Visit to heaven again... Goa.. Freedom, fun and freaking out...

Towards beginning of November 2016 it stuck we hadn't planned our winter vacation.  No time to search or book so Goa was decided without much of confusion. We have done a Goa trip about 8 years ago and that place had the magic, freedom for any traveller. I have never seen a place so traveller friendly. Now into details..

Hotel bookings: booking.com

Flight: Indigo. We left on Sunday early morning flight and returned the next Saturday evening(Christmas eve). Found that flight combination much cheaper than other dates.

Day 1:  Landed at Goa, Dona Paula, Miramar

Place of stay: Hawaii comforts at Dona paula.

Landed at Goa airport and took prepaid taxi to Dona paula. Non AC costs: Rs. 875.

We reached Hawaii comfort by 9:30 AM much earlier than check-in time(Check-in time: 13:00hrs). They were happy to hold the luggage and also helped us with a two wheeler rental Rs. 400 a day. We are on our own instantaneously.

The location of Hawaii comforts is scenic and convenient. There is a small Hawaai beach within 50 meters from the hotel. Clean beach with nobody there.

We took the bike and did a free boat transfer to the other side. Its a fun ride with bike on boat. Do try!

Beautiful Reis magos fort

We reached Reis magos fort. This is an offbeat place recently renovated. It has lot of paintings and lot of historical facts put up. Do visit this place.

We returned back to MG road and had lunch at navtara vegetarian restuarant. Awesome food at a very reasonable rates.

We also visited the broadway bookshop largest bookshop in Goa. Nice place to spend sometime. Pick up some good read for your trip.

Sunset time reached Dona Paula view point. Beautiful place. Sunday evenings are super crowded, problem is the road is a narrow one way. So leave your vehicle far off and walk or avoid during weekends. Domino's serves hot pizzas directly for Rs.100. Interesting. Place has a good view. Traffic is a pain.

Evening we visited Meeramar beach. Soft sand clean beach. Do not miss the street foods in the night. Awesome chats(Esp. Sev puri, Pav bhaji..)

Day 2:  Vagator beach, Bean me up

Day 2 started with yummy breakfast at Hawaii comforts. They have a large spread with corn flakes,bread, fruits, Aloo paratha, pav bhaji, Strawberry milkshake, tea ,coffee. This place has the most friendly staff(most of them are differently abled, a salute for that) and well talented chef.

Vagator beach

We did a good long drive to Vagator beach. Vagator beach has a very different feel. Rocks, shacks sun and sand.

The waves were there and comparatively calm beach.

View of Vagator beach from top

After a nice bath and swim in water we went to this amazing place called bean me up. It's close to vagator beach. This is a vegan place. Totally amazing!

They make everything under the sky, vegan. Totally organic local produce and fresh. Try the pita bread hummus.. pasta, lasngya. Mind blowing.. Even fresh lemon soda with a tinge of honey/jaggery.. This place is not just an eat out.. it's an experience do try!!

Evening we watched sunset at Meeramar beach. Take the small cut before the main beach to watch sunset. Local do some walking and playing there. Its lot less crowded than main beach to watch sunset.

We did the night cruise in mondovi river. It costs rs.300 per head. It takes an hour. If you don't like party music dancing can skip this. It's noisy crowded and boring.

Day 3: Hawaai beach, Palolem here we come

After a lot of nagging from our little one to check out the closest beach we tried the tiny hawaii beach next to hotel. It was a pleasant surprise! Nice calm beach with absolutely no one. Shells everywhere.. beautiful.

The hotel helps us with a nice taxi to Palolem for Rs.2000. Nice new ertiga came. It's a good 1.5hrs drive we reached Palolem. Our 4 night stay here was at Castle house. Decent place with a neat pool. Staffs weren't too friendly beaches are bit far from here.

Immediately took bike on rent. 250rs a day honda dio. We took it from Seema bike rental opposite to Palolem guest house. Very friendly owner called Sanjay.

We headed to the beautiful Palolem beach had lunch at pure vegetarian hotel called Shri Ganesh near beach. Good jeera rice, paratha and sandwiches.

