Nicola sorry to hear about the wee man...I hope he is ok now bless him look for ward to your report ......colleen

Welcome back Nicola, wow that was quick looking forward to your 6 page essay whan you get round to it

back already Nicola- that was quick!

Nice to have you back Yummy, hope your little one is ok now, really looking forward to your report , love shirleyv

Cant believe your holiday is over already Nicola. Where does the time go
I hope your wee boy has made a full recovery.
Looking forward to hearing all about your holiday when you get the chance

Hello, thanks everyone

Our holiday did go too fast unfortunetly, but we can only go for 2 weeks as my little one can only have two weeks off school.

i promise to write a detailed report by Tuesday

Hi Nicola

Hope little un is ok. I am like you never enjoyed as much as last year. Trip report is being compiled but as we hardly did anything this year it will be a short one
Sorry we never bumped into each other but we used Oceanic all the time. Also met up with Pam7 and Wicked Chris for a few drinks one night.

Hello, this is the start of my trip report, although in no specific order as im not good as remembering things, and usually my reports are all mixed up haha.

Got a lift to Manchester airport off a friend, checked in with MyTravel, did the usual airport shopping, had a few drinks and sat at a bar/cafe in the airport with a nice view of the planes.

We didnt pay for our inflight meals, and it was stated on our tickets that we wouldnt get them, but we did.

Boarded the plane, i can honestly say that the plane wasnt at all better than the Monarch planes.

It was the b767, with the crap inflight entertainment, only had aisle tv's.
I much prefer the A322's that we had last year.

Landed at Goa around 15mins early, airport was the same as last year, didnt really take a long time for our luggage to come off.

I decided to stand and wait for our suitcases and let my partner stay with our little lad away from the crowd trying to get their cases.
This was because i am much better at saying no to the guys who try and take your luggage.

There was a big guy waiting for his case, he took it off the luggage belt and one of the porters tried grabbing his case out of his hands, in the struggle the big guy fell over and nearly landed directly on top of my son!!
My partner tried helping the guy up, but i think he was a bit embarrassed and didnt take the help.

My partner decided he hadnt any ciggerettes left so he got a pack of 200 from the airport shop for about 6pounds.

Got a taxi from the counter, paid less than 900 ruppees to get to our hotel in Baga.

Our hotel

Riverside Guest house.

In the holiday brochure it said it was a 1star, but i have got to say this is the best hotel i have stayed at in Goa, and it was my 6th time.

We had satalite tv in our room, and in the restaurant area.
Our room was of a normal standard for any 2star hotel in Goa, nice bathroom with shower, a big mirror, a nice glass shelf for all our shampoo etc.

Id definetly stay here again, but the only downside was there was a third bed in our room for our son, so there wasnt space, we were constantly bumping into each other when we wanted to walk around.

All in all, it was a lovely hotel, nicely positioned , just a short stroll to the end of baga beach, seats and tables outside overlooking the river, was lovely eating breakfast out there.
Staff were wonderful with my son.

More to follow soon

Hi Nicola
is the Riverside next to Hibiscus? saw one there as we passed in the Taxi from the MD. Two weeks seems a long time whilst your away doing nothing but goes really quickly for those of us that have returned to the manic hustle and bustle of everyday life
Debi

Really enjoying youre report Nicola. Looking forward to the next bit

thanks for that report nicola, myself and my grown up son are flying out tommorow from mancs on my travelite and staying in riverside guest house. we are thrilled to hear your praises of the guest house..esp the satelite tv since we are both footy mad.pity ill be gone before the rest of your report.

Thanks

Ash, you will love the riverside guest house, i really do not know why manos have got it down as a 1star, because in my opinion it really is more.

This is what i mean by no specific order, i am not very good at compiling trip reports, i just write down what comes into my head

We found the evenings to be quite chilly, if i were to go again id want to go in late Feb, March, or even brave April again.
I think i found it a bit chilly because i didnt wear anything in the evening except strappy tops and smart shorts or jeans, but if you wear a lightweight cardy you will be fine.

As i said previously, we didnt like this trip as much as the years before, the attitude of taxi drivers and stall holders are the main reason.

I had a bit of a disagreement with a stall holder on baga road, i was walking towards baga from my hotel, it was near the fatima guest house, if anyone knows where that is?
I enquired about her ankle bracelets, so she started putting lots of chains on my ankles, so i said can you get them off me, i dont want you putting them on me until we have sorted a price out.

she said 1200 rupees for 2 .. i was gobsmacked. there is no way i was prepared to pay that much, not even half!!

she started giving me the sales pitch, saying they were real silver, but i said no, i can get these for 100 rupees each off a beach seller.
Then she said ok, 600 for both of them, i still said no.
But she wouldnt take no for an answer, and i was struggling to take the chains off my ankles.

It was getting quite late so we had to get our little lad back to the hotel, my partner was getting annoyed, so he said just pay 600, just to get away.

