Holiday in Goa - what to do there?

Any

HI everyone,
me and my best friend are going for whole 2 weeks on holiday to Goa:j in mid February. We are going to a 3* hotel near Candolim beach. It's full inclusive - many people said that Goa is extremely cheap for food, but the difference between half board and full board was little and after our experience in Gambia where we had to either look for food every lunch (which proved difficult - 4 girls only, constantly lots of black man following us) or we had to pay for food at the hotel which was expensive, we didn't want to take the risk... so we paid for full board and now we can look around when we decide that we feel like it.

In Gambia it was 4 girls - however this time it is only 2 of us. Had anyone experienced any problems with man following them around in Goa or was it pretty much free movement? Is there anything we should avoid?

Visa - from all the websites I am confused, do we really have to get Visa through the Indian ambassy appointed agent or can we get it straight from the consulate? Does the agent cost any extra? Please who have been recently, can you tell me what you've done.

I know we have to go to doctors for jabs and tablets. That is sorted.

Once we are there, would you recommend what to do, where to go, what trips are worth it etc?

Also I have Nationwide account for easy access to foreign currency, is it easy to find ATM machines there?
Thank you .
Any

Incapuppy

Try having a read through the dedicated Goa and indeed Candolim forums on Trip Advisor, there will be enough reading there to keep you going for several hours.

Any

I have tried, but there is nowhere near as much info as there is for for example Gambia.
Also many of the reviews are very old.

Incapuppy

The Gambia forums have 98 pages, whereas the Goa forums have 461, of which 55 are for Candolim alone

whu

You say that you were followed by black men in Gambia - not surprising as you were in Africa!!Goa is pretty chilled out so you should be ok but as with any country in the world just have your wits about you - you get the visa from the Indian Embassy - I am sure an agent will charge you a bit to get it- enjoy the trip

Any

Incapuppy wrote: »

The Gambia forums have 98 pages, whereas the Goa forums have 461, of which 55 are for Candolim alone

Thank you for your insightful and tactful input. I was trying to find as many views as possible. If someone asks me about my last holiday I will not plong them off for asking, why would I then sign up to a forum.
Would you please post a link for me, as I cannot find it. Would like to mention that I am not that great with searches, I obviously must be doing something wrong.

Any

whu wrote: »

You say that you were followed by black men in Gambia - not surprising as you were in Africa!!

Well now I know that in Africa it is nothing unusual! When we checked the reviews on our hotel and beach etc on Tripadvisor, noone mentioned anything like this. But then even on the plane noone had the same experience, they were all couples there.
Saying that I would definitely go again, only next time I am going to make sure we have a bloke with us as well!:rotfl:

Incapuppy

Any wrote: »

If someone asks me about my last holiday I will not plong them off for asking, why would I then sign up to a forum.

I have no idea what you mean by this, or whether you were being sarcastic by describing my input as insightful and tactful but here is a link anyway:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowForum-g297604-Goa.html

If you go to page two you will see the latest post for the Candolim forum, click Candolim and it will take you to that specific forum.

There is also plenty more information if you look at the links listed on the left hand side of the page.

Any

Incapuppy I am sorry but to be honest I was being sarcastic.
My point was why would you go onto a forum to chat to people just to send them elsewhere.
Thank you for this link as I seriously could not find anything like this. All I found was the main introduction about Candolim page and then also our hotel reviews.
This is very helpful. Thank you (not being sarcastic this time, sorry about before)

Incapuppy

Any wrote: »

My point was why would you go onto a forum to chat to people just to send them elsewhere.

Forum posts on here are full of links to other websites - it's a case of helping people by directing them to where they will find the most relevant information.

I find the Trip Advisor forums one of the most valuable travel information resources on the net which is why I often recommend that people have a look there. Yes, of course, you will no doubt get plenty of replies from the many helpful people on here, but in the meantime that website will give you hours of helpful reading.

Thank you for the apology (I was only trying to help!) and I hope you find lots of useful information for your trip.

jcorbygas

The reason Incapuppy would have sent you to www.tripadvisor.com is that it has so much info on locations, hotels etc, that it would surely answer every query that you had, (or ask your own question)compared with this site, which is really a moneysaving site!!
I do not go anywhere without consulting www.tripadvisor.com and use this site to see if there are any cost cutting deals available, so incapuppy gave you very good advice.
Hope you have a good holiday.