From the chilly north we made our way back down to the warmth, flying into Goa (bless Spicejet and their cheap flights) and heading to Palolem, a beautiful beach in the south of Goa. We spent our time swimming and soaking up the sun mostly, but also hired a kayak one morning and paddled around the coast line, did plenty of yoga including an amazing sunset yoga session on the beach with an Irish yoga teacher we met in a random restaurant, and found a few amazing places to eat. Louis also found a few good places to do some bouldering up the north end of the beach, which he was pretty stoked about.

We stayed in a hostel called Summer by the Hostelcrowd, which was a nice, relaxed place to stay just a ten minute walk out of the hubbub of town and from the beach. It didn't have the ambience of the classic coco hut on the beach situation, which is what the majority of accommodation in Palolem is, but it was cheap, quiet and had a kitchenette which we cooked a couple of meals in.

Our favourite places to eat were at the only pure veg Indian place in town called Shree Ganesh, which did decent curries, masala dosa and uttapum and had the loveliest service; at a fabulous vegan/vegetarian cafe called Zest which was filled with other travellers and chill vibes, and had a great smoothie menu, did a mean chia pudding and a super fresh sushi bowl, as well as the best rice paper rolls. We also went to a place called The Space Goa for tea one morning, which is a lush little spot with what looked like an amazing, fresh menu. They also have a little deli/grocery where I picked up some raw buckwheat crackers and gluten free muesli, plus they have other goodies like rice cakes, jams, pickled turmeric, teas etc.

Palolem was a relaxing little dream (but not too relaxing; I've never been more hassled to take a boat ride in my life) (we didn't take any boat rides, by the way) (don't tell me what to do). Here are a few photos I snapped along the way.