Goa, India Review

If your thinking of a holiday to Goa, try the village royal hotel in calangute.Its a great place to visit,very cheap,very colourful and very friendly.The hotel staff are great and very helpful,if not treated with dis-respect and bad manners like we have seen many times.the rooms are very basic but so is the price and get one with A/C.Food is great value and cheap.the pool is very clean(cleaned twice daily).Room staff keep the rooms fresh/clean,we used to give ours drinks/biscuits/cakes etc sometimes,it all helps.Its a walk to town/beach or a free bus 4 times daily.a cashmere suit made to measure at the hotel is £45.The town and beach are great if you dont mind bartering/cows poking there head into the phone box.Great bargains to be had.Restaurants very good/clean and great value.Us 6 adults ate each day/night at them 2-3 courses with drinks and never paid more than £35 for 6 each time.East meets West/Lobster Pot and La jardine are just 3 very good ones.Try the beach shacks for excelent food/value on Bagga beach and a tuk tuk to take you there,less than a £1 to town.Also A/C taxi's very cheap,try a regular driver for your whole stay (when a taxi is needed)he will save you a good amount and get good deals for you.Try Panaji's(Panjim)night cruise's,great fun/music.A very freindly/safe taxi driver is Claudio ( taxi no GA-01-2-5H16).he will save a lot on your transferes if pre-arranged and will take you out further afield and wait all day if need be. try mandalim beach,secluded/good food.Or hire a scooter(automatic very easy)for less than £3 a day, petrol is half our price.Claudio can sort all this out for you.If on a scooter watch out for cows/dogs asleep in middle of road.Jake the snake's crocodile boat tour is good fun,light snacks included.The night market is a must great deals/food galore from every corner of the globe and music/dance.close by is the Aubergine restaurant,wonderful food and staff.A moonlight walk along Bagga beach is wonderful and try the night clubs down there.You may have heard different than this about Goa,but if you remember its a 3rd world country with poverty and to respect the staff/locals you get that back,its great and you can have a lot of fun.The guy's will want there photo's taken with you girls quiet a lot and you may even get a 'compliment' like I got a good bit(BIG taxi for you sir,or 'kingfisher belly with an elephant in it')its all good natured.We flew with monach airways and 2 weeks cost £455 each.We also only went through £400 each(my wife and I)went out every day/tours/shopping/restaurants addmisions etc + tipped the diffrent staff when we left and still came back with good amount of money.hope you enjoy it like we did.