Bringing in 2010 along the Konkan coast. Part II - Goa!

It's impossible to cover all of Goa in one post, so I'm just going to try to capture the best parts of all the Goa trips I have ended up going for in the past couple of years.

This post is the conclusion to my previous post and about our final destination in the ambitious road trip - Goa.

View from our hut at Palolem

South Goa beaches are more scenic, less crowded and less ravaged by commercialization. Of course at New Year's time all those are very relative terms. We stayed at Palolem - Brandon's Huts - like most huts these were pretty basic, but our hut was right on the beach and that made up for everything else. I've been to Goa three times in the past as many years and have stayed in 1. house converted into a large guesthouse, very close to Calangute 2. a mid-level 'resort' place in Candolim. 3. coco-hut right on the beach. I usually like the idea of a house converted into accommodation mostly because these often turn out to be really old, restored houses and are charming. My only advise - ensure that it is!

As for activities - Palolem's calm waters makes it perfect for kayaking, I'd recommend highly. Anymore activity than that seems quite antithetical to the relaxed atmosphere. All the way to one end of Palolem was another knot of beach huts but they were done up in a manner that made you feel you walked into Alladin's world. The food was great too

Palolem

Not too far from Palolem is Galgibag which in peak season was almost isolated and the drive up (obviously on bikes!) is beautiful. Perfect if you want to get away from the usual mix of hawkers, shacks, beach-chairs for rent, water sports on most beaches, and just laze around, which is exactly what we did.

My previous trips to Goa have been more activity filled mostly because I've stayed longer and in the busier northern part. More on those later!