Sun Village Reviews

The Sun Village is located slightly outside of the main tourist area but there are plenty of taxis available to take you to the local beaches - also the hotel does an hourly shuttle bus to the local beaches. The hotel is very clean, the staff work constantly to ensure everywhere is spotless. The food is very good - they have gala night on the top lawn and bbq nights, you also have vouchers to visit the a la carte restaurant which is excellent. The 'usual' restaurant where you eat breakfast and 'ordinary' evening meals serves v good food but the 'canteen' style layout does let it down. Pool towels are available but sunbeds do get taken quite early! Booking a superior room really isn't worth it - couldn't see the difference from the regular rooms. A 15 min walk outside the hotel or 2 mins in a taxi takes you to Lil Cafe - this is German run and serves the most delicious breakfasts and other meals - well worth a trip. In Candolim one of the best places to eat, and well worth a visit is East meets West. There is no shortage of the usual leather, shoes and clothes stalls, have fun, haggle a little and grasb yourself a bargain - remember though, the Indian people work very hard for a low salary so if you're pleased with the price let them also have a good deal! Very humid in India, tyink this takes more getting used to than the heat! Lovely honest people, totally different way of life and a great place to visit!

Had our first visit to Goa in April - absolutely brilliant.

We booked with Thomas Cook and flew with Monarch from Gatwick. Long flight - 10 hrs, no stopover.

Dabolim airport - bureaucratic and slow moving - took us more than an hour to clear. Once you've negotiated the immigration at the airport be prepared for the culture shock and the elephants,cows, ox etc on the roads.

Sun village- is a perfect destination, its about an hour from the airport and about 5 - 10 minutes taxi ride from Baga beach. the hotel itself is very nice, rooms are very spacious, cleaned every day and fitted with ac and two large ceiling fans. All the staff are friendly and will do anything for you.

Pools - there are 2 pools, the lower pool is very nice, with a small section for children. Generally there are not enough sunbeds, so you need to get up early. There is an upper pool, but there is no shaded areas to hide from the sun and there is a fairly steep climb up several flights of step. Free towels are provided for use around the pool.

Food - Was nice, well cooked and hot. Breakfast was typically English, lunch -mixed choice of Indian (in restaurant) and european/english (in the poolside snack bar)and Dinner typically goan. Twice a week the hotel puts on a gala night up on the lawn by the upper pool, this was very good with live entertainment (singers, dancers, fire shows. There is also an a la carte restaurant which is open 3 nights a week (Tue - Thurs) and an open air barbecue (open Sat and Sun), on arrival you are given a booklet of vouchers which allows you to eat in the a la carte/barbecue twice a week, however you must make a reservation for these.

One thing to mention is that the range of drinks on offer is very limited and for people on the AI silver level, diet coke, milk shakes and fruit juice is not included.

Trips - We booked 3 with the reps.
1. Jungle book (overnight trip) - fantastic, well worth it. Some of the things included are an elephant ride, a torch light walk, camp fire and sing song, yoga at an ancient temple, visit to a goan village, bamboo rafting and swimming and bathing the elephants. One thing to mention if you don't like goan food then take your own supplies, - I thought the food was great and plenty of it, but my 13 yr daughter eat hardly anything and was hungry.

2. Waterfall - also a very good day out, the waterfall is spectacular. You get to drive in jeeps thought the jungle, swim in the lagoon and feed the monkeys around the waterfall. For lunch you stop at a jungle camp (not the same one as the jungle book) where you can feed and ride the elephants.

3. Spice plantation and temples. Personally I don't think this one is worth doing with the reps and felt it was really dragged out. I think it would have been better to do the trip with a taxi driver. It was suppose to be a half day tour but we were out for about 9 hours, the first and last 2hrs was spent picking up and dropping off people up from north and south goa. also if you do the jungle book trip this includes a visit to a spice plantation (karihari- which was better.

Beaches - not really a beach person, but went to Baga beach a few times, and although we were AI at the hotel we stopped for dinner and drinks at one of the beach shacks (Oceanic). It costs approx 80 -100rps from the hotel by taxi. all the lads at the beach shack are very nice and would do anything they could to help you. Zabu was brilliant and looked after us very well. The food in goa is amazing so don't be afraid to eat out. Most of the beach shacks have an evening entertainment programme, which is good fun. we went to to the weekly beach barbecue, the food was very good and cheap, for 4 of us, food and drink cost us about £25 that included 1 of us having 6 tiger prawns and a lobster. During the evening there was a fire show and fireworks.

