India - Goa

We have been fortunate enough to visit Goa on two occasions, the most recent in February 2001.

Our first trip was to The Cidade de Goa, a luxury hotel about five miles from the capital, Panjim.

There are so many first impressions on India that hit you from the moment you step off the plane and find that at the luggage carousel there are five men lifting the cases off and dumping them on the ground for the tired tourists to scramble for their own instead of waiting for them to come around. The idea seems to be that these people, and their colleagues, will find your cases for you and transport them to your coach "for one English pound".

The people of Goa are friendly and helpful, and always eager to talk about themselves and their families and to ask about yours. The taxi drivers are brilliant - don't even think about hiring a car - and they take you where you want to go, wait for you, suggest places to go. We paid about £7 for taxi hire for four hours. Remember though that a driver's basic pay is about £25 a month and they depend upon tips to make a decent living.

It is much cheaper to hire a taxi for a day or half day and organise your own trips out. 

The places to visit are manifold and a visit to the site linked below is recommended for those of you considering a holiday there.

A few tips:

- spend as much as can on your hotel as some of them look a bit grotty, but the middle and upper-priced ones are really good.

- consider  B and B instead of full board or All Inclusive as prices are very much cheaper in India, even if you always eat in your hotel. 

- outside the hotels food and drink is almost at give away prices, the downside of course is tummy upsets. In our hotel's handbook was a notice that simply said "If you really must use the beach shacks, then be assured that the hotel's doctor is available 24 hours a day".

- good buys are gold and silver jewellery, woodcrafts, belts, made to measure clothing.

- the anti-malaria tablets are a bind and upset some people, but you can't go without them.

Our second visit was to southern Goa and we stayed at the superb Goa Renaissance Resort. The nearest town was Margao, a wonderfully mad place which seemed to have about 120 lanes of traffic and scooters all over - all tooting their horns together. The market alone is worth the visit.

Of the two locations we preferred South Goa. It's much more undeveloped, there is jungle all around and it is just as one expects India to be.

I could write pages about trips to Goa but you would get fed up and stop reading it - wouldn't you?

CLICK HERE for a good Goa site.

                                    Bicycle and scooter park, Margoa