When you live in the United Arab Emirates, you’ll discover that the amount of holidays you get around the first and second Eid are the best time for holiday breaks. That’s why some of my colleagues and I decided to do just that. We chose Goa as our destination and we would stay away there for 4 days (usually you don’t know which days will be Eid exactly; the decision is made depending on the moon. We were lucky because we flew back on the 5th days and had to start work that same day).
Calangute
Before we went we explored different options in terms of hotel location. In the end we opted for the most popular area Calangute, which is right next to Baga Beach. The hotel of our choice was Azzure By Spree. Unfortunately, they had building activities. Keep in mind this was 2014, so they will be done by now (hopefully). This didn’t cause any noise, but I didn’t really feel like staying by the pool with workers roaming around the pool all day. That having been said the view from the hotel is really nice.
Calangute city centre is walking distance from the hotel. There’s not much there apart from some shops but when you’re staying there you might as well go for a little walk. Everything people say about India (the smell, the people, getting bothered) is not really true about Goa. I’ve never been to any other part in India but if I have to believe the stories, the smell and getting bothered the whole time is something you have to live with. People who don’t like this, should come to Goa, because here that’s not the case at all. Everyone is super laid back!
At the end of the main road, is a beach. A very peculiar beach, because instead of sunbathers everyone is standing in their clothes, looking at the ocean. Why? To this day I don’t know the answer, but if any of you know; please leave a comment!
You can see the guys in the picture above, holding hands. Don’t be shocked, it’s a culture thing. Guy friends are way more touchy with each others than we Westerners are used to.
In Calangute, we booked our two tours for the next two days. Both of these tour will feature in their own post – the first day we went to Dudhsagar Falls and the second day to some churches and temples in Old Goa.
Baga
hyBaga is a short taxi ride away from Calangute. It was my favourite hangout in Goa, especially in the evenings. There are amazing beach restaurants such as Britto’s. The reason why it’s so busy in the below picture is because people in India also get Eid holidays. We were there in a peak weekend. Luckily we had our Indian colleague with us and he managed to arrange a table for us right by the beach!
And another great restaurant by the beach is St. Anthony’s Shack & Restaurant, where they do karaoke! Here my friends enjoyed hookah and I enjoyed a Kingfisher beer.
After dinner you can walk along the beach to check out all the different beach bars with lounge areas on the beach, you can go souvenir shopping and you could go to the street with all the bars.
On our last night we visited to casino, because we had a few hours to kill before our flight at 4am and it was raining like crazy outside. The people who didn’t want to go in the first place (including myself) had to be dragged out of the casino. I forgot how much fun it is to spend a few hours in the casino and betting your money away!
Conclusion
Calangute and Baga are ideal places to stay when you’re visiting Goa. There’s not a lot of sightseeing to do in the area, but everything you need in terms of staying is there. Nice hotels, nice restaurants, nice bars and they’re at close to each other. It was a perfect base for our two day trips which I will describe in my next posts.
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