Unknown hotel: Villa Tivai

Day before yesterday we were invited to have a meal at a hotel in Calangute called Villa Tivai. I did not know the place but was pleasantly surprised with a converted an old Portuguese house with four bedrooms with four poster beds, a nice garden and excellent, excellent food. And all within walkable distance of the Calangute beach.

Turns out nobody had stayed there the whole season (including Xmas )because nobody knows the place and it is a bit difficult to find. Their telephone numbers had changed and their website: www.goadreams.com did not work (it does now)!

The place is run by an older English man who obviously had a good idea but has no clue about marketing.

I only had food and the service was great but I have no idea how it would work if you stay there. Still I think it is worth a chance given how very nice the place is.

Their NEW telephone number is: 9850 482 317/ 9764 680 735 or UK 0044 771 0798627.

Email: info@goadreams.com but I am not sure whether this guy is very email orientated.

Anyway, I thought it was worth mentioning.

Why this sponsored advertisment?
I believe this thread should be deleted, or relegated to the relevant obscure mesh.

Not sponsored at all! Have no connections with it either. It was just a nice place that I thought people may like to know about, afterall this is a travel forum.

Yes, I like to know ! ( why not? )
Please put more info about the accommodations
in this thread!
rgds, wayan

This website is all about shared information, and this kind of post is very helpful to members.

However, a similar post by a new member wouldn't be viewed in the same way.

It's kind of like a big pub, there's all the regulars in the pub, and if one of them offer to sell you something, you know and trust that person, but if a new person walks in from the street, you don't know them, so can't trust them.

One thing i noticed on their site is that all their rates are in pounds !

The rooms look nice and have a rustic feeling to them .

But I have to say, the place is expensive.

We stayed in a place in Calangute and got a 3 room place (main room with double bed, tv etc.), Kitchen (with cooking equipment, fridge, kettle) and shower/toilet room.

We also had a door leading direct to a porch and large Garden.

However, there was no 4-poster bed and no meals included in the price.

Mantheven Homes

It cost Rs1000 a night in November and the place looks better than the Taj room in Villa Tivai (Rs4000 in November), am I missing something?

this is very expensive. i stay away off the places with rates in pounds - catering for upmarkets british tourists.

steven, your lodge is in a trouble with their website.

I thought the same when I was looking into staying at the place, I was taking a 7 month old baby, so had to be careful.

But I trusted the people who recommended the place to me, and I spoke to the owners.

The whole stay was perfect.

It seems the owners had a disagreement with the person who done their website, it's hard to imaging once you've met the owners, a very nice, gentle & friendly Goan couple.

So I say to anyone, ignore what you read on that webpage.

That should read an old Goan house not Portuguese house

Agree with the prices. Have to admit did not really look at the website as I had just had dinner at the place. Besides the fact that we have reeeeeeeeally slow internet at the moment .

I was told that houses where the front pillars are straight were called Portuguese houses as they were either lived in by Portuguese or Christian Goans many of which spoke Portuguese. Houses with sloping pillars in the front would be houses from Hindu Goans and were called Goan houses.

I am not sure whether this is true but did notice that estate agents stick to this description as well.

But I am happy to change it if it helps.

I have goadreams.eu may be this might help with marketing
I sayed at this place two years ago at Christmas with the family, we had two rooms booked for a week, Place was nice and walking distance to the beach but the bathrooms were not attached and you have to walk down the isle to get to them, for the price i expected better, but was a nice friendly place. The owner(took 5 year lease on this property)went fishing early on Christmas day and cooked various fish/prawns and chicken on his imported barbeque from Australia they didnt have proper kitchen, so they got the food from somewhere else in calangute and serverd us on plates. Breakfast was cooked in a small hut/kitchen in the garden. Nice clean place but expensive for what it offered.

Wow, those prices seem pretty high for what appears to be a glorified home stay.

Whoever told you that gibberish is totally misinformed.

The term "Portuguese" house has come into existence in Goa only in the last 10 years or so and it was coined by real estate brokers just to market these structures to wealthy businessmen/socialites from Delhi who wanted a piece of something which they imagined to be foreign and hence of great value on the cocktail party circuit.

On a side note I would like to tell you that it was not just Christian Goans but Hindu Goans as well who spoke Portuguese prior to 1961.

Oh Boy, something that started just as a 'happy find' seems to turn into much less so. Will be careful next time.

With regards to the houses, the bit about the pillars I was told so by an historian and again by a Goan architect. Still that does not mean that it is true but I thought they would be good sources.

From what I have been able to gather is that although it is certainly true that many Hindu's spoke Portuguese, it seems it was much less common among non-Christians. Many of the families that still speak Portuguese today tend to be Christians rather than Hindus. But I be happy to learn more about this

Since you seem to be very well informed about Goa, perhaps you could also enlighten me about the following. According to some sources some 12% of the population of Goa is tribal (listed as Kunbis, Gawdars/Gowdas, Velips and Dhangars) while according to other sources there are no/nearly not tribal populations in Goa. Any idea how the differences came about? Semantics?

Sources:
http://164.100.24.208/ls/committeeR/...CHAPTERIII.htm
http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census...ance/scst.aspx