Evening we went to Palolem to watch beautiful sunset. Palolem carries a lot of calmness. When north Goa is about partying.. South is more of calm beaches.

All the shacks serve awesome tea during sunset.. order and enjoy sunset. Tea costs about Rs.50 a day.

Dinner at Magic italy near palolem beach. This place is 17 years old and authentic awesome pizza. Do try their vegetable pizza and Garlic parsley pizzas. Mind blowing!

We booked boat ride to islands and dolphin watching for Rs. 1300 for the next day.

Day 4: Hi dolphins, butterfly beach, honeymoon beach

Castle house has very basic breakfast. Not at all impressive. Poori channa/aloo upma bread egg. Next day pav bhaji poha. Next day again poori, tasteless.

We reached around 8:30AM for the boat ride. December is the best time to watch dolphins. We spotted about 12 dolphins. Beautiful view.

Beauty isn't it?

Butterfly beach a beach in shape of butterfly, beautiful small beach. It's high tide time so not so flat. Moved on honeymoon beach and had a nice swim for 30 mins.

These are tiny beaches looks beautiful. Entire boat ride is about 1.5hrs. Good fun activity to do.

Lunch we wanted something light. Headed to NH and found a nice Udupi hotel. Limited menu ,awesome taste. Masala dosa tastes yummy. Pooris too. Costs very less. You would find a lot of westerners here. Food is an universal language isn't it? Do try out if you are bored of eating all fancy things.

Galgibagh beach. Walk on water!

Sunset at beautiful Galgibagh beach. Galgibagh beach is little far from palolem. Very less crowd no shacks foods.. Peaceful flat beach. Has a life guard too.

On our way back near patnam beach we tried home resturant. Over priced but authentic italian. Nice setup but average food.

Day 5: Cabo de Rama - Fort time, Maggie, Agonda

Woke up for a long drive to Cabo de Rama. A fort with stunning view of beach. Has a beach with rocks. Has a church inside too.

On the way back we went to a small house/ snack place with adithya icecream. A very friendly host made awesome maggie with vegetables and juices. After refuelling ourselves reach Agonda beach.

Yummy maggie at a small snack shop near Cabo de Rama

South beaches each of them have their own flavor. Agonda is fun and freaky. With waves large and small coming your way, safe and fun beach.

Yummy Food at Sandy feet, Agonda

A very friendly shack owner of Sandy feet offered the umberella for free. Awesome host with great food music and comfortable seating arrangement. We spent from 11 AM to 6 PM there. Till chai. Try out this place. Once you settle on their cozy seats you would never feel like leaving the place.

Cozy seating at Sandy feet

After breathtaking sunset at Agonda we returned to room.

Day 6: Patnem and Palolem

We spent entire day swimming at Patnem and Palolem. Spent first half at Patnem beach. Just swimming and enjoying the beautiful beach.

After an awesome lunch at Magic Italy we went to Palolem beach, watched sunset and swim again.

Day 7: Bye bye.. 

Morning, last swim at Palolem beach.

Taxi to airport from Palolem cost us Rs 1500/-. We took a break at Madgao for lunch and some cashew purchase. Cashew shops are a sight to watch.

Reached Goa airport and returned Bangalore.

Right after we landed on the Bangalore airport we had a nice view of the Bangalore bringing back fond memories of the many sunsets in our trip!

Goa- Sun, Sand, Food, Sunset, bike rides!

Useful Info:

1. Most restaurants accept only cash. Better to be prepared.

2.  Good idea to carry lots of waterproof sunscreen.

3. You may avoid buying packaged water as hotels allow us to fill water bottles to carry around use.

4. Don't worry if your stay doesn't include breakfast, many places are open for breakfast.

5. December is a peak season and nearing Christmas the room rates in a lot of hotels become double.

6. A very good idea to hire a two wheeler to roam around. Local folks very helpful with routes and plenty of sign boards if google maps not work well.

