Bogmalo Beach Resort Reviews

What can I say???? Have just returned from 2 weeks in Bogmola, had the most brilliant time! Apart from the hustle at the Airport we only had a 10 min transfer to the resort(which is worth its weight in gold after a long flight) Firstly, the hotel (on the beachfront) was excellent, absolutely spotless and staff very friendly and helpful. The gardens are lovely and well looked after. The pool was very clean and towels were provided. We were staying on a B and B basis the breakfast being buffet style (as much as you can eat) eggs,beans, sausages, tomatoes, cornflakes, toast and much more. When we did eat during the day at the hotel the food was great! The best restaurant we found closeby was Joets at the far end of the beach, definately recommended..

We like to take a few bits out for the children and the manager of the hotel is named Rita, she organised a taxi for us to visit the local orphanage run by nuns and doing a great job, and although they appreciate anything you donate at the moment the number of children they have means a new building is under construction, so rupees is also very much appreciated to help with the costs. After we used this particular taxi driver we booked him for wherever we wanted to go and so cheap and helpful he was, nothing was too much trouble.

Not really an awful lot to do in Bogmola, just chill out and relax, but I would recommend the Night market at Arporra, but aim to arrive for around 5pm as it gets very busy ( and very hot and humid), there are some great bargains to be had! A bus ride into Vasco was an experience, plenty of shops and the local main railway station. The hotel is right on the beautiful sandy beach - the resort has its own private patch which has a security guard ensuring your belongings are safe. Personally I cant see the locals being a problem as they are friendly but not intrusive at all! Outside the hotel is a small square with some tourist shops and restaurants. You will also encounter the cows at some point which the locals feed cardboard boxes to, we found bananas went down much better!! Also if you have any jewellery which need repairing, take it with you, I had 2 bracelets mended, one of which of english jewellers told me could not be fixed! Great job done = great price too.

We have visited India before (Kerala) and enjoyed it tremendously, Bogmola is a little more touristy but somewhere we would recommend for its beach, peace and quiet, food and the friendly people. After visiting Calangute we were glad to get back to our quiet, clean resort. Highly recommended !!!!

This was a special holiday for me because I had reached a landmark birthday and it is a holiday that I will never forget. Overall the holiday was fantastic but the travelling can be very tiring.

Firstly, the flight! The Monarch plane was delayed in Tenerife and we were informed at check-in that it would be two and three quarter hours late. We should have flown at 7.15 pm but in actual fact went at 10.45 pm. It wasn't too much of a problem, had a few drinks and did a bit of shopping. The comfort on the plane is not great although pillows and blankets were provided. The buzzing television screen just beyond our sight did nothing to help when trying to get some sleep so in the end gave up. Landed after a 10 hour flight absolutely shattered. It took about three days to fully recover.

The airport was nothing like I expected, everything went very smoothly but had quite a wait for the bus to take us to resort. The porters are very pushy, if you don't want one just be firm and tell them no. We had one and £1 wasn't enough, he wanted £2 just for wheeling our case a few yards. As the cost of living in Goa is so low, this can be nearly a weeks wages for some, so it seemed a bit excessive to me. They don't earn much but they seemed to be doing OK from the tourists. Take a taxi, we did on the way back, it cost 150 rupees, about £2, worth it, and you miss the queues. Some people took over 2 hours to get through check-in.

The hotel! Well, what can I say. It was great. The staff can't do enough for you. As a fellow guest remarked, ";If they could, they would breathe for you";. It is spotless, always cleaning being done in the communal areas and around the pool. The rooms, we had a deluxe one, were spacious, huge Queen sized bed, and had everything you could want. Tea and coffee making facilities and also a small fridge for cold drinks etc. and filtered water in a flask are provided which is filled morning and evening. They also have a night service in the early evening where they turn down your bed and fill up with fresh water and clean towels if you need them.

Breakfast is OK, not brilliant but you can fill up on it as it is a buffet. Quite nice omlettes. The Coconut Grove restaurant in the hotel is really good, fantastic food, and the food from the pool bar is also good, snacks salads, samosas etc. But beware, the prices in the hotel are about double what they are outside the hotel, but in terms of English prices they are still cheap.

Outside the hotel in the resort, well, it's not much of a resort, it is very small. That was the only downside apart from the travelling for us, a bit more night life would have been better. It is very low key, no bars. There are only a few restaurants on the beach and the best for us was Joets, good food, service and atmosphere. On the road out of the village, on a left turn on the same road as Coconut Creek Resort is a restaurant called Cloudi's. This is incredibly cheap. It is a bit basic but the service is good and the waiters are really pleasant and helpful. On night we had 2 starters, a soup and pakoras, 2 prawn curries, 2 rice dishes and a nan, 4 large kingfisher beers and 3 vodka and tonics and it was just 540 rupees which roughly is about £6. Unbelievable!

Take a taxi, it's quite cheap to a restaurant in Betalbatim called Martins Corner. It has really lovely food and is well worth the drive about 30 mins and cost about 450 rupees (£5). I had a loster which was huge and was absolutely delicious, at a fraction of the price you who pay in the UK.

