Hi,
I ran a few searches, but couldn't find the info I was looking for.

I'll be spending 3 days in Goa next month and am looking for a nice upscale hotel in Goa that is both close to (or on) the beach, and very close to nightlife, restaurants and bars.

Most of the hotels I've seen (Taj, Marriott, Leela) appear to be on great beach location, but far from any nightlife.

Any recommendations or suggestions of places to stay at would be very appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike

are you looking for a particular chain or would boutique hotels do as well????

Hi Keyser,

Normally I stay in chains for consistency's sake, but from what I observed in Goa most of the chain hotels are very removed from the nightlife... which means I'm very open to boutique hotels too if I can find one that IS close to the beach and also nightlife (and has good quality accomodations too). I was looking at some B&B's, but from some tripadvisor reviews there was a huge discrepancy in reviews of quality in the ones that were best located.

Thanks for any input.

Mike

So far I'm leaning towards the Marriott Resort and Spa, but am wondering how far a taxi ride it is from the nightlife in the Calangute and Baga areas.

I couldn't find any decently reviewed 4/5 star places near those 2 places, and the Marriott seems like a good compromise, but am wondering if it might be worth doing a bit more research and finding a place around Calangute/Baga.

Thanks,

Mike

take a look at the casa baga or the taj village candolim....

Keyser,

Great suggestions... I now find myself between the Taj Village and another I found on TripAdvisor called Pousada Tauma... Have you heard any feedback about Pousada? The location seems really good too (though slightly pricier).

Thanks for the help,

Mike

never heard of pousada tauma....i've stayed at the taj village a couple of times....very nice property....

Thanks Keyser, I think I'll end up doing the Taj Village. I'm waiting a few more days, since the rate is non-refundable... but really appreciate the pointers.

Is it easy to get to the restaurant/bar area of Goa from the hotel and back? (I take it that there's enough taxis that will be helpful).

Thanks,

Mike

plenty of taxis around the hotel....

Timely post. I may end up in Goa for a weekend in the next 2-3 weeks and I'd be interested in hearing from folks here what the best hotels are.

In the past, I've stayed at the Park Hyatt, but found it to be so-so. Being close to the "action" (whatever action that may be, since I've never gone into town), would be nice, but am more concerned about the quality of the hotel, service, food/bev, etc.

Thanks.

Troyb,

Am checking in tomorrow into the Taj Holiday Village in Goa, so will try to post my thoughts on it next week.

Mike

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B179 Safari/7534.48.3)

What's the verdict?

Great timing... Writing this from one of the airport lounges in Chennai, while heading home.

Overall my verdict for the Holiday Village is that I'm likely to return. I will call out that a lot of it depends on the month you go there. Here's my personal opinion as a single guy traveling alone (trying to get a few days of R&R before an Indian wedding).

Pros:
- Really good location to visit calangute or panaji
- Great variety and quality of internal restaurants (I tried the standard one, the Goan cuisine one and the Italian food... The Italian really blew me away- as far as variety you also get a free transfer to the fort aguada resort for more restaurant options)
- swim up bar in the pool (great way to spend the day)
- Bunch of included daily activities (which I didn't get to participate)
- Beach shacks close by to the hotel exit with some pretty good cheap food and very cheap kingfisher beer.

Cons:
- Very family oriented, meaning there were more kids running around than I would have preferred.
- Travel desk was not helpful for anything other than coordinating the availability of an English speaking driver (talked to the GM about this and he mentioned he was working on improving this to include tour recommendations, etc. )
- not sure how easy it is to get an external taxi close to the hotel. When I asked the staff they recommended renting a scooter, which after observing the terrible driving in Goa I didn't want to even try.
- Shared cottages can be a bit loud depending on your neighbors. I didn't make a bit fuss about it, but my last night one of the cabins close by had loud music and people laughing loudly that could be heard into my room until almost 2 am.

Overall, I was too tired to go into town most of the evenings thanks to days spent walking and drinking in the sun, and the local elections closing all bars by 11 pm. But I really enjoyed my time at the Taj Holiday Village

Let me know if you have any specific questions.

Mike