One word of warning, the current at Baga beach is very strong and unfortunately during our stay 6 people drowned.

Shopping - if you like shopping you are in for a treat, everything is amazingly cheap, there are numerous tailors around, they will make anything for you, so if you have a favourite dress or something at home, take it with you they will copy it and make a replica for you. A friend got a dress made for £10 and a gents suit for £40.

Markets- we went to Mackies Saturday night market, be prepared to be hassled, stall holders are very persistent, don't be affrays to haggle anywhere, we were normally knocking 75% of the 1st price offered and then tried to get as close to that as possible. If you don't want to go above a certain price, be prepared to walk away, they will soon accept your final offer.

All in all this was a brilliant holiday, I never felt intimidated not once and we will definitely be going back.

A group of 4 of us went on our holiday to Goa,our first visit. We booked with Thompson and the flight with Monarc was nothing short of a nightmare, we had an abusive passanger sat next to us and the flight staff did not do anything to sort him out!

Arriving at the airport is an experience to say the least. The hotel itself was good, with the exception of the inclusive deal EXcluding fruit juices and diet coke, which was not highlighted in the broucher, there are alot of stairs in the hotel, so i would not recommend this for anyone with any mobility difficulties, the food was excellent and the staff were lovely. We hired a taxi driver Raj who was excellent. Goa is very very cheap, so I can see the appeal for lots of people in that alone, but the beaches (we visited 3) were very diappointing, the current is strong the sea is grey/black and the sun beds on the beaches are very dirty.

The thing that shocked me the most with Goa, which I wished I had been warned about was the starving dogs, if you are a dog lover you will find this very distressing, there are dogs everywhere that are skin and bone, I had a starving dog sat under my sun bed on the beach eating wood, as he was so hungry. I spent most of my holiday feeding and watering the dogs, and the animals that we saw in distress broke my heart. On the jpourney to the airport on our way home, there was a dead dog on the road side, this made me glad that I was leaving Goa. I would never return to Goa as this was a major issue for me, one that I wish I had been warned about.

Having been to the Maldives last year,it was difficult to like the beaches in Goa as I compared them to the Maldives. If it hadnt been for the excellent company on my holiday, I would not have enjoyed Goa.

This was our first trip to Goa and it was the best holiday ever. The hotel was fantastic, very good standard, we had superior room it was big and airy and had good veiws of the front of hotel.The food was very good always good choice and hot, the al'carte and bbq was a very high standard and tasty and service very good to.

They had themed nites on the big lawn they were very nice and again the food was very good. The staff are very nice and could not do enough for you There was a lot of stairs around the hotle so would not be suitable for the less mobile.It was nice being set away from the hustle of baga beach,but you are only 10 mins ride in a taxi cost 50p. Makie's nite market is a must and a wee drink in mo jo's after it.

We found the best beach shack ever Andrews Shack,from Mambo's its the 6th shack along on the right. The staff were fantastic ran about after you all day long ask for wee Andy, the food is really good,tasty and so cheep the drink's were cold and lots of them!!! The toilets were also very clean and there was a shower to get rid of all the salt water.The staff organised us trips,Dolphin trip £2.00,sun set cruise £2.50 ,Elephant and spice farm round trip £12.00 .The beach is really fantastic, white sand and miles of it the water was also good the waves were really good fun and so was the jst ski, the sun set was just perfect most nites the cow's came along and we would all sit and watch the sun set over the water with a small drink, i can close my eyes and see it now.

I would recommend Goi as its fantstic its got everything that a holiday should be.
It was that good we have already booked up to go back next year same time 12th november but for 3 weeks.

Booked this holiday as a late deal through direct holidays a week and a half before travelling for £359pp for only one week which it seems was a very good price.

Luckily we wern't flying with Monarch Airlines after hearing the terrible reviews instead we were on the new My-Travel planes which were of a very good standard if not a little cramped. You could upgrade to first class for an extra £129pp but there didn't seem much point to be honest for a couple of inches extra leg room and an extra in-flight movie. We stopped at Bahrain both ways which was brilliant as it really broke up the long flight plus the duty free shopping is amazing £6.60 for 200 LandB cigarettes and £5.00 for 1ltr Bacardi.

