Goa: A Former Hippy Paradise in Transition
For more than forty years, the small, sun-drenched state of Goa in southern India has held a well-earned reputation as a haven for hippies and backpackers. In the 1990s, its beaches became a magnet for global ravers as the Goa-trance sound—which briefly but powerfully swept through club culture—took hold, and ever since, crowds of trance enthusiasts have flocked there each winter to dance on the sands of India’s party state.
I arrived on the scene relatively late by any measure, only discovering Goa for myself in 2016. But when I did, it was love at first sight—or rather, first sound—and Goa quickly became my preferred winter destination.
Yet the world today is fundamentally different from the world of 2016. Recent years have brought a resurgence of extreme politics, a global pandemic, unprecedented inflation, and the dark specter of war in Europe.
In this post, I will draw on my first-hand knowledge, experience, and insight to describe what Goa is like today.
Overview – Has the Party Finally Ended?
It is with a heavy heart that I must report I can no longer wholeheartedly recommend Goa as a destination for hippies, backpackers, or ravers. To be clear, I am not suggesting Goa is off-limits, but the state is changing in many ways—most of them for the worse—and there are simply better places to be right now.
Throughout this post, I will explain my reasoning and aim to be fair and balanced. For those short on time, here is a summary: gentrification, inflation, and greed mean Goa is no longer the value destination it once was. Noise curfews and a government-driven “war on fun” have crippled the party scene, and the locals’ former open-minded tolerance is being eroded by a rising tide of hostility and the right-wing tribalism seen globally.
Let’s delve into the details.
Gentrification and Rising Prices
Goa was once a true budget backpacker destination where frugal travelers could survive on just a few dollars a day. When I first arrived in 2016, I found a shack on Arambol beach for only 300 rupees per night. While the accommodation was very basic—hard beds and shared cold showers—it was still excellent value for a place right on a major beach. Many travelers were willing to overlook Goa’s flaws because it was a cheap place for foreigners to visit.
By 2024, however, Goa has become expensive. Few beach shacks remain. Meanwhile, guesthouse, hotel, and accommodation prices have soared in recent years, and even the most wretched rooms will cost closer to 1,000 rupees unless you are prepared to pound the pavement and haggle hard.
There are some lush resorts in Goa these days.
As a long-term stayer, I have not often needed hostels, hotels, or guesthouses; we used to arrive and find a house to rent monthly within a few days of landing. In January 2020, we rented a house just outside Arambol for $150, whereas in 2023, after a grueling two-week search, we finally found a house away from Arambol for $300. This is partly due to Airbnb finally reaching Goa, remote-working Mumbaikars relocating there, and more recently a large Russian post-mobilization diaspora who appear to be subletting properties with markups of 50% or more.
Elsewhere, food, drink, party entry fees, and scooter prices have all increased massively over the last few years—up to 150% in some cases. This is partly due to gentrification: every time I blink, it seems a classic Goan beach shack (think cheap thalis and tepid Kingfisher) has closed and been replaced by something closer to a boutique eatery where standards are sometimes slightly better but prices are always two to three times higher. The global cost-of-living crisis has also hit India particularly hard, with annual inflation at 10%.
To be fair, Goa remains substantially cheaper than other hippy destinations like Koh Phangan, Bali, and Tulum. However, if Goan inflation continues at its current pace, it will begin rivaling these destinations within five years—all while offering a much lower standard.
That said, while I would still tell first-timers to give it a go, my big tip for India would be to head to somewhere like Hampi afterward if you are searching for all the good bits.
Parties
What is Goa like for partying? The party culture in Goa was once legendary. The beaches around Anjuna spawned a genuine cultural movement in Goa-trance that later mutated into Psytrance, which continues to thrive as a true underground subculture worldwide. For me, experiencing Psytrance for the first time at the legendary all-night Shiva Valley beach party made me fall in love with Goa back in 2016. Goa should be truly proud of this major contribution to global underground culture and sonic artistry.
However, there now seems to be a determined and concerted centralized effort to strangle Goan party culture. In January 2023, the state government imposed a 10 p.m. curfew on outdoor music, and as if that were not bad enough, the police are liable to turn up to parties hours before the 10 p.m. curfew and shut them down for no reason and with no justification given, just for the hell of it.
The only venues allowed to open past 10 p.m. are covered, indoor club-style ones, which tend to be overpriced and soulless.
It gets worse. Following the suspicious death of an Indian politician at a beach shack in 2022, authorities closed down and bulldozed the legendary “Curlies” beach shack-cum-party spot and issued arrest warrants for its owner and the owners of various other venues.
Then, in 2023, the Goan police acquired shockingly draconian powers to randomly test anyone they want for traces of banned substances. Last week, six tourists were arrested in Vagator for allegedly failing these tests and are now in jail. The upshot is that the only mind-altering substance you are now likely to find is alcohol.
Police
There is a visibly increased police presence across Goa of late. However, rather than waste time watching out for Goa’s many sex offenders, dealing with the burglary rate, or arresting the ever-increasing number of drunken drivers, they prefer to hassle tourists and extort fines for having the wrong colored plates on their scooters.
A number of the parties I attended were also clearly infiltrated by plainclothes police officers who seemed more concerned with watching girls on the dance floor than with watching out for purveyors of banned substances.
Politics
Sure, as a tourist you are unlikely to want to involve yourself too heavily in the political workings of a foreign state, so you might wonder why I am even mentioning this. I will explain.
