story on Goa trip with family.big story
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Just back from a 5 night trip to Goa with family so wanted to share my experience along with a little bit of itinerary advice for the people planning their Goa visit. Since we were there with kids, this itinerary does not include night club hopping but it is planned in such a manner that you can accommodate club hopping on any night.
Getting there: This section is specific for Pune folks. Most people prefer traveling by own car from Pune to Goa which is good option since this allows you to have your own transport in Goa. But we went by train. There are a couple of trains from Pune and train travel time from Pune to Goa is just a few hours more than car travel time and most of these hours are overnight so you will reach Goa fresh (no driving strain). Also some trains like Poorna Express go via Dudhsagar so you will get majestic view of falls from the train. You should explore this.
North vs South: You may have already read a lot about this debate. Yes south side beaches are cleaner, less crowded and less commercialized. South side hotels are also bigger and plusher, some with even their own private beaches. So it’s a great place to be if your idea of vacationing is lazy-ing around on beach all day every day. However, most of other activities (night clubs, places to see, good places to eat etc) are on north side. Though the distances on map do not seem large but roads are narrow so travel takes time and cab fares are high so choose wisely. We stayed at Fahrenheit Hotels and Resorts (FHR) which is located between Baga and Calangute. FHR deserves a full review of its own. The link to my FHR review is at the bottom of this post.
Day 1: Arrived at hotel by 4 PM. Check-in, a quick bite at hotel restaurant and then off to activity that everyone visiting Goa should do first, a sunset walk at beach. After that, window shopping on Baga – Calangute main street followed by dinner at Café Souza Lobo located right on the beach at Calangute with live music and some dancing.
Day 2: Breakfast at hotel at 8:30 AM and off to beach for whole morning. Came back to hotel at noon, enjoyed a dip in the pool and rain shower with funky lights (more about that in my FHR review). Then off to lunch at Chef Soumyen’s Kitchen (full review link at the bottom of this post). Back to hotel for an afternoon siesta. Evening was spent on Mandovi on a river cruise. River cruise was ok experience, not that great. The problem is that you do not get to choose which boat you will go on. You have to buy ticket from a central ticket booth and board on whichever boat that is loading at that moment. If you are lucky to get a small or midsize boat, you may be ok but if you get a large boat (like we did) with approximately 500 people on board, it’s not that great of an experience. You will be better off spending the evening at one of the river casinos, if you are not with kids and like to gamble. Alternatively you can spend the evening at Donna Paulo and Miramar beach which are very nice places to be in the evening.
Day 3: Early Morning start. We had hired a cab on previous evening to pick us up early. Left hotel by 6:30 AM to go to Dr Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary. It’s a must visit place. Link to my full review of sanctuary is at the bottom of this post. Then we went to Panaji for a quick breakfast and visited old Goa church complex (Bom Jesus and St Augustine’s ruins) after that. Again a must visit place. You must hire a guide for Bom Jesus visit. The guides there are very knowledgeable and charge just Rs 100. Without the guide, you would not know what you are looking at (unless you are a history buff). There is a hidden gem in that area. An old closed down church on a small hill. Views from that place are amazing. Hopefully your cab driver would know about it or you can ask your Bom Jesus guide about that. You have to take the road that goes towards the Arch of Vasco Da Gamma from Bom Jesus and from that road you will take a right turn on a narrow uphill road to get there.
After Old Goa, we came back to hotel to have lunch and catch a break since we woke up very early in the day and kids were getting cranky. Early evening was spent at a nearby spa while kids were busy on PS3 (provided by hotel, more about that in my full FHR review). Late evening was devoted to window shopping session in Baga followed by dinner at O’Pescador. If you are looking for a more “spirited experience” you can go to Tito’s night club or Café Mambo or Britto’s for a night of party, all of which are at Baga.