Goa airport is as bad as everyone says. We got off the plane walked along the tarmac to get into the airport and then ourselves and the other 400 people on the plane were left entirely confused as to what to do next. Take a pen with you to fill out the neumerous forms (we didn't take one and had to beg, borrow and eventually steal to get one) The porters are quite daunting as they grab your bags from you and insist on carrying them to your coach. we tried to say no but ended up being tricked into tipping two of them so it is easier to just ask one porter to take all your bags and just tip him. There asking price is a £1 coin so it's not really worth arguing about.

Transfer to the hotel is 1 hour and although you can get a taxi for around £10 theres really not much point as the taxi takes 45 mins.

The Sun Village was by far the nicest hotel we saw. The rooms were basic but were cleaned to a high standard every day. Beds were clean and comfy, satalite tv had a few english channels. There is a washing line in the bathroom, along with a wall-mounted bottle opener??? and a mini-bar that is stocked daily with water and twice a week with soft drinks and Kingfisher lager.

The food was excellent, there was always a lot of choice, although not much english food a few of the days. There is a lot of staff who all are ver friendly and work very hard. The entire hotel is kept spotless so-much-so that they would shake the trees daily to get off all the leaves that were ready to fall, so that they didn't drop on the floor or in the pool!

Don't book any of the reps trips as they're very expensive. If you get a taxi driver he will take you anywhere you want to go for a fraction of the price and make all the arangements for you. Ours was called Yogi (as in the bear) he gave us his mobile number so we just got reception to call him whenever we needed him. You couldn't wish to meet a nicer or more helpful bloke. He gave us discount fares as we used him everyday and got us discounts from elephant rides and boat trips etc. He arranged for beach shacks to look after us all day and we were treated like royalty. If you go, give him a call as you'll get everything much cheaper. his number is: 9850456039. The most he charged was around £10 and it was for 12 hours of diving us around and waiting for us.

The trips are well worth doing, we did the elephant ride and then washed it in the river which was excellent. We also visited the spice plantation at the same time and in total it cost us £10 each including the taxi.

Panjim is the capital of Goa were you get a taste of the real India, everything here is much cheaper than the resorts or markets.

Coco beach is filthy and dirty and is only worth going to for the dolphin trips which cost £5pp. You spend an hour dolphin spotting and then have a mini-sight seeing tour which includes the local prison. The prisoners all wave at you and in the second window from the right there is an English bloke who was caught drug smuggling. When we went past he waved at us and then pulled out an england flag which he held up at the window - very bizarre!

Definatly go to Ashwam beach a couple of coves north of baga. White sand, palm trees with just a handful of people - heavenly. It takes around 20 mins in a taxi to get there.

Buy all your souveneers from the markets or panjim as much cheeper than in the resorts. Go late to the markets to get the best deals and barter for everything. Offer at most a fifth of the asking price and don't go any higher. Walk off if neccesary and i gaurentee they will come running after you. Tips should be 10% and although it seems nice to give more as goans don't earn a lot of money it is worthwhile remembering that the caste system in india is very rigid. Rich are Rich and Poor are Poor (the Poor rarely become rich) and if tourist pay too much for things or tip too heavily prices will rise and both the locals and the tourist will suffer.

In one week we spent around £250 between us and that included spending an awfull lot on gifts and duty free. Otherwise we would have spent around £80 each including doing all the trips and having our own chauffeur.

Perfumes and aftershaves arn't much cheeper than the continent and are cheaper in Bahrain although Goa airport is cheaper still for cigarettes (£3.60 for 200 LandM cigarettes). India has a closed currency which means you can't take rupee's in or out of the country and they will find them if you try to take them out. You can change all you Rupee's back to sterling at the airport but they charge a 50% commission so it's best just to get small amounts changed throughout the holiday and then you shouldn't have that much to change back if any. The duty free shop at Goa airport doesnt accept Rupee's???

All in all Goa was the best holiday i have ever been on if not a little tireing (as we went for a week we tried to cram everything in and didn't leave ourselves that much time to relax). The Goan people are so friendly and everything was so cheap! The Sun village was an excellent complex and the entertainment is hilarious!

Go to Goa and you you wont want to go back to spain again. Try it you'll love it.....