7. Kayaking is available in Palolem. Lots of people trying it during the sunset. It's extremely flat and safe.

8. December weather is awesome with nights and early mornings having a pleasant cold breeze. A thin jacket would help in case you plan to rent a two wheeler.

Have fun, have a nice trip! Go with an open mind, Goa has something for everyone!!

Goa..Heaven on earth

After writing blog on my trip to Korea(partially) somehow wasn't really happy about those postings and didn't get enough motivation to write more till last week I went to Goa. After publishing photos quite a few people wanted to know more. Thought I would atleast write them all down before I forget all the details. Thinking of posting some photos as well :).

After rushing and finishing all office work on Friday(20th Mar 09) me and my hubby quickly packed stuff and rushed to catch the train from Bangalore to Goa(7311). One thing I really like about all this beach holidays is...you can survive with some tees and tracks, Surf Re.1 sachets!! no big baggage!

First surprise happened in Londa station.There were a bunch of young guys, dressed in white, came and cleaned the train coach, window glasses of AC coach, pressed some air freshener also! Huge surprise at the start of vacation. After Londa station we came to the door step of train and sat. Nice to see all the greens on both sides and tunnels. This train timing is convenient as it reaches near castle rock 9 o'clock, we get to see the doodh sagar twice from train... a must watch!

The train was late by 1.5 hrs, we got down at Madgao station on a bright sunny Saturday noon(21 st Mar). We were planning to go to Palolem(South goa). Went and enquired a few friendly cops in the station they said there is a passenger train from Madgao to Canacona(which is just 2kms from Palolem beach) at 2.30. Had lunch in a interesting railway restaurant which advertised to have separate kitchen for Veg and non veg :).

I must tell you, Indian railway rocks! The passenger train fare was Rs.9 for 46 kms! Very less crowded and train came at around 3 and dropped us at Canacona at around 3.30pm! 40+ kms!! Amazing journey there are lot of tunnels and train goes in such a speed you could feel the pressure difference in your ears!

At Canacona there were 2 autos waiting positively for a passenger from this train. He charged 50 Rs to take us to Palolem guest house. We just identified this place with googling. But it was real nice place to stay.

There were 4 options:
Basic non AC 800/day (TV, neat bath room, hot water all the time, small balcony)
Basic AC 1000/day

Little bigger Non AC 1000
AC 1200

We picked the first... it is recession time, we are also in cost cutting mode you see! ;)

This hotel is the best! Good service, neat rooms, they come and clean once you goto beach and get all the sand! Very friendly staff! No fuss, no hi fi! Would give a 4/5!

The beach is 2 mins walk from this hotel !

First sunset we watched at Palolem beach! Palolem was actually cooler than Bangalore in March! :). Beautiful clean less crowded beach!

After watching sunset and walking in the beach. We were hungry and wanted to have a leisurely dinner.

In this beach, once it gets dark almost all the hotels in the beach side(beach facing) light candles and put table in sand and serve food! It is very romantic and beautiful sight to see (and eat as well).

As it is summer the sky was clear and lit up with Stars! One thing I tell you... when you are on vacation everything looks beautiful!

We came back to room and ate in the garden restaurant at Palolem guest house itself as we were both quite tired after long train journey. Food was surprisingly good! The tomato soup was made of real tomatoes and you would get the taste of sour fresh tomato puri! He had made fantastic starter, subji and parata as well 3.5/5 for food here as well! Lassi here was the only flop!

Sunday morning, woke up and went to beach early and played in water till we were tired. One thing is, Goa beaches apart from being beautiful, is safe, water/waves is not fierce, you can comfortably go till some distance inside the water and enjoy the way water pushes you!

Goa you get two wheelers for rent:
Palolem rate:
Rs. 150 for Activa
Rs.200-250 for bikes.

Took Activa for rent from lady opposite to our hotel. She said 200 first and then gave it for Rs.150 per day.

We had read in net about a veggie option called "home" in nearby beach called Patnam. We went there and tried. Very interesting food options. Lot of salad types, but very slow service and priced slightly on the higher side.

