Goa: any advice for non-touristy areas?

jarman_ah

We will be staying in Goa in early November, but, coming from Australia and being in our 60s, we are not all that interested in the beaches (we have plenty at home), and the night life isn't all that important either. What we DO want to see is old Portuguese architecture, flea markets, traditional havelis. We love to walk, walk, and walk!

Also, we thought we would head for Hospet and Hampi by the overnight bus, so accommodation which is easily accessible to the main bus station might be useful, also. We're arriving (and, eventually, leaving) by air, not by train.

Can anyone recommend a cheap but interesting place to stay, or at least tell us the area we should be looking in? At this stage in our research, I am not even sure whether we should be looking in north or south Goa. One earlier suggestion was that South Goa (particularly Benaulim) was quaint and original, with easy transport to everything else. I would be interested to hear alternatives.

Many thanks for all suggestions!

timmy

Hi there. Just re: the overnight bus, perhaps consider the following comments:

and

These two posts were enough for me to decide to forgo the bus and use the train when I go in a couple of weeks.

Hope this helps.

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iyou

Old Goa, near Panjim (Panaji) City, is full of old cathedrals, and is very nice for walking around in, as are some of the old neighborhoods around Panjim City itself. It's almost like you're in 17th century Portugal. A lot of the beach areas are very rural and agriculturally-based, tourism notwithstanding. You might have a better time exploring the towns. Margao (Madgaon) has a nice market, but like cities everywhere in India it's fairly noisy and polluted, with far too much traffic on the roads, and not nearly enough sidewalks. Walking is something I love to do, too, but in India it's not a particularly relaxing thing to do.

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jarman_ah

I read those threads about the overnight bus also, and my feelings are much the same as you.... however, the train days don't quite work in our favour, so we may just have to put up with the bus or forego Hampi altogether. When we stitched together a schedule to present to Jet Airways before their prices went up, we hadn't even heard of Hampi, so we didn't really allow ourselves a lot of spare time to pick and choose days. If only the train ran daily!

Old Goa sounds like a place where we will be spending a lot of time. Do you have any suggestions for nearby hotels/guest houses?

Thanks very much for all the help so far!

steven_ber

The new 'Trains at a Glance' has the train running 4 days a week, the daytime journey departing Goa on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays, and the train back from Hospet to Goa departing on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays.

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Train information.

timmy

Thanks Steven, duly noted on my cheat sheet.

seventies'hippy

This guy runs a very successful tour company in goa with an assortment of day trips & short excursions He's from the uk & knows his stuff back to front
have a lookHERE
DayTripper based in Calangute

jarman_ah

Steven, that news is interesting (I think there's one extra day in there that I didn't know about), but we are still out of luck.... we arrive in Goa on Monday Nov 8, early afternoon, and depart again Thursday, March 11 (late afternoon). Just the absolute worst time, as far as the train is concerned. Even going by overnight coach, we'd have left to us such a limited time in Goa; so, much as I would like to see Hampi, at the moment it's very much a "maybe". IF we book ourselves by mistake into a Goan rat's nest, and IF the area we find ourselves in in Goa is so appalling that we can't wait to get out of the place, then we might hop the bus Monday night, and return Wednesday night, giving ourselves half of Thursday to wander the streets of Old Goa. However, if we find Goa as pleasant as almost everyone else does....
Anyway, Steven, you have been an absolutely incredible help in so many ways so far in planning this trip, and I do thank you for this latest contribution.

Seventies Hippy, I hadn't seen that website before, and I read the section on Hampi with interest. Since he uses the train, I guess the same restrictions still apply to us. Still, I've bookmarked the site for future perusal, in case there's a different day tour that might be worthwhile. So, thanks for that tip!

jarman_ah

Of course that was Thursday, NOVEMBER 11, not March. Wishful thinking!

kokopelli

under Vasko da Gama, there is a tiny town called Vaseo. The man who owns the local bakery (special bread made with homebrew coconutlicker) ones built a tiny red castle (as big as one room and a bathroom) in his garden. he rents it to visitors.
was there somedays while driving the coastline.

check it out.

steven_ber

And you were thinking of going to Hampi....... you would be mad, relax a bit in Goa, Hampi's going nowhere, it will still be there in years to come, If you dont like the part of Goa where your staying, move a few kms, but not hours and hours on a train or bus.

jarman_ah

Well-reasoned, Steven, and concisely expressed. You're absolutely right, of course.... I am still going through the stage of thumbing through the Lonely Planet and ticking EVERYTHING, and then working out how best to fit it all in in five weeks. I always do this with holidays. It's part of the territory of being Australian and on the other side of the world to just about everything else. By the time you've paid for the air fare, you have invested so much money that you'd damn-well BETTER squeeze everything into the one trip, because it will be another ten years before you'll save up the money for another fare to fill in the gaps!

How I envy the people of Europe, who have a dozen countries at their fingertips, all within a few hours' flying or training, and, if they get bored with all this, even New York for two hundred dollars return!

I'm sure, as we get closer to October, reason will prevail, and I will reluctantly start cutting back on my 2759747 "must-sees". Sigh......

Thanks again!

ricdesouza

Hi, I am of Goan origin and it is so refreshing to see someone come over who wants to actually see the real Goa. I would recommend besides Old Goa, Fontainhas in Panjim. It is the old latin quarter of Goa and you will still see the origingal portuguese speaking inhabitants of Goa. There are a few charming restaurants in this quarter. The rest of Panjim (Goa's capital) is well worth wandering through. Small villages like Loutolim in the south and Siolim in the north are very quaint and you will probably have seen more of the real Goa than any tourist sees. Ciao and happy holiday
Ricardo de Souza

jarman_ah

Ricardo, your reply is just what I was looking for! You can be sure that we will visit both those villages while in Goa; in fact, I have already looked them up on my map (which, strangely enough, doesn't even show Loutolim!) and on google.

I also googled for hotels or havelis in those areas.... of course, there are hundreds of google entries, but all for the high-priced Siolim House, which is not a place for us to stay. As far as more modest establishments, not a mention, and nothing at all for Loutolim. I guess the places to stay fall off dramatically when you get more than half a kilometre from the water's edge (as, indeed, is true of Sydney). Vagator, near Siolim, has scores of places! But that's not IN Siolim!

If you can think of places to stay in either of those villages, you can bet I will be in contact with them. Otherwise, I guess it's the Tourist Hotel in Old Goa plus lots of bus rides.

Many, many thanks for your post!
Alan.

Baldy

Plenty of budget at Arambol just a short ferry and bus from Siolim ... actually the bridge shoud be operational by now so even easier

Baldy