I have been to Goa twice in the last 3 years for holidays, along with my wife & kids. The first time was in early October, 2003 and the second was in mid November, 2005. It was a great experience both times and if I get time off from my job, I will surely go to Goa this year also.
In retrospect, I feel the first time was more fun with monsoon just coming to an end. It was a lovely sight with greenery all around. On the way from Mumbai to Goa, we could see some small waterfalls also. We got down at Thivim railway station and hired a taxi to Calangute. We checked into a resort near Domino’s Pizza outlet. Since tourist season starts from mid-October, I was able to get a substantial discount on room tariff (after negotiating, of course). We hired a Kinetic Honda and started off by visiting the nearby Calangute beach and looking for a good vegetarian restaurant. The beach was a bit crowded and the sea was choppy. No water sport facilities were available. We had lunch at a restaurant called ’’Plantain Leaf’’ in the main market area, which serves pure vegetarian food, but it was just about average in terms of taste, quality & quantity. We went to Domino’s & had Pizzas in the night. I realised that it is difficult to get good vegetarian food in Calangute and overall, food is pretty expensive in Calangute. The next day, we went to Panjim, the state capital, which is about 15 kms away. Went to Dona Paula & Miramar beach. By the way, there are some good restaurants in Panjim. We had lunch at ’’Sher-e-Punjab Classic’’ restaurant located at 1st floor of Aroma hotel near minicipal garden. It was excellent. In the evening, we went for a boat cruise in the Mandovi river. It was okay, certainly not matching the hype created by tour operators. The next day we went to Baga beach, which is about 4 kms from Calangute. It is an extension of Calangute beach. It was fantastic. We spent the whole day at the beach. We took a couple of sunbeds on hire. Kids played on the beach and I had beer, occassionally going into the sea for a dip. There were very few people here and the scene was just great with a hill on one side and the Baga river meeting the sea.
In spite of Calangute/Baga not having restaurants serving good vegetarian food, I went there again in mid November, 2005 as I had enjoyed so much in my first trip. This time, since it was tourist season, I could not get accommodation in the same resort. We checked into another resort nearby but it wasn’t as good and we had to pay almost double than the first time. The main difference this time was there were a lot of foreign tourists all over the town and the beaches were monopolised by them. Very few local tourists were to be seen. All hotels & resorts had jacked up their rates and it was a seller’s market. I hired a Kinetic Honda again (from the same guy). The positive side, this time, was that all water sport activities were available and we had lots of fun.
The peak tourist season is from 20th December to 3rd January, when accommodation is difficult to find and tariffs are the highest, but this is also the time when one can have maximum fun, especially the young and young at heart.