Came back to room took rest for a while, then planned to watch the evening sunset at Cobada rama fort. Suggested in all guides, net as "don't miss"!.

Having two wheeler and map made the trip more enjoyable! We traced with map and asking lot people and drove to Cobadarama fort. The way is very scenic and a must watch place this is! It is around 30 kms from Palolem I think. Roads are good! No traffic you can just zip thru!



There was absolutely nobody there, as told by lot of people in net and people who have been there, I would suggest the same: return back before it gets dark! Have some time it is a small trek! Watching sea here is exciting. After spending about an hour here, we returned back to hotel.

Dinner we tried in a place called Sameer on the beach. The tables are facing the beach with nice lighting and nice view of the beach and water. Food was ok with fewer options for veg.

This Palolem about one km stretch around beach is full of eat outs and shops it is real fun to roam around here and choose the place to eat. We were surprised to see a Vegan hotel called blue planet there, they even had an interesting menu!

While walking in the beach, one boat guy came and spoke to us asking if we are interested in Dolphin spotting and boat ride to tiny beaches. They give you interesting deals. There are two tiny beaches could be reached from Palolem in boat called butterfly beach, honeymoon beach. They take you in boat drop there for 15mins and pick up it costs 500 but if you want to stay there for hour or two they come back later and pick you up 200rs extra. He told we can decide after seeing place also. We agreed and he said we have to go early(6.30 around) to spot the dolphins and we scheduled all this for the next day morning!

Monday morning(23rd Mar), after lot of struggle between me and sleep, woke up at 5.30 am and rushed in activa with lot of snacks in activa to the beach at 6.15am! To our surprise we were first there for that day's dolphin watch ride and the boat was already there and came to us! After doing the interesting process of booting the boat :) we were all set. They use two logs of wood and apply oil(lubricant) and keep changing it once boat moves little and push it into sea! Interesting to watch this event!

Once we were all set, we saw beautiful sunrise and lot of dolphins jumping around[Add photo]! It was so hard to believe it is all real! They took us in a boat and once we were little far from beach turn off engine and all absolute silence and you see dolphins jumping, some single, some pair! Sheer thrill and excitement! What a way to start the day!

Then they took us to this butterfly beach, you see the water splashing on the rock! Awesome!

We couldn't get down at honeymoon beach as tide was high! Boatman said in low tide it looks very beautiful! Have to check this out when that happens!

Boat trip costed us Rs.500.

Had breakfast in a udipi style resturant in the nearest town forgot name of hotel and town. Small place nice breakfast!

We played in water in Patnam beach which was also very nice. Nice tide. Each beach is different in its own way! Tides are different, scene is different though it is just 2kms from the Palolem beach.

Lunch we had in Mamoos the place was very hot but food was very good. The stuffed kulcha, roti(fulca), navarathan kurma were awesome. It was great food at hot place. Not expensive at all.

We took rest in the noon, then we went to the Galgi baga beach which was a very nice ride. This scenic beach has Olive Ridley turtle nest[add photo]. Absolutely nobody beach this was. We watched sunset from here.

That night we tried pizza at "Magic italy" fantastic 4/5! Do check out!

Next day morning we drove to cotigoa or cotigao wild life sanchuary, our last tourist spot at south Goa. They said we can spot some animals if we go there early. Woke up took our activa and rushed there to see beautiful sunset. They let you drive your vehicle but no proper sign boards to follow. With little difficulty we found a tree top tower which we climbed and saw nothing much. But early morning trek here is really pleasant. This place is around 15 kms from Palolem.

As we were all excited about the passenger we took from Madgao to canacona, we were planning to use the similar train service to go back to Madgao. But hearing our plan to go to Panjim, friendly auto driver and another person in hotel suggested to use bus as we get frequent buses from Madgao to Panjim and Madgao railway station and bus stand were far apart. It worked out to be a brilliant idea. Palolem to Madgao takes about 1 hour. From there they have non stop bus service to Panjim. It is interesting arrangement, there is a long queue and once there are 32 tickets the bus starts and so on. If you have bought ticket you have to board bus. We had lunch at Kamat near circle very avearage food, and took non stop service to Panjim. It takes less than hour, bus is indeed fast. Fare is Rs.22/person.

