My wife and I just took a 3 day vacation to Goa and tried out the off-season package with Indian Airlines and Dona Sylvia. While we all know what to expect from IC, I was greatly disappointed by Dona Sylvia at Cavelossim Beach in South Goa.
First of all, the Dona Sylvia experience is nothing about Goa. Other than the fact that the beach is a few hundred metres away and that some of the staff is wearing bright blue Goan shirts, the rooms, cuisine and general atmosphere of the place are as far away from Goa as anything. The resort claims to be Mediterranean, but then again, there is nothing Mediterranean about this place.
Rooms:
The room that we were given as part of the package was SMALL. The beds, the TV (maybe a 14’’ TV?) and everything else was SMALL. The room was part of a duplex unit and the neighbor was probably 10’ away. Adding to the misery, the neighbor and we were expected to share the same porch! Within a couple of hours of staying in this room, we requested for a change in room and were told that all rooms were the same. We then chose to pay and extra Rs. 500/day to upgrade to a deluxe room. The deluxe room was of acceptable standard, but we ended up paying an extra Rs. 1500 for our stay. However, the deluxe rooms are again part of a duplex unit and the privacy problem will continue. We lucked out since there was nobody staying next door.
Food:
The food was highly disappointing. The resort is supposed to put out lavish buffets. I think they need to revisit ’’lavish’’. The food was highly north indian and monotonous. Who goes to a Mediterranean style resort in Goa and does not expect something Goan or something Mediterranean? Aloo gobi, paneer, blah...blah.. the menu did not change much over 3 lunches and 3 dinners. We chose to spend additional money to go eat out during lunch simply because we could not handle the monotony of what was being served here. I must add a word about the coffee or tea. I am not sure these guys have seen real tea or coffee. Suffice to say, the Indian Railways serves better coffee and tea.
Ambience:
I agree with nik3 and his review. The ambience is terrible for a couple or a family taking a vacation. This place is stuffed with large business groups who dont give a damn for the other guests staying there. They seem to dictate the amount of noise and the kind of food being served at the place.
Fitness Centre & Pool:
The pool is acceptable and does the job. The only issue I have is that the hours are not long enough. The pool closes much too early. The gym. has decent equipment, but appears run down since the equipment is not maintained too well. I used the free weights and they have the bare minimum. The bench and the treadmill were run down.
Finally, a word of caution for the Tech. Friendly Folks. The Dona Sylvia folks do not seem to believe in the Internet or the need for email access. Being an avg. business dude on vacation, I carried my laptop hoping to check my email once a day. Reasonable. Right? Nope, did not make it. The rooms do not allow you to make direct calls without operator intervention. The so called Cyber Cafe does not allow you to connect your laptop to the Internet! They could not tell me why this was an issue :-) The Cyber Cafe has ONE computer and it is laughable. Obviously, the management does not want business from average folks who want to access email from their laptop over POP3!
I might add here that a few individuals did try to help us out, but service and customer care is not generally not to be expected here.
Anyway, I can safely say that it was a big mistake to choose this Indian Airlines-Dona Sylvia package. Do not waste your money or time on the package or the resort.