Sinquerim, Candolim Aldeia Santa Rita

We arrived back in the UK on the Sunday night, and on the Monday we have just booked up again for Easter 2007! With such fantastic people and service you can ignore the basic accommodation at Candolim Aldeia Santa Rita in Sinquerim, India. The food was great, and if you are nice to the waiters they will ask the Naan bread chef if you can make your own in the outdoor Tandoor oven! My wife still raves on about it now!

Buy some spices off Orlando. I made a curry for a party last week and everyone loved it!

I'm looking forward to my favourite lime pickle next year!!

The Portuguese village style accommodation at the Candolim Aldeia Santa Rita was very attractive and although the pool area was small it was very pretty and shaded by lovely trees. There were beautiful gardens but these were out of bounds to us.

The staff were very friendly and helpful providing an excellent service.

However we were appalled at the interior of the rooms. The bed linen and towels were badly stained as was our toilet seat which was most off-putting. The only storage was a 2 foot wide wardrobe with no other drawer space or dressing table. The power of the shower was poor and intermittent.

Although the food at lunchtime and evening time was very good we found the selection at breakfast to be poor. The orange drink was squash not fresh juice and there was no sign of fresh coffee, only a very bitter instant to be made ourselves. There was a good selection of cooked breakfast but no sign of plates of the lovely fresh fruits that Goa is known for, we could only find a banana or orange. Nor were there the usual pastries or yoghurts that are normally so bountifull elsewhere.

So I really would urge caution if you are used to a fairly reasonable standard of accommodation and do not mind going elsewhere to find a cup of fresh coffee and gorgeous fresh fruits.

Sinquerim, Candolim Aldeia Santa Rita - My boyfriend and I are both teachers and were looking for somewhere to get away over the Easter holidays, we'd heard so much about Goa we decided to get a last minute holiday - and were not disappointed!

On Sinquerim beach, just below Candolim, the Aldeia Santa Rita resort seems relatively small when you see it from the road - but we were really suprised as we walked through the grounds.

Our guide said the accomodation was influced by the "Portuguese village" style bungalows so we weren't really sure what to expect. In fact the pictures we'd seen didn't do the Aldeia Santa Rita justice; set in truly beautiful gardens with wildly bright plants everywhere, the pastel painted buildings looked clean, crisp and very inviting through the thick green carpet of exotic plants we passed through.

The people at the Aldeia Santa Rita were extremely friendly, the service was brilliant and there was no end of options of what to do, things to see, food to eat, where to explore or just where to relax.

The food was amazing (I eat anything and especially love spicy food) and I would put money on it that even the pickiest of eaters would have found something to satisfy them during!

There was a massive selection of food put on at breakfast, lunch and dinner (let alone the various snacks constantly being cooked and put out for snacking on during the day) - and if there was something that you wanted but couldn't see, one of the lovely waiters were always more than happy to order the chef to cook it for you!

If you haven't been before and thinking about going you HAVE TO:

* see your doctor for injections

* take a course of anti-malaria pills (not nice but necesary)

* be aware that the monsoon season lasts from late May - October, so there's no point booking to go to Goa during the summer holidays. We were told late November - early May is the best time to go (end of May is unbearably hot and humid with showers and storms, definitely NOT sunbathing weather and too hot to do anything!!)

I would reccommend Goa to anyone (maybe if you have a family to think about timings so it's not too hot for little ones). We liked it so much we are going back next year. Probably over the Feb half term!