Best Beach Destinations to Visit in India
Browse more guides: India travel | Asia destinations Best Beach Destinations to Visit in India Last updated: April 2026 · 13 min read India has roughly 7,500 km of coastline. Most travel guides treat it like one undifferentiated stretch of sand, which is wrong. The west coast faces the Arabian Sea, which gives you calmer water for most of the year, better sunsets (the sun actually sets over the water), and the entire Goa-Karnataka-Kerala holiday economy. Plus the east coast faces the Bay of Bengal - stronger currents, more rip-tide warnings, often murkier water from river silt, and beaches that are usually for walking rather than swimming. Then there are the two archipelagos that hardly feel like the mainland at all: the Andaman & Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal, and Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea. I've visited beaches across six of the nine coastal states (Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat) plus two union territories (Pondicherry and the Andam...