hi sammy,

we took the kids, 17 and 14 for christmas and new year.

do you want the good news or the bad news?

the good news is that theres no bad news!

the hotel is much of a mucness compared to the same standard of hotel in goa. the staff were fantastic, couldnt do enough to help. rooms were large but basic and cleaned every day. hotel is on the main road but sits back quite a way and is fairly quiet. shops outside are ideal for bits and pieces and its about a five minute walk to the beach.

i wouldnt hesitate to recommend the place to anyone as long as you understand and dont expect european standards.

wife and kids would go there and nowhere else twice a year from now on. everywhere is so safe and everyone is so friendly.

you just gotta love the place!

cheers,h.

Hi Paxrax

Thanks for info, sounds good so booking it after. What entertainment at hotel or in town. Also read somewhere for the meals is it buffet or menu you choose from as mixed reviews. If food bad i will eat out as cheap but if good even better thanks c

the menu is not too bad, if we were around the hotel during the day we would eat from the menu but always ate out at night.there is a buffet at breakfast, lunch and dinner but if you want anything cooked fresh from the snack menu they will do that too. standard stuff, bhajis, burgers etc on the snack menu but quite pallatable. ive been to a lot worse for sure!

entertainment-

we went to coco beach, about 15 mins in a taxi nearly every day. its a lot quieter than calangute/candolim if thats what you want, cost us around £15 for breakfast and lunch plus drinks all day for the 4 of us. only about 6 shacks on the beach and we went to "luvverly jubberly", one day the lads drove for 2 hours to find us fresh crab as they had run out and still charged us menu price!

loads of places to visit, just do it by taxi, hang on to one driver for your time there and youll do well.

at night theres loads of good restaurants and bars, karaoke etc if you want it. everywheres child friendly and sooo safe!

i honestly cant recommend it enough, if you havent been to a third world country before, you cant prepare yourself for the culture shock, but just go with the flow and accept the way things are!

dont barter for anything till you have a tan either and dont let people push you into bars and shacks as they can be very persistant! find the places you like and stick to them, theyll treat you like kings!

and DO try "after eight" for food, tried all of the "posh" places but for ambiance and service you couldnt fault it!

anything else, just ask!

hi sammy 10 if you go to page 3 on h/ts i asked about music and enterainment and got lots of info back on places to go so you will see for yourself im sure you will be well pleased

5 of us stayed there last December. As you have children I would say its great but it wasn't for us. Can't fault the staff/cleanliness etc etc but the entertainment was a bit poor. However, when 2 of us ended up quite ill for 2 days the staff couldn't do enough to help. The beach is only about 5 minutes walk and is fantastic. We ended up at Reggie's shack after trying various others. Taxis are right outside the hotel and Popo is a great sat nav!
Hope this helps!

Tania

We were going to book this hotel for November this year. Considering it is all inclusive the prices were fantastic. Only thing that put us off was the 01.45 flight from Gatwick (flying with Thomson).
Did that flight once before but dont want to repeat the experience in a hurry.

Hi Gemma33. We are doing a 1.45 flight from Birmingham in November. Was it that bad!!! Tell more please. We thought it wouldn't be that bad as we could sleep for most of it, or do they wake you up with the trolleys bringing food?

Hi Polly50; hubby and I did the same flight in January this year and its not so much the timing thats the problem its the plane, it just isn't big enough for the amount of people they cram into it. If you do up-grade it costs approx £200 each and what do you get for it, a slightly wider seat and leg pitch, supposedly free drinks (if you can get cabin crew to get them for you) and in seat entertaiment, which after you've been up 24 hours is about as welcome as a sore head, its just not worth the money, you certainly dont get £200 of extras.
We are going schedual this time (December) as we've done charter 6 times now and it doesn't get any better, although having read the reports of the First Choice flights, they might be worth considering, its just that we've had enough of hotels as well, we never make full use of the facilities, so its apartments (friends) from now on.

hope this helps

Jayne

Hi Polly i think most of the flights to Goa arent all that great. I actually meant the timing of the flight. You are hanging about the airport a good bit at night. when we did the late flight we flew from Gatwick and most places closed about 11ish, the airport was really quite and also became very cold It was more the hanging about waiting to take off.
I personally cant really sleep on the flight. I might doze off and on but thats about it. its a very busy flight as well and folk are up and down all the time to the loo and stuff and then stewardesses are up and down the aisle all the time.
I do prefer to go early evening tho. Our flight this year was 7.15pm and I thought that was quite good.
However, dont let the flight or waiting about put you off. Just think of the wonderful destination you will reach at the end of your journey and it will be worthwhile.
We go on 12 November from Manchester, what date do you fly out.

Thanks for the info Newbutt. Sounds about right for a package flight! Wouldn't bother with an upgrade again, did one last year to Florida, you are right about the drinks, they can't be bothered.
Gemma, we are flying out on 26th November and staying at the Marinha Dourada, so I guess we will miss you. Sounds like good reports of the hotel, but don't intend to stay in it very much except for sleeping.

Hi Polly we always stay at the Marinha Dourada and are booked again for Feb 2007. We were going to go in November as well. I really wanted to try a different resort and hotel so we are staying at the Phoenix Park In Candolim and we've still got the Marinha Dourada to look forward to in February.
You will love it there, its a fabulous hotel.

Hi just found website for dona terezhina so thought id post it
http://www.alfrangoa.com