Best Beaches in India – Top Beach Destinations for 2026

Known for its pristine beaches, coral reefs, and great scuba diving opportunities.

A major pilgrimage center and beach destination, home to the Jagannath Temple.

Known for its dramatic red cliffs and sweeping views of the Arabian Sea.

The only place on India's south-west coast where dramatic red laterite cliffs plunge straight into the Arabian Sea — a beach town with a 2,000-year-old Vishnu temple, a crescent of yoga retreats along the cliff-top, and mineral-spring beaches below where ashes are immersed in the papanasam (sin-washing) waters.

A 7.6-square-kilometre coral atoll in the Arabian Sea — turquoise lagoons, a single airstrip, a population of 8,000 Muslims, and some of the best scuba diving in the Indian Ocean.

A five-beach horseshoe on the north Karnataka coast where sadhus and surfers share the same shoreline — a thousand-year-old Shiva pilgrimage town whose crescent coves (Gokarna, Kudle, Om, Half-Moon, Paradise) became the subcontinent's quiet alternative to Goa for travellers who want sand without dance-floors.

A 16th-century Portuguese fortress on a windswept island — canons still point at the Arabian Sea, the churches still hold Sunday Mass, and the beaches of Nagoa and Ghoghla offer the quietest Indian shoreline south of Goa.