Also, if you can, do the Castaway trip. This was £76 for two. You are taken on a boneshaking coach ride down to the south of Goa to a deserted beach called Cola Beach. You stay in a tent overnight, you get lunch, evening meal and breakfast and the food is suprisingly good seeing as there is no electricity, only a generator which is on between 6 at night and 6 in the morning, to give some lighting when it gets dark. There is entertainment and the bar is open for whenever you want a drink. YOu just chill out, sunbathing or swimming in the lagoon at the far end of the beach. The lagoon was fantastic, the water was so warm it really was like being in a bath. The highlight for me though was the boat trip the following day. This is optional and costs a couple of pounds. The locals take you out in goan fishing boats in the morning and look for dolphins. This was brilliant, the locals enthusiasm when chasing the dolpins in the distance was great fun. It rounded off a great birthday.

If you want to buy jewellery, do because it is so cheap. I bought a 3/4 carat diamaond ring at less than a quarter of the price that it is in the UK. All the women tourists I spoke to had all bought some item of jewellery at a bargain price. The jewellers will make anything or even copy something from a picture for you if you have an idea of what you want. The silver is also good value especially in the markets from The Tibetans.

I would recommend this holiday to anybody. It was definately a relaxing holiday and well worth the travelling, even though it was a 12 hour flight home due to the headwinds. We are definately going back next year. Everyone I have spoken to who has been before said that you'll love it and we did. The people are so lovely and helpful and always have a smile on their faces. Try it! You'll love it too.

The Bogmallo Beach Resort is about 15 minutes from the airport by taxi. It costs about £1. Don't hang around waiting for the tour company bus as that can take an hour or to get away. There is not a problem at the hotel with aircraft noise.

Bogmalo is a place for couples to relax. It's a small sandy bay with only a couple of small pensions other than this hotel. There are about half a dozen beach shack restaurants and a small village square with a few shops. That's it!!

Somehow the hotel was built ignoring the normal rule of them having to be 400 yards from the shore. This is probably the only one in Goa right on the beach and every room faces the sea with a balcony. There are two standards of room. If you are booking a standard room ask for a sixth floor one. If you are booking a deluxe room and I would reccomend this, ask for one on the fifth floor. Both of these floors are above the line of coconut palms that line the shore and thus can obscure the view to varying degrees.

The staff are really good and friendly. Nothing is too much trouble.

Don't go all inclusive. Food and drink is so cheap I don't believe it's possible to eat and drink enough to make this good value.

There's a bright yellow shop in the square that sells all you are likely to need in the way of drink (there are fridges in the deluxe rooms and you can usually blag one from the staff for the standard rooms), snacks, sweets, excursions, taxis, shampoo, etc.,etc.).

A bottle of Gordons Gin is about £1.50. Try the Honey Bee brandy with coke. That's the same price.

Of the restaurants along the beach Johns is our favourite, Sea Cuisine is close behind as is Joetts at the far end ( 500-600 yards ).

Go to Bogmalo if you are happy to do nothing but lay around the pool or on the beach all day and stroll along the beach to eat each night.

Personally we love to do that hence this year was our fifth time here.

Just returned from our first time to Goa - what can we say.....wonderful!!!!! We stayed for 2 weeks at the Bogmalo Beach Hotel. The Hotel is very clean and the staff are extremely helpful and can't do enough for you. We found the food in the Hotel expensive in comparison to the food available in the beach shacks. But guess expensive is not the correct term to use as we had room service and didn't pay anything like what we would have paid at home for a meal of fish and chips! To be honest we were a little aprehensive about eating at the beach shacks before we went but never had a bad meal, We ate regularly at Joets, Johns Seagull and the Full Moon. I you go to the Full Moon say a big hello to John and Mesh!

Shopping as another experience not to be missed.....we had jewellery made at a fraction of the cost of what we would pay here in the UK from the hotel, Bash in the main square and Jewel Corner (behind Sea Quisine) and clothes....well.......we bought 4 suits, 9 shirts, 4 pair of shorts and 2 leather jackets all for under £400.00 made to measure - from Raj at Manolis. Delboy at the Lovely Jubbly shop on the beach behind Sea Quisine is a lovely chap and Natasha down at thefar end of the beach near Joets is worth a visit for pashmina's etc.

The only downside to our stay was when we went on an excursion to the Elephants it was called the 'Jungle Book Excursion'and would appear that it is run by all the tour operators i.e. First Choice, Thomas Cook etc as we were on the trip with people from our hotel who booked through them. Out of our party 4 people went down with the 'Deli belly' and more were ill on returning to the hotel. The trip is an overnight stay in a hut in the jungle, and whilst we were not expecting luxury we were not prepared for what we got! If we went again we would 'do' the Elephants on a day trip rather than an overnight stay. We also went for an overnighter on the Rice Boat.....now that was wonderful! The crew were very attentive and the food was fabulous, we would certainly do this trip again and would highly reccommend it.

Overall Goa and in particular Bogmallo Beach is a destination that we will certainly be visiting again infact we are already looking into the costs for 2008!