It was more than a year that we had not gone out for a holiday. Various responsibilities, family weddings, office work contributed to our dilly dallying the much required break.
It was almost March and I was dying for a chutti. One look at the calendar and we knew that April had a really good potential for taking a week off with 3 official holidays coming up together in a week.
Me and my husband applied for leaves and the next big question was where should we go. Since it was April and beginning of a hot Indian summer, everyone's usual suggestion was any hill station. Being a Delhite I have been going to all sorts of hill stations all my life and I really did not feel like spending an entire week on a mall road. I wanted to go to a beach destination and Goa was my ultimate choice.
What??? Goa, in April!!!!! was everyone's reaction. "you people must be crazy to even think about Goa in April. It is off season, there will be no shacks and beaches will be up and on top of that it will be so hot that you people will not be able to step down on any of the beaches."
My husband got a little skeptical by hearing all this but I was adamant. I started looking on goggle to find out how is Goa in April. To my disappointment, I could not find anything which gave me a fair idea of GOA in April. There were some Yahoo and trip adviser queries and most of them were answered by people from Europe or US. As we all know Europeans and Americans have different parameters for what is hot and whats not than Indians, I was not satisfied by these findings.
I listened to my gut and booked Goa for a week in April with my whole family. After coming back I thought of sharing my experiences with people so that anyone else going through a dilemma like me can have a clear picture.
We boarded for Goa on a morning flight on 14th of April. I was dreading the moment when we will land there and was totally expecting heat and humidity welcoming us. When we got out of the airport all my fears were subsided by a cool breeze and it was about 2 in the afternoon. I was quite happy with this warm errr cool welcome.
We hired a taxi and reached our hotel the Silver Sands Resort at the Condolim beach. We have booked here for two days and for rest of the three days we had a booking at Terra Perrasio Resorts at Calangute.
The resort looked really good from outside and we were all in all happy. The rooms of the resort were very basic and did not match up to my expectations, but they were clean. Wherever I stay my first preference is a neat and clean bathroom and so I was satisfied in that aspect at least.
After relaxing and changing we came out and my son was excited to see the swimming pool. He could not wait for us to even finish our tea. I took him to shower room near the pool and it was stinking badly of urine. I could not make myself go inside so we avoided that shower and my son landed in pool with his grand dad.
Meanwhile me and my husband decided to go for a walk on the beach which was 5 mins walk from the resort. The beach was nice and there were many shacks still up and bustling with activity.
We avoided any meals at the resort except for our complimentary breakfast which was nothing to boast about. They were not at all accommodating if someone did not eat eggs. When my son did not eat his sandwich, I thought of keeping it in a napkin so that I can make him eat later on but that was also not acceptable to the staff.
All in all it is a decent enough resort if you are looking for budgeted hotels which are neat and clean, and quite close to the beach but do not expect any luxury.
Our second accommodation at Terra Perassio was simply amazing. It is a small resort but beautifully made and really good and spacious rooms. Their room service is also up to the mark and the food at in house restaurant is great. They were very helpful when I asked them to cook paranthas or stuffed kulchas without any spices and were ready to customize food as per our needs. Breakfast was also a lavish spread with live egg counter. variety of fruits, bf cereals, juices, 3 main dish and an assortment of breads.
As far as weather is concerned it was certainly hot in the day time and going to beach after 10 and before 4 was simply out of question. Morning and evenings were cool and breezy and that used to be our beach and shack time. During the noon the breeze was cool if you were in shade and we spent that time either in pool or sight seeing like old Goa and forts.
Although the foreigners as usual used to relax on their recliners whole day on the beach but I was not able to even walk on the beach because sand was quite hot during afternoon. Water sports and activities were still on and we enjoyed our share of it.
Because it was off season the beaches and shacks were less crowded than the madness we have in peak season. All in all it was a great holiday and we did not feel like we are in a hot oven ready to be baked.
We came back with some very good memories and an experience to advice people who really want to go Goa in April due to any crazy reason like me. Yes, it wont be as pleasant as in December but you can still go and enjoy cool morning and evenings and avoid those hot afternoons. So Goooooooo Goooooooooooa!!!
