Goa-Pearl of the Orient

Goa- Tourist Paradise is a dream location mainly for bachelors, but it’s a place which can be enjoyed with family as well. If you want to go and enjoy, lead a freak vacation with friends , yes Goa is very much suitable. On the other hand if you want to roam and around and see places with family, it suits that way as well. I had been on a family vacation and i think this itinerary will help people who want to see and cover places in Goa.

We went to Goa from Bangalore by train. Prefer train only if you like traveling by train else you are gonna curse the travel sometime as it is konkan route with tunnels as you move towards Goa and sometime train may be a bit slow and late.The view will be good and you can try to catch a glimpse of Dudhsagar waterfalls as well.

We alighted in Madgaon station, or you can get down in Vasco as well. Our stay was in North Goa which was nearly 48km from Madgaon, we took a bike for rent and started our journey with aid of google and GPS :) One can avail car also for rent.

Tip: In Goa there are bikes which have tourist registration(yellow board, not seen in many other states). So if it is from proper bike rental service bike will be yellow board and you need not worry else police may catch and you will have to make up stories that bike is from a friend etc.

I am going to cover North Goa first:

Candolim-Calangute-Baga-Anjuna

Depending on where you are staying you can choose which one to visit first, In Candolim you can visit fort Aguada, there is lower Aguada fort as well. If you would like to do dolphin spotting you can avail service from here, they normally take to Cocoa beach/Nerul beach. Normally a one hour boat ride in sea where they show the bungalow of a diamond merchant and Goa jail. You will be able to spot few dolphins as well. If you have enough time to spend you can engage in activities like snorkeling. Try to cover other beaches, you can watch sunset in lower Aguada fort. If you are visiting Goa in this time Oct-Feb try to visit Anjuna saturday night market as well. It will be closed in other months. You can checkout a casino as well if interested. ( Again most of the casino’s open during season only)

Arambol-Morjim-Ashwem-Chapora fort-Vagator beach

These beaches fall on opposite direction to Candolim , we could see a lot of people engaged in Surfing activity here. One can plan to reach Chapora fort for sunset, this is the fort you are seeing in movie ‘Dil Chahata hai’.

If not planning to spend much time in beaches , one can cover both sets of beaches in one day.

Panjim-Old Goa-Dona paula

Let’s keep one day to enjoy the charm of old Goa where you can see a lot of churches built when Portuguese were ruling, old Goa/Velha Goa will look completely different in buildings and construction. You can visit Bom jesus basilica, mangeshi temple etc. There are more churches if interested, else you can try to visit Divar island. Route includes ferry, so plan accordingly. Dona Paula is another tourist spot, there is a view point, jetty and beach. If interested in ending the day with a Cruise ride, there is one along Mandovi river operated by Goa tourism aboard Santa Monica. You can grab a ticket for Sunset cruise and watch the setting sun relaxed in cruise.

If interested in just relaxing a day completely eluded in nature with lot of spice plantations, try to visit Tropical spice plantation. It will take a day, we actually opted out due to time constraints.

Let’s keep this day to cover the South Goa beaches which offers pristine white sand beaches. You can start with Colva beach-Benaulim -Mobor beach-Butterfly beach-Palolem. If you are interested in spending more time in these beaches. Split them and try to cover. Colva-Benaulim-Mobor are close by.

This post was originally published on 'mywanderdiary'.