Goa Holiday Reviews

Cavalossim is a place to relax. Once you’re settled (over the beach sellers), there are some excellent places to eat out (Mike’s place for one) and the beaches are endless with plenty of excellent huts and a warm sea.

Great for those looking for a holiday centred around the beach, but sea can be choppy and currents quite strong. Short walk to the beach from the village, good beach shacks for sunbeds, lunch and drinks. Nighlife centred around restaurants but same entertainment does the rounds at locallly. Lots of 'market style' stalls selling local clothing and souvenirs, and shops with leather goods, handicrafts and jewelery........beware though, I bought a ring as 18ct gold and found out later it was just plated. Panjim about an hour away in a taxi and the nearest non tourist town Margao about 30 minutes away, but beware for a culture shock!

The resort is well-placed with just a short daytime walk on the beach to the nearby town of Colva. The resort is not overly busy and has plenty of beach shacks to choose from to eat in. Life-guards monitor the beach to ensure that tourists (mainly from other parts of India) are sensible as there have been a few incidents of drowning due to drunkeness. The resort was appropriate for small children, no unruly behaviour or bad language to be heard - an ideal bucket and spade holiday. Beware of the 'skin-tax' as locals call it. For example taxi drivers may try to overcharge tourists but from Colva a tuk-tuk can be flagged down to take you back to the hotel at half the price of a taxi (100 rps). Betalbatim is very relaxed and slow, ideal for those not wanting beach parties or jet skiing.

Candolim is substantially quieter than its neighbours Calangute and Baga which is ideal as you can dip your toe if you fancy the hustle and bustle of these resorts whilst returning to somewhere more sedate. It consists on one main road which comes complete with Bus, Lorry, Taxi, Tuk Tuk and Bovine traffic and quieter lanes off to more bars, restaraunts and the beach. The beach is basically one long strip of Golden sand stretching from Sinquerim to Baga. The Beach is accessed by walking through lanes between houses, stepping over and through discarded rubbish before you will be approached to use one of the many beach shacks that frequent the length of the strip. The shacks are great VFM for food and drink but their toilet facillities are somewhat basic at best. Much better we found was to hire a taxi for the day and travel to one of the beaches further north ( Mandrem, Morjim and Ashwem ). Don't pay more than 700 rupees and you'll be rewarded with quieter and cleaner beaches with less hassle from hawkers and beggars. Paradise.

Canolim is not a resort. It is an area in Goa. It has a beach - which is great. but the hotel does not have it's own beach - it is a short walk away.

Goa is everything its painted to be. Fantastic beaches, lazy afternoons and of course, lots to explore. The Hippie Market at Anjuna and Macys have to be seen to be believed; with the colours, sounds and smells just out of this world.

One thing I didnt expect was the dentistry on offer - 3 crowns , replacement white fillings and root canal surgery all for less than £270 - a return trip to get a new bridge in 2010 is already on the cards!

Our only disappointment was the elephant safari, although a fantastic experience on the whole - it was let down by the lack of narrative from our guide on the jungle walk. Considering Ashanti is an "eco centre" I was a little saddened to see the drivers mate throwing his empty plastic water bottles out into the road as we drove. And the driver should have shown a little more consideration to his 40 or so passengers and driven with due care and attention as he overtook a tipper overtaking a tanker!

Apart from that, this was a great value-for-money holiday and a fantastic introduction to what Goa has to offer. I have no hesitation in recommending this to anyone (apart from my sister who would expect nothing less than 5 star accommodation!)

Canacona was so interesting! Much better than European holiday resorts. The beach was lovely, and it was a fascinating place. Some people seem so poor though, and there are a lot of beggars.

Patnem is a lovely unspolit beach but not best for night life with most places shuting at about eleven at night, palolem beach up the road is much more lively. For those who dont want to stay up all night and prefer to just chill its perfect. Plenty of space and still free of the terrible sunbed syndrom found on so many beaches. The beach is wide so despite a small hand full of beds directly outside the restaurants most of the beah remains empty

Busy Not for us. Loads happening but ok to visist just would not want to be staying that close to the action

Candolim is a really good resort. I much preferred this resort to Calangute and Baga. It is much quieter in Candolim and you get hassled way less. It is close enough to the other resorts so you get amongst the thick of it but it's nice to stay in the quieter resort of Candolim.