It was almost March and I was dying for a chutti. One look at the calendar and we knew that April had a really good potential for taking a week off with 3 official holidays coming up together in a week.
Me and my husband applied for leaves and the next big question was where should we go. Since it was April and beginning of a hot Indian summer, everyone's usual suggestion was any hill station. Being a Delhite I have been going to all sorts of hill stations all my life and I really did not feel like spending an entire week on a mall road. I wanted to go to a beach destination and Goa was my ultimate choice.
What??? Goa, in April!!!!! was everyone's reaction. "you people must be crazy to even think about Goa in April. It is off season, there will be no shacks and beaches will be up and on top of that it will be so hot that you people will not be able to step down on any of the beaches."
My husband got a little skeptical by hearing all this but I was adamant. I started looking on goggle to find out how is Goa in April. To my disappointment, I could not find anything which gave me a fair idea of GOA in April. There were some Yahoo and trip adviser queries and most of them were answered by people from Europe or US. As we all know Europeans and Americans have different parameters for what is hot and whats not than Indians, I was not satisfied by these findings.
I listened to my gut and booked Goa for a week in April with my whole family. After coming back I thought of sharing my experiences with people so that anyone else going through a dilemma like me can have a clear picture.
We boarded for Goa on a morning flight on 14th of April. I was dreading the moment when we will land there and was totally expecting heat and humidity welcoming us. When we got out of the airport all my fears were subsided by a cool breeze and it was about 2 in the afternoon. I was quite happy with this warm errr cool welcome.
We hired a taxi and reached our hotel the Silver Sands Resort at the Condolim beach. We have booked here for two days and for rest of the three days we had a booking at Terra Perrasio Resorts at Calangute.
The resort looked really good from outside and we were all in all happy. The rooms of the resort were very basic and did not match up to my expectations, but they were clean. Wherever I stay my first preference is a neat and clean bathroom and so I was satisfied in that aspect at least.
After relaxing and changing we came out and my son was excited to see the swimming pool. He could not wait for us to even finish our tea. I took him to shower room near the pool and it was stinking badly of urine. I could not make myself go inside so we avoided that shower and my son landed in pool with his grand dad.
Meanwhile me and my husband decided to go for a walk on the beach which was 5 mins walk from the resort. The beach was nice and there were many shacks still up and bustling with activity.
We avoided any meals at the resort except for our complimentary breakfast which was nothing to boast about. They were not at all accommodating if someone did not eat eggs. When my son did not eat his sandwich, I thought of keeping it in a napkin so that I can make him eat later on but that was also not acceptable to the staff.
All in all it is a decent enough resort if you are looking for budgeted hotels which are neat and clean, and quite close to the beach but do not expect any luxury.
Our second accommodation at Terra Perassio was simply amazing. It is a small resort but beautifully made and really good and spacious rooms. Their room service is also up to the mark and the food at in house restaurant is great. They were very helpful when I asked them to cook paranthas or stuffed kulchas without any spices and were ready to customize food as per our needs. Breakfast was also a lavish spread with live egg counter. variety of fruits, bf cereals, juices, 3 main dish and an assortment of breads.
As far as weather is concerned it was certainly hot in the day time and going to beach after 10 and before 4 was simply out of question. Morning and evenings were cool and breezy and that used to be our beach and shack time. During the noon the breeze was cool if you were in shade and we spent that time either in pool or sight seeing like old Goa and forts.
Although the foreigners as usual used to relax on their recliners whole day on the beach but I was not able to even walk on the beach because sand was quite hot during afternoon. Water sports and activities were still on and we enjoyed our share of it.
Because it was off season the beaches and shacks were less crowded than the madness we have in peak season. All in all it was a great holiday and we did not feel like we are in a hot oven ready to be baked.
We came back with some very good memories and an experience to advice people who really want to go Goa in April due to any crazy reason like me. Yes, it wont be as pleasant as in December but you can still go and enjoy cool morning and evenings and avoid those hot afternoons. So Goooooooo Goooooooooooa!!!
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