Goan Virgin

Well it was our first time in Goa and did not know what to expect.

Lets start with the arrival at the airport this was manic with the porters just chucking every ones bags on the floor at the begining of the belt so you had to climb a mountain to get to your bag, then fight the lads off who want to carry your bag for all of 10 yards for a £1.

DO NOT change any money at the airport as they are crooks and i got caught, my own fault, but it was not a good start.

Rock the taxi driver picked us up and the journey to Calangute was a eye opener, there seems to be no rules on the road, only that you have to toot your horn every 5 yards...

On arrival at the Nizmar the room was not ready, but a cold glass of Kingfisher was(my kind of welcome), we were shown to our room by one of the porters,it was on the top floor overlooking the pool room 113, the room was OK but needed a little TLC, the missus was not happy i could tell, but i said sleep on it and it will look different tommorrow as it is a bit of a culture shock if your are a Goa Virgin, the main thing is the utter filth every where outside the hotel and of course there are no footpaths so you take your life in your hands when you go out, but why walk when taxis are only 100 rupees.

The Nizmar is well situated for the beaches and restaurants, we liked East meets West, Sulimans Kitchen and a newly opened up one Le Reverie, also we liked Susa Lobos on the beach for great Tandori Kingfish.

Calangute beach is very crowded by the steps as thats where all the day trippers go and they do not move very far, Bagga beach has a lot of water sports on it, i liked Candolim beach the best as it was cleaner and less manic.

We found a good shack called Dommats, where you can get a good Prawn Curry for 110 rupees and cold bottle of Kings for 45 rupees, the missus loved it there and i could tell she was warming to the place. The sea was rough all the time so swimming was not advisable, but there are plenty of lifeguards patrolling the beach making sure the Indian day trippers did not drown. These day trippers are a bit of a pain when they have had beer or two and leer at all the European women which was a little off putting for the ladies.

We went on a trip to the waterfalls this worth a trip, 1hr and 50 mins to get there then a 1 hr drive in a 4x4 to get to the falls which are great, also you get the chance to feed the monkeys which come down to falls for some fruit, they are so tame.

We went to Morjim Beach and Ashvem Beach these were quite beaches with only a few shacks on them, you could say these were the ';Bounty Ad'; beaches, and we really enjoyed our days there.

The food is varied, but we found that when in Rome do as the Romans do and eat fish, we had some great Kingfish dishes, we did hear people moan about thier steaks, my answer to them is if you want eat steaks go to a ';Beefeater';. The Tiger Prawns are to die for as are the King Prawns in many types of different curry sauces.

So in summary, the Nizmar was a good hotel with very friendly staff and clean rooms. Calangute was manic and very dirty. The beaches were great, the food excellent.

Would we go back, if you asked us after 3 days we would have said NO, but now i think we would and we would stay in Candolim not Calangute.

All in all we enjoyed our first trip to Goa even though i was in Dry Dock for 2 days with the Dehli Belly.

I suppose you have to remember it is a 3rd world country and dont expect to much.

Cheers

Martin

Goan Virgin

Great report Martin,

Thankyou, I enjoyed reading it.

It sounds honest, and I%26#39;m glad you enjoyed your holiday..most posts on here advise not to make your mind up on Goa until day 2 or 3!!

Susie.x

Goan Virgin

Great report Martin, thanks for sharing :)

I think that is the key to Goa, don%26#39;t make your mind up until you%26#39;ve had a chance to adjust. It is one Hell of a culture shock when you first arrive but you just warm to it and it gets under your skin until you are well and truly hooked!

So glad you and your wife both enjoyed your first visit and hopefully we%26#39;ll see you back on here for future visits :)

Cheers!

Thanks for sharing your views Martin :-)

Why not consider the South the next time? Much quieter and far less manic, we fell in love with it! :-))

Linda

Hello Martin,

thankyou so much for the report. It was really informative and gives a real picture for us newbies.

So glad you enjoyed it all in the end.

Hi Martin...

Thanks for the report..

It does take you a few days to settle down.

My parents %26amp; sis %26amp; brother in law are coming out for their first time.....i expect they will want to kill me after the taxi ride from the airport.....LOL

Your report reminds me of our first visit 12 years ago. If someone had offered us a flight out within the first 24hrs we would have gone. Like you though we hung in there and ended up hooked, returning many times to Candolim, Baga, Arpora and Cavellosim hotels. Never ever fancied staying in Calangute though. Went to Kerala for the second time in Nov/Dec, off again on Saturday to Candolim.