baga is fairly busy although it is quiter than its neighbour calangute. there are good assortment of restauants running along the main road and side roads. various clothing vendors along the resort and stores ,jewellers,chemist etc etc for essentials- a larger supermarket -Newtons is available in candolim.Titos nightclub is available but we never heard it from the hotel. numerous bars etc available. the beach is wide stretch sand and although there was a dispute regarding the beach shacks during our visit they are a good place to spend on the beach and food and drink available plus locals will help give trip advise etc also.taxis are a plenty but agree your price b4 u set off,we choose the tut tut version as more fun.if you go the enjoy once you get over the culture difference you will love the place. we will return one day.overall advice i would give would b to have taxi to airport as you are queuing to get in, to scan then secure case, to check in , to go through immigration then onto hand baggage security , so it all takes time-our flight was called while we were queuing and hence we were nearly an hour late leaving while passsengers processed thru all above checkpoints, even this set aside it hast put us ogg returning.

Some of the street food is amazing, the smell of the spices is brilliant. The beach is really beautiful, the sea is clear and warm. The markets have some great jewellery and stuff.

The location was beautiful and there were loads of things to do. The prices were reasonable and the food in the restaurants was very delicious. I cannot wait for our return trip there.

There are lots of things to see and do here, we travelled by tram to a nearby village where time has clearly missed. Tehre were old victorian-style buildings, free-entry museums and everyone seemed to wear clothes from pre-war era. It was lovely and we spent 2 whole days just relaxing in thsi town, I cant remember the name but ask any locals and they will know exactly where you mean. Calan Porta or something like that.

Hi Soni

This is in reference to the booking made by us to stay at your resort from 23rd may to the 30th may 2009. This was definitely a waste of time and money WITH a lot of horrible memories .The reputation of your resort is shattered to bits.We would not recommend this place to anyone as the only motive by this resort is to get more and more people to check in and there is nothing called as looking after your guests.

We reached Goa after travelling 9 hrs from Mumbai and reached in the late evening and can you imagine being told by the reception you cannot stay in this hotel due to certain MAINTENANCE PROBLEMS so you will need to travel to Haathi mahal some 13 kms away.We were shocked at the unprofessionalism of the management.So tired and upset we went in the night to Hathi mahal and reached there searching for the place at 8 p.m

Now we were told first that you will get 2 separate rooms not interconnected and NO KITCHENETTE.we were told of something entirely different before we booked the holiday. Unbelievable to expect a couple with 2 small kids to stay like this . We had to put our foot down and ask for interconnected rooms,as can 2 kids stay alone in the next room ?. after a lot of thought by the guys at the reception ,we were given an interconnected room without a kitchenette. We stayed there for 1 and 1/2 day,but because we wanted an apartment and not just 2 rooms we were told there was a place in Royal Palms

In Royal palms we were shown a small room that was HORRIBLY STINKING and unstayable .We walked out that very minute and as if we were getting everything for free we had to start the requesting and the pleeaseee...... to your management and they very reluctantly ,gave us a room on the 3rd floor. While we were walking up ,realized that the exhaust of all the toilets were all facing the stairs and the stink was unbelievable!!!and so chawl like. When we reached the room they were so much smaller than the earlier apartments we had stayed in and agreed to take a holiday at your place. here the sofas were stinking and the room was so suffocating!! Royal Palms we thought had some class . You are doing no favour to us and others like us, coming on holidays ,(only because of belief in your name and reputation),and feel absolutely no remorse for treating its prospective customers in this manner.Other couples were walking off without staying here in front of us.

IS THIS WHAT YOU GUYS WANT ??? TO DEMOTE YOUR PLACE RATHER THAN PROMOTE? WHAT ARE YOU ACHIEVING THROUGH THIS ATTITUDE ?? AND WHAT KIND OF PROMOTION DO YOU EXPECT TO ACHIEVE THROUGH THIS? WILL ANYONE WANT TO BE A MEMBER HERE.? WE ACTUALLY THOUGHT OF BECOMING MEMBERS,AFTER SPEAKING TO SOMEONE AT HAATHI MAHAL BUT CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF WE HAD PAID THE MEMBERSHIP FEES?. IF WE WANTED TO SPEND GOOD FAMILY TIME AT YOUR PLACE ,IS THIS WHAT WE HAVE TO EXPECT AND GO THROUGH? we left the next day and checked into another hotel not bothering about the money paid to you in advance. We have spend double the money on tariff because of the mismanagement of your staff.Hence we want our booking amount to be refunded at the earliest.