The fantabulous South Goa

Yes - Goa again. But this time South Goa. The occasion was same, our anniversary. This time we explored a different side of Goa.

I explored the Goa map before setting up, and decided to stay in Colva area. In South Goa the populated areas or the happening places are Colva and Palolem. In South Goa, I found more foreigners than Indians. You will find them lying on the beaches with beer bottles. While going towards the hotel it was like a village road with crop fields on both the sides and houses in between. For a second, I thought whether I have made the correct decision to visit south Goa or not. But as always, Goa did not disappoint me after all. What I liked the most is the spice plantation tour. This is a must activity while in South Goa.

How to reach: Goa can be reached by flights or trains or buses. We went by flight to save time, but buses are also convenient option to go to Goa. Buses would drop in the middle of the city which makes the commutation easier. We started from Bangalore and Goa is well connected with buses from Bangalore. It takes around 10-12 hours to reach Goa from Bangalore by bus.

Where to stay: there are plenty of hotels in Goa. We had booked our hotel on prior, Hotel Amigo Plaza. We got a good deal for around ₹1500/- per night for A/C room. It had a pool facing balcony as well. The best part was they had free drinking water facility. In Goa it's hard to get free drinking water. The room was spacious with all amenities.

How to commute within Goa: As there are no Ola and Uber services available in Goa and the taxis are very expensive, the best option is to travel by renting your own bike or car. We got an Activa for ₹300/- per day. These days they have introduced an app based taxi service initiated by the Government. We used that to go to our hotel from the airport. It was little cheaper than the prepaid taxis.

Places to visit: one word description as per me

Three kings Chappel- Nice location

Naval aviation museum- Overhyped

Bogmalo beach: scenic

Cabo de Rama fort- ruins

Nuem beach- amazing

Bamanbudo waterfall- not worth a visit that far

Palolem beach- Krabi of India

Butterfly beach- good one

Agonda beach- good sunset view

Spice plantation Tour- informative

Big foot museum Goa- Mini old Goa

Goa Chitra museum- one of a kind

Apart from these there are many more beaches and churches to visit. Read further to get more info.

Day 1: We reached our hotel by evening. Then we went towards the beach side to book a bike and be ready for the next day.

Three kings Chappel -> Shanta durga temple-> Naval aviation museum-> Bogmalo beach-> Aurossim Beach -> Utorda beach-> Majorda beach-> Betalbatim beach

The best part about South Goa is the road trip. Not only beaches, South Goa has the beauty of the Western ghats as well. Three kings Chappel is situated on a hill top and both to and fro trip to the place is just amazing. There was no one there. It's a peaceful place. The Shanta durga temple was situated on a river side. I thought it to be the old Shanta durga temple, but it was a different one. But anyway we had our darshan and left for the Naval Aviation museum. This is a open museum, it's not that great as I read about it. They have kept some old flights used by Indian Navy earlier. This is situated near the airport. This is one of a kind museum. There are not many such museums in India. Then we covered all the beaches starting from Bogmalo to Betalbatim one after the other. There was one straight road while coming down from airport side to Colva and all the beaches are on the right hand side. All the beaches were clean and beautiful with white sands. Bogmalo beach was more scenic than the others. We reached hotel by evening.

Cabo de Rama fort-> Nuem beach-> Bamanbudo waterfall-> Palolem beach-> Butterfly beach-> Agonda beach

This day we had plans to cover the southern most part of Goa. Our first stop was Cabo de Rama fort which was around 30 km from Colva. Unlike the forts in north Goa, this is not that touristy. Not many people will be around here. It not even maintained. All that is left is ruins. The only good thing is the location. We roamed around and the view of the sea from the fort was just amazing. We were so mesmerized with the view, and the sound of the waves that we decided to go to the sea side. As we saw some fishermen boats, we found a way below a broken stairs and went down. The experience was just amazing. Then our next stop was Nuem beach, the road to which I saw while going to Cabo de Rama fort. There is no particular beach as such here. As we went inside the road, we could see only houses of locals and sound of waves. Then we inquired with the locals and two of the humble ladies guided us towards the beach side. I loved this beach. This was a small beach with a rocky bed. This was beautiful. Then we started for the Bamanbudo waterfall. It was far, around 40km from there. That side was sparsely populated. When we reached the waterfall we were disappointed to see there was very less water in the waterfall. It was a small waterfall on the roadside. It should be visited only during monsoon, else it can be avoided as it's far as well. Then we had authentic Goan prawns thali on the way to Palolem beach, which was delicious. Palolem is the most crowded and happening beach is south Goa. This beach of ours can give competition to beaches in Krabi and Phuket. We walked along the beach side and spent some time at the beach. Then we took a ferry to Butterfly beach. It was very hard for us to find one as it was weekday and there were less people. Luckily we got a ferry who agreed to take two of us for ₹1000/-. The Butterfly beach was really gorgeous. As I had read a lot about this beach, and this was worth a visit. Next to the beach was Honeymoon beach. Both the beaches were equally good. Our next stop was Agonda beach. We enjoyed the sunset at the beach and started our return journey to Colva.

Spice plantation Tour-> Big Foot museum Goa-> Lunch @ Fishermen's warf-> Mobor beach-> Cavelossim beach-> Varca beach

We started the day with Spice plantation tour, Goa. The entry fee was ₹450/- with lunch. This was very informative. The guide gave us a brief about the spices. They had all sort of spices like ginger, turmeric, cardamom, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, bayleaf, nutmeg and nutmace. I got to know few things here.

1. Vanilla is the 2nd most expensive spice in the world after Saffron. Vanilla is a parasite, it cannot prepare it's own food and it cannot pollinate naturally and hence manual pollination process is required which is why it is so expensive.

2.The no of rings in Coconut(1 ring=1 yr) and Aricanut(4 rings=1 yr) trees tell the age of the tree.

3.The cloves which we are getting in market are very dry as there is no oil left in that. They extract the oil and then send it to market.

4. The process of making Goa famous liquor Feni. They had a display unit to show this.

5. Nutmeg and Nutmace are from the same tree, one is the outer part and another is the inside seed part.

Then we went to the Bigfoot museum. The entry fee was ₹50/- per person. Here they have explained the old Goan culture via a miniature village set up. They have automatic voice guide available for everyone. It's an open air museum showing 100 years old Goan village life and culture. I liked the place and the way they have depicted the things.

Then we went to Fisherman's wharf for lunch. It is located on a river side. The ambience was good. Post lunch we covered Mobor beach, Cavelossim beach and enjoyed sunset at Varca beach before going back to the hotel. All the beaches were clean with white sands.

Benaulim beach-> Colva beach-> Goa chitra museum

We had our flight back in the afternoon. Hence we covered the nearby beaches and Goa chitra museum before leaving for the airport. The Goa chitra museum was better then expected. The entry fee was ₹400/-. Its a private museum. They have collected things used by people all over India in the olden days. They have guides available for everyone to explain about the collection. They have three sections- a)Goa Chakra depicting the mode of transportation user in the olden days, b)Goa Chitra depicting ethnographic heritage of Goa and c)Goa Kruti, depicting culmination of arts of ancient Goa. Here, one can find the traditional farming tools, modes of transport, construction tools, cooking utensils, trade tools etc. The most interesting part is these are the collection of one person for 30 years. This was a museum worth a visit. It was one of a kind.

This was my South Goa trip. Let me know if you liked it.????