i took this from my tripadvisor account,the report is from my stay in baga in april 2011

After leaving our house in the midlands we made our way up to manchester and The Hallmark Hotel,we(my wife and i) always have a park and fly package before we go on hols.nice enough hotel..not as good as crowne plaza's but still ok.

checked in then went for my usual pre hols warm up which is sauna/steam room/plunge pool/swim over and over for a few hours.our transfer was included in the price and we arrived at terminal 1 at 7am ready to depart at 9.20am April 5th

The flight was non eventfull except the last hour and half which was a tad turbulent so the pilot descended from 39000 feet to 31000 feet prob solved.

Thoughts on Thomas cook plane...not too good my previous long hauls were to thailand by Thai air and Malaysian air and they were both good,thomas cook plane was cramped and uncomfortable and expensive if you wanted drinks etc.

Goa

landed at the airport expecting to swelter but it seemed ok fought off the suitcase muggers and we made the journey to CSM baga,bus could not travel up the csm road so the hotel sent a small taxi to fetch the cases for us,a bag handler rudely shouted "coin" showing me a pound coin and like a fool i complied to his request (could kick myself now).

checked into room 184 and was not happy but as it was now 2am wed morn i left it till i woke up to request another room on the grounds that the balcony was way to small and we like to have the last drink of the evening on the balcony so we went out to get a drink and wandered into papa g's wanted a lite bite to eat so ordered a beef sizzler each..oh boy big mistake just one could have fed the two of us,nice food at a cheap price...on to room 135 and yep we were happy with that.

First day we walked from csm road down to the river princess and i took a few snaps..

caught a taxi back and OH was using heavy language at the distance we had just covered...

Thoughts a nice huge beach what was swarming with locals around calangute steps and too many samey shacks.

Caught a three wheel rickshaw to anjuna market and got hasseled to death by locals but enjoyed it none the less.bought a few leather belts.

Anyway i wanted to try a shack i had read so much about and went into big banana...not impressed really orderd a breakfast and the sausages were cremated.walked up towards baga creek and cut through onto tito's lane,it was there where the sight of rubbish and litter hit me i could not believe how something that has so much going for it could become such a dump.

After a few days of wandering around the beach in the day and eating and drinking around the main baga road we thought we had made a mistake in coming here night after night was just a constant din of car horns not more than a few second go by without a horn blaring.

shacks so far were xaviers and shining star ..not overley impressed

restaurants were lazydays which was good and A Reverie which was recomended to me by mike the owner of phoenix bar in capt lobos beach hideaway.

A reverie was a class above surroundings and food were top class.

After four days i wanted to head off down south to palolem and try a beach hut (thank you stalex) but disaster struck as my wife had severe dehli belly,she was up all night with terrible stomach pains and all the rest that goes with it..i trundeld off to the chemist and explained the problem to them and i was supplied with pills and drink sachets etc..problem eased after a few hrs and cleared by night time so we went to mackies night market.

Great night out watching the singing and dancing from the food courts even bought a few glittery elephants lol.

so sunday we caught a taxi to palolem for a cost of 1500rs i had one guy begging for him to take us for 1300rs but i had given my word and kept it.

and so along palolem beach and onto Ciarans...

thoughts...this is what goa is all about,this is why people love it so much.

The difference between Baga in the North and palolem in the south is..well...unbelievable,give me more of this.

after three magic nights in palolem we moved up the coast a bit to Agonda and had one night in Agonda white sands.This place is totally different to palolem and in a nicer sought of way,it seemed like we had that whole huge beach to ourselves and white sands is one of/if not the best hut complex in Agonda,we had a great time here.

i haven't mentioned the barber/shaving shops yet but the old feller outside simrose deserves a mention,he asked for 30rs for a shave and then gave me the option of a face massage with ice..yeah ok i said so he chuckled to himself and ran to his house over the road and fetched a pail of ice which he used on my face whilst massaging it...heaven! in that blistering heat i could not have wished for a better experience.skin felt brand new.

So after four great nites we made our way back to Baga and suddenley things did not seem so bad..probably due to the fact that we now spent our evenings on the beach in the shacks

Best beach shacks we found were Cafe del mar (you were right stalex) and bobbys shack in candolim.zanzibar looks nice but nowt special

Thoughts....you know what i can see us coming back here.

Time for another tour and this time jungle book tour

What a great time that tour is..cost £90 each with tc tour rep .swimming in the lake and getting power showerd was great.even the nightime campfire was fun.zeb the guide asked if anyone wanted to visit a jungle pub so off we all trooped out the camp into the jungle and across dried river beds untill we came to the jungle pub....cant remember much more of that evening lol.

The remaining few days were spent sunbathing and eating at cafe del mar and evenings in candolim,we ate at inferno and that is a quality restaurant.

i know this is a long report but being as the forum is quite lately i thought i'd try and give you something worth reading

Cost of hols

Flight and hotel £1540 for two

Ciarans 3 nights £150 taxi there and back £40

white sands 1 night £21

jungle tour £180 for two

Jewellry £480 two mens rings...dont ask!

dog in kennels £140 15 nights

3 shirts made to measure £45 i photocopied a rodger daltrey shirt which is £40 in the uk and the tailor made a perfect copy most pleased

various spends £1000

Thoughts was it worth it? oh yeah it sure was

Are we going back YES definatley next year....Whispering palms Candolim..i hope

Side notes

if you travel to india without rupees you can change money onley at the airport just near the exit on the right..no t/c's

Barbers these are great for a shave but they will try and have you by blending seamlessly into a face massage,so just make it quite clear shave only 50rs

litter

this is a crying shame as why the place is filthy.i can see why people leave in disgust never to return,i felt the same way after being there for four days

Baga is noisy and has no footpaths candolim seems a better option with footpaths and still plenty bars and restaurants to go at

taxi's the charge for locals is 12-15 rs a km and waiting time 15-25rs an hour so do not tip them as they are ripping you off.

tipping no need to tip anyone more than 20 rs even 10 rs is enough.some of the shack workers earn £50-3500rs a month.

beaches didn't do many but little vagator beach is superb and so is palolem and agonda

restaurants A reverie is tops,Thalassa at little vagator is a must (thats specia) inferno was good (shark tikka) and lazydays is goodish

sorry if this is a long winded trip report but i tried to cram all my observations in

trusted jeweller..Glorious arts right outside the enterance to csm complex

taxi driver..there are plenty about but after trying a few i settled on this guy Premjit +91 9822156599 did not try to overcharge and has a good sense of humour and speaks excellent english.

my only previous visits to asia were to koh samui and phuket,Thailand is five star compared to goa but for some reason goa has a wonderfull charm to it

ps if this report looks a little strange its because i typed it into my email first then copied and pasted it.

Brian