Madgao and Panjim were hot!Very hot compared to Palolem. In Palolem we felt cold when we drove bikes in early mornings.

At Panjim we took local bus to Mira mar beach. We hadn't had any place of stay. Was familiar with some hotel called Gopika. From Mira mar circle we took an auto to goto Gopika, the rooms weren't so neat or spacious. It was just ok. Then auto driver suggested a place called Raj. We checked out there. It was comparatively new hotel and rooms were better. They had only AC rooms, offered room at 1200/night.

That evening we went to Donapal(very crowded). It was long walk from hotel(30 mins). Then we took a bus back to Mira mar. Watched sunset, sundown cruise from on the beach. They put on load music in a cruise and dance as well and take you in this beach and back water at sunset and sundown time. If interested rush for this as it takes only 2 rides(sunset,sundown). (We however skipped this.)

Must try in this beach is chats! It is hotel effect in road side. You are comfortably seated in a small parapet wall, mineral water(with additional cost) served, a bearer type comes with menu card(printed and laminated) comes and takes order and serves you delicious chats, lot of options - no one can eat just one! Do try out!

Next day morning,once the rented pulsar was ready we went to Bicholim, which is about 40 kms from Panjim, there Mayem lake was one scenic picnic spot. Boating available here.

Went to Baga beach from here. First crowded beach we saw in our entire trip :). Lot of water games here. Try the parasailing. It is nice to be up in air! Other activites are banana boat ride, water scooter and bumper ride. We paid 600 for all water games per person(after bargaining).

We played in water for a while, but this beach water carries some diesel as well!
Games here are fun. Not the beach itself.

From here very next beach is calangute, even more crowded, all those water sports are avaiable here as well.

Returned back to room at Panjim after a nice drive. Dinner we went to Panjim market and we searched for Veg resturant. We found a board with Veg thali and entered a very nice place. The hotel name is "veg thali", they serve only thali. It is authentic gujarathi and rajasthani food. Lot of items it keeps coming one after other. Quite, clean place. If you are veggie it is a real treat! They serve around 20 items in menu! Full course and charge is Rs.150

The next day morning we went to Vagator beach, which is a beautiful place. From here you can walk thru rocks to next beach. This is also a nice beach especially for swimming. We were in the water for a couple of hours. From here we went to Chapora fort. Awesome view of sea! This is the place where Dil chahtha hai was shot!



On our way back we visited Anjuna beach as well. Cannot get into water here(lot of rocks,clay) but beautiful to see!

Evening we went to Aguada fort to watch sunset. Nice drive, very scenic. After reaching there we learnt this fort is closed 5.30 in the evening. Then found out behind the fort there was place with similar view! Nice to see all boats, barge, ships from this fort.

We had a fine dinner at Taj home village, Aguada. Nice place to eat, beach facing tables available. Romantic place, great fulfilling food no noise! Do check out their washrooms...sheer luxury! I loved the wash basin they had placed there!

Next day early morning we drove to Altino, whole drive takes about 20 mins nice to see beach from top! If time permits take a walk here! You could see old Portuguese houses, college buildings and other offices!

After returning bike back, we hired auto bought cashews in Krishna in Market and the hard ladoo which were supposedly very famous in Goa and with loads of memories headed our return journey.

Took bus from Panjum to Madgao, from madgao bus stand to railway station took an auto and boarded.

Wish this vacation had never ended!

Useful things:

• Times of india - Goa guide ( Didn't find the outlook guide anywhere in Bangalore)
• Goa map (Rs. 25 avaialable in all book shops in railway station
• Lot of snacks
• Sun screen (Garnier, Nivea - tried and both are good) keep applying before getting into water and after coming out as well!
• Water bottle all the time! Drink lot of water but don't trash used bottle everywhere, these people are indeed maintaining places well, lets not spoil it!
• Torch(If you want to do night walks and all)
• Book you would like to read