Agonda Beach

Agonda is in Canacona, in southern Goa, a few kilometres north of Palolem. It is three kilometres of open sand between two headlands, and it is the quieter of the two by a considerable margin.

It is a turtle beach, and that shapes it. Olive ridley turtles nest here between roughly November and March, and the Goa forest department fences and guards the nests through the season; the section where they nest is kept clear, lighting is restricted, and the beach shacks are positioned around it. This is a working conservation arrangement on a commercial beach and it functions.

The huts, as at Palolem, are seasonal by regulation — built each October, removed before the monsoon in May, so the beach that exists in January is bare sand in July. Agonda has developed more slowly and more expensively than its neighbour and the density is noticeably lower. Cabo de Rama, a Portuguese fort on a headland twenty minutes north, has a beach below it that almost nobody visits.

The sea is open Arabian Sea rather than a sheltered bay, with a shore break and a current at the northern end; swimming is fine in the middle in calm conditions and lifeguards patrol in season. Dolphins are seen most mornings. Cotigao wildlife sanctuary inland and the Netravali waterfalls are the standard day out from this end of Goa. Agonda's own headland at the northern end has a small chapel and a view down the full length of the sand.

Quieter and dearer than Palolem fifteen minutes south, with olive ridleys nesting under fenced and guarded sand from November. Everything on the beach comes down before the monsoon. Cars are kept off entirely, which Palolem cannot say. Cabo de Rama, a Portuguese fort on a headland twenty minutes north, has a beach below it that almost nobody visits.