But i stood my ground and said no way, take the bloody things off me now!!!
Then she said to my partner, i think you should leave the wife at home when you come shopping, shes a bit harsh.
That really infuriated me, i really wasnt going to back down, so i said if you dont take them off me i will rip them off and you will not be getting a single rupee out of me.

So she took them off me and called me a crazy woman.

The constant mivering off taxi drivers and stall holders is just getting worse over the years, and i am going to give Goa a miss for at least a couple of years.

It just isnt the place i fell in love with 10 years ago, i feel that because Goa is becoming more popular with a lot of nationalities, its going downhill.
Taxi drivers and stall holders are getting very greedy.

As for the litter, i just do not understand how the government thinks tourists should just accept that litter and dirt is all part of a holiday in Goa.
I am sure that other places in the world do try and reduce litter.

The moaning part over with, for the meantime , i will now tell you about places we visited.

We hired scooters for a couple of days, drove to Anjuna beach, which i didnt like.
Carried on to Vatager beach, parked up in the carpark on top of the big hill and sat on the bench. The views were amazing. Lovely place to sit and chill for a bit.

Decided to go down to the shacks, sunbathed for a little while, then walked back up the hill to sit on the bench again for sunset.
Gorgeous is the only word for it.

We didnt get round to shopping in Panjim, which was a shame.
Our only visit to Panjim was for the hospital.

Cafeday, i think thats what its called, was lovely, but only went in twice on our last two days.
Had lovely ice cold coffees and chocolate cake in candolim.

On our first night we went to Bernards, we hadnt been asleep for over 30 hours and decided to stay awake so we could get into Goan time.
Service was very slow, had to wait about 30 mins for our bill.
My partner ended up falling asleep at the table whilst waiting for our bill

We ate at Jamies place, which is on Baga road, very nice food, but a bit pricey by Goan standards.

Mostly we ate at the shacks in Baga, Larios, shining star, silver sands.

My partner said he had the best fish and chips ever at the silver sands.

We also went to that shack across the river, sunset or something similar.
Its across the river from Larios shack.
That was very nice in the evening.

Spent a few days at the far end of candolim beach, near the kingfisher village, which looked very posh.

In my opinion you dont get much hassle from beach sellers down past the river princess, but you do in Baga.

The supermarket in candolim called newtons is quite good, but is expensive.
We only went once.

We got back Saturday evening and was also surprised by the weather!! Never had our ceiling fan on once (although when we stayed at Palolem we did! )...and first night I was cold! Not normally like this though! We've gone many times in January/February and sweltered! Locals were wrapped up in anoraks...pmsl..even on the beach some days! They were saying it was just freak weather this year. The beginning of January was very hot though - I was talking to some people on the plane on the way home who had been out there for a month.

Nicola, I can't believe you're back already, I am loving reading your report, glad you liked the Riverside.

Donna
XX

Pam, i have also been in Jan a few times and this is probably the first time i have felt so cold in the evenings.

Donna, yes , i absolutley loved the riverside, but the only downside was our son had to share our tiny room, which made it hard for space.
Usually we get the 3rd camp bed in the living room area, but as this hotel didnt have a living room area it was placed in our room.

It didnt bother us too much, as we didnt spend much time in the room, only to sleep, shower etc.

I think if i do go back to Goa, which i dont think is very likely for the next couple of years, then id have no hesitation in returning to the riverside guest house.

Nicola

Perhaps next time you go back try the other one over the river where we are staying in a few weeks, the Riverside Regency, the rooms are bigger over there. I'm sorry to hear that Squeeze has gone down hill as well, what happened there they used to be so good, I hope they get themselves sorted for when we get there.

Donna
XX

Very interesting report. I notice its still only 29C out there now. Its was 34-36 the other week. Hope it picks up by March!

I'll also be on my toes when it comes to taxi drivers and sellers trying to pull a fast one.

"As for the litter, i just do not understand how the government thinks tourists should just accept that litter and dirt is all part of a holiday in Goa.
I am sure that other places in the world do try and reduce litter."

I know what you mean.... most of the other negative things about Goa I can cope with but litter, agressive taxi drivers and sellers selling and hassling you into buying overinflated rubbish.

The Govn/Tourism ministers do not seem to realise that the reason WE go on holiday is to de-stress... so why do we need all this! The smiles become rather false and patronising after a while. They have had plenty of time to rectify this... but as usual NADA.

Totally agree with you Neil, we come to Goa to forget about our worries, and to relax.
But getting mivered and then taxi drivers or stall holders turning aggressive (verbally) just isnt what we have come for.

This is why we are giving Goa a miss for a couple of years.

Why pay all that money to go to Goa when there are lots of other nice places in the world with better standards of living for the same price.

The only things that draw me back to Goa are the people and the winter sun.
Sadly i am beginning to rethink