Hindu temple. But Baga really comes into its own when the sun goes down. The main strip, running behind the beach, has some of Goa’s best nightclubs, hosting everything from trance parties to Bollywood extravaganzas. And if you head down to the beach, you’ll find shacks still serving drinks at dawn.

The town of Calangute is five minutes' walk away. It has tonnes of modern restaurants and a lively market – where you can haggle over Tibetan crafts or just soak up the atmosphere as you tuck in to a thali food platter. And culture vultures won’t want to miss out on the Shri Shantadurga Temple or the magnificent St Alex Church, a three-storey Portuguese edifice in a Persil shade of white.