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Palolem was one of my most enduring memories of India when I first visited. Practically deserted, at the end of the season several years before it had been 'discovered', it really did feel and look like paradise - a beautiful, sweeping bay fringed by palm trees, with just a small cluster of huts offering basic acommodation and meals. We stayed with a family in one room of their two room house, with nothing but palm trees between us and the beach.

Going back I knew things would be different - I'd heard it had changed and grown considerably but had no idea if it would be as dramatic as my return to Kovalam beach had been. Fortunately I was relieved to find that despite a massive increase in the number of huts and beachfront restaurants it hadn't quite lost all of its charm, though it was nothing like the empty expanse I remembered from years before.

It is still an exceptionally beautiful area, but no longer can you see nothing but palm trees on the beach. In fact, there is now barely a gap between the wooden shacks from the north to the south of the bay, and as you walk the beach there are endless offers of boatrides to see dolphins from fishermen on the beach, waiters calling you into their restaurants and hawkers selling sarongs and cds. Yet it is still fantastically beautiful, and watching the sun set over the island at the north of the beach would put a smile on my face every night.

We found it a useful base to explore the area from, and there are plenty of beautiful beaches to the north and south you can reach by motorbike, and really just stayed on as we'd grown quite attached to our room with balcony that stayed beautifully cool throughout the day, but would recommend looking around some of the other local beaches for similarly beautiful surroundings that you don't need to share quite so widely!

While it has changed don't be put off - it still warrants its name of 'paradise beach'; indeed it was recently voted best beach in the world!