In 2014, Narendra Modi came to power as Prime Minister of India on a platform of Hindu nationalism. Whatever your views on Modi and the BJP, the fact is that his tenure as leader has been hugely divisive. Since Modi came to power, the entire country has seen a rise in interfaith conflicts and sectarian rhetoric, has increasingly lurched toward regressive ideas, and has seen a groundswell of anti-foreigner sentiment. Some critics now even describe India using the F-word—while that is certainly a strong allegation, the recent politically motivated raiding of the BBC India office (for showing a news piece criticizing the government) does kind of echo that sentiment.
This is all now filtering down into Goa (Modi’s BJP won power in the state for the first time in the 2022 elections), where the once carefree, laissez-faire vibe is being replaced by something darker. Note that the curfews as well as the draconian drug laws are directly influenced by a central government that basically sees hippy values and electronic music as tantamount to satanism.
“Vibe”
Continuing with the theme of satanism, the village of Paliem recently made national news in India after village leaders shut down a Russian theater performance, mistaking it for a “black magic ritual.” What was actually happening was a Russian-language performance of a classic Hindu myth.
A few days ago, I also heard that the legendary Arambol unofficial carnival was canceled with no notice, for no reason, and the organizer (a foreigner who has been coming to Goa for decades) was arrested.
The last festival I attended ended with a gang fight outside, and around Christmas I myself was personally attacked by three locals who attempted to murder me in broad daylight in response to a verbal argument about a barking dog (yes, you read that correctly).
The Positives: Why People Still Fall in Love With Goa
Despite everything I have said above, it would be unfair to pretend that Goa has somehow become a terrible place overnight. The truth is that even now, after all the inflation, curfews, and cultural changes, there are still moments when Goa reminds you exactly why generations of travelers fell hopelessly in love with it in the first place.
For one thing, winter in Goa is still glorious. From November through February, the weather is about as close to perfect as anywhere on Earth gets: warm days, balmy evenings, and weeks of uninterrupted sunshine. Then there are the sunsets. Whether you are sitting on the rocks at Vagator, drinking chai on Ashwem beach, or watching the fishing boats come home in Arambol, Goa can still deliver those magical moments where time seems to slow down and all the noise of ordinary life fades into the background.
The state also retains a depth and character that many newer beach destinations simply cannot replicate. Beneath the cafes, yoga studios, and boutique hotels lies a fascinating blend of Indian and Portuguese influences, centuries of history, distinctive architecture, and some genuinely excellent food. Hire a scooter and venture away from the beach strips, and you will still find sleepy villages, old churches, jungle roads, spice plantations, and local eateries serving some of the best seafood curries in India.
And while the old hippy scene may be fading, fragments of it remain. You can still stumble across drum circles, ecstatic dance gatherings, live music sessions, art spaces, and communities of travelers who came for a few weeks and somehow never left. They may be fewer in number than they once were, but the spirit has not vanished entirely. You just have to work a little harder to find it. Personally, I also find Goa one of the best places in the world to shop for souvenirs, jewelry, and fashion, with several of my favorite brands based here—including Alekai and the Vagator-based Walla Enterprises, who make the best rave gear and psychedelic streetwear on the planet right now.
Based out of Vagator in North Goa, Walla Enterprises has quietly grown from a local psy-scene favorite into an internationally recognized festival-wear label. Drawing inspiration from Goa’s long association with psychedelic culture, Walla has earned a reputation for producing durable shirts, shorts, pants, and more built for long-term travel and all-night dance floors. In many ways, Walla represents one of Goa’s genuine creative success stories: locally rooted, globally worn, and unmistakably psychedelic.
Perhaps all of this will ultimately be Goa’s saving grace. The magic is no longer handed to you on a plate as soon as you arrive. Much of the innocence has gone and some of the rough edges have become sharper. Yet every now and then, usually when you least expect it, Goa still manages to remind you why people have been crossing continents to spend winters here for the last forty years. For some travelers, that will still be enough.
What Next for Goa?
Goa veterans point out that the scene has weathered many storms before, and some are optimistic that this storm too shall pass. Personally, though, I am not so sure.
The Goan authorities have repeatedly publicly stated that they want to get rid of long-stayers, hippies, and ravers and replace them with more monied, less interesting visitors who come for two weeks and blow a load.
In truth, though, while Goa may imagine itself as “the next Bali,” this is pure delusion. For one, Goa is nowhere near as beautiful as Bali and of course does not offer the same range of activities for tourists to spend their money on. Then the entire Goan infrastructure is simply not comparable, and very few tourists will be satisfied paying top dollar for semi-clean accommodation where the power cuts out multiple times each day.
Goodbye Goa…?
Finally, the hard fact is that Goa is not all that welcoming or friendly right now (especially for female travelers), and as such the entire local consciousness will need to shift up a few gears before mass tourists will feel comfortable in what is still a pretty hard environment.
What Goa offered for all these decades was a certain rough-around-the-edges magic along with the chance to escape winter at a bargain price. But bit by bit, the state is killing off all the things that made it unique and alluring. Unless something gives, I expect the destination to get less and less attractive to foreign tourists. It will probably remain popular with Mumbai weekenders and domestic tourists, but nobody else.
Are there any positives in all of this? Well, 5G has arrived, some of the new restaurants and cafes are excellent, and it is a lot easier to find proper coffee and gyms than it was previously. Accommodation standards are also slowly rising, and there are now some truly lush beach resorts popping up for those with money to spare. The fact is that something will emerge at the other end of all of this, and I am sure it will satisfy somebody somewhere. However, for me, none of this compensates for what is being lost, and in my humble opinion there is not much of a reason why I, or any of you reading this, should bother visiting Goa right now.
I have no idea where I will head next winter, but it will not be Goa. Goodbye Goa. Thanks for the memories and less thanks for the scars.
