3D 2N in Goa for less than 13500

You might have heard people often talk about comfort food, comfort clothing, and so on. Well, here I think I can take the liberty to coin a term – Comfort Vacay – a vacation which requires minimal planning, which won’t occupy your headspace while deciding the itinerary, and most importantly, you know it’ll surely be fun and relaxing and will never go wrong. 

Goa is one such go-to destination for me and my friends. When we realise that we are getting a couple of days off the following weekend, and we want that much-needed break, and we have had no time to plan a trip – so what do we do? We just flew off to Goa! Yes, it’s just that simple – I’ll tell you how we flew in and out and enjoyed a 3D/2N stay at a five-star hotel and made the most out of Goa’s beauty during off-season this year in just Rs 13,300.
Thanks to the three Dil Chahta Hai boys, Goa over the years has become that “Vacation With My Buddies” destination for many of us – and we are sure you even try to recreate the famous shots at Aguada and Chapora Fort. Well, as clichéd and Bollywood as it sounds, we were three women in Goa this monsoon and no points for guessing that people actually walked up to us and asked – Dil Chahta Hai women in the making? <eye roll> 
But I will confess that we are guilty of doing all that’s Bollywood during this vacation – from riding bikes in the rain, to getting caught by the cops for not wearing a helmet, to enjoying champagne in the pool, to selfies to running and cart wheeling on the beach – we did it all.

Yes, there’s so much more to North Goa than just partying and you can experience that only during the off season. You can enjoy a nice ride around town, and if it’s raining just enjoy a dip in the pool at your hotel. See, now that’s why it’s all the more important that you check yourself in a nice hotel during off season - so that even if it’s raining outside, you can make the most out of the amenities at the hotel. 

So, what if the shacks on the beaches were shut, that didn’t stop us from enjoying a nice lunch at Fisherman’s Cove in Candolim or at The Mango Tree in Vagator. While Baga Road and Tito’s Lane - the most infamous (as I would like to call it) part of Goa remains to be crowded even during the off season, we managed to grab a yummy breakfast at Infantaria and a meal at Britto’s and spent an evening at Cavala. 

The above mentioned places are some of our all-time favourites, and we make it a point to go there every time we visit North Goa. Even though some of them are in Baga – a part which you might want to avoid due to the quality and quantity of the crowd, it’s still totally worth going to Infantaria, Britto’s and Cavala for the food and experience. 

Since we went to Goa bang in the middle of the peak monsoon, the beaches and most places in and around Morjim, Vagator, Anjuna and Ashvem were shut and like always, we couldn’t book a decent accommodation around that part of town. Trust us when we say, those beaches are cleaner than the ones in Baga, Calangute and Candolim. At this point we didn’t have much of a choice - only the Baga-Calangute-Candolim stretch was mostly open. We had to book something here, but no regrets as we were getting great deals to stay at 5-star hotels like DoubleTree Hilton in Arpora and O Hotel Beach Resort in Candolim.

When in Goa, it actually doesn’t matter much as to which part you are staying at as long as you know the roads and know how to ride a bike. Though we decided to stay in Candolim, we rode to Morjim and Vagator. Like I mentioned earlier, unfortunately everything was shut there, but it was just a beautiful ride from Candolim to Morjim and back. 

Well, we finally decided to check ourselves in at O Hotel – firstly, because they agreed for a late check out option (in fact, we had the room for almost the entire day on the last day) and most importantly, they had a private beach and an amazing poolside lawn. We also saved about Rs 500 per head/per night as compared to DoubleTree. So, we paid Rs 2,400 per person/ per night at O Hotel. We checked in on Friday morning and officially, we were supposed to check out on Sunday by noon, but our flight was late that night. So, we requested the hotel to extend our check out time by a couple of hours, and they considered it for us. We finally checked out at 3 pm on Sunday instead of noon, left our baggage at the reception and went for lunch. When we got back at 6.30pm, the hotel actually extended their hospitality by providing us with a room to shower and freshen up before we left for the airport at 8pm for our 10.30pm flight. 

Itinerary 

Day 1: We landed in Goa at 7.30am and reached our hotel by 10am – since it wasn’t very crowded the hotel allowed us to check in early. Took a nap, a shower and we were ready for lunch. We headed to Fisherman’s Cove which was close to our hotel for a simple meal – dal, prawn curry, rice, and a starter. Got back to the hotel for a nap and then we were ready to head out again. This evening, we decided to go to Cohiba near Aguada Fort – with a live band performing some amazing numbers. It was a peaceful evening with some good food (must try - the Calamari and butter chicken). When we got back to the hotel, we sat by the poolside lawn and enjoyed the breeze. And just as we kept chatting, it was already 4am. 

Day 2: We decided not to be lazy and take a walk and do some yoga on the beach early in the morning (7.30am is actually not so early) but after this we decided to forgo our breakfast at the hotel and headed out to Infantaria in Baga for an amazing English breakfast and coffee. Today, we wanted to go riding around town so we rode towards Morjim and Vagator and on our way back we stopped by The Mango Tree for a nice lunch and from here we headed to Thalassa (which is now shifted to a new location) for a couple of hours. Later towards the evening, it started raining and looking for a place to party was definitely not an option. So, we played it safe and reached Cavala at the Baga-Arpora junction to spend the evening. This place always gets it right with a live band performing some great retro tracks. 

Day 3: Our final morning in Goa had to be a lazy one followed by a lazy breakfast at the hotel. But after breakfast we were all charged up and we rode to Chapora Fort for some peaceful time and beautiful selfies. On our way back we decided to stop by Antares for a quick thirst-quencher. Well, we are running late already – we headed back to our hotel room to check-out, but before that we took a dip in the pool and enjoyed a glass of champagne on a warm Sunday afternoon. And finally, closer to 3.30pm we checked ourselves out and went to Britto’s for our last lunch in Goa.  For that Bourbon Sangria and Strawberry Tart – it had to be Britto’s. Alright, it’s close to 7pm now and we went back to the hotel, picked up our bags and headed to the airport. 

Trip Cost Break-up
Flight Tickets: Rs 3,500 (We booked it a week before our travel – Friday early morning flight =  Rs 1,500 and Sunday late night = Rs 2,000)
Hotel Room: Rs 4,800
Food: Rs 2,500 (our bill never exceeded Rs 500 per head/ per meal - 3 lunches, 2 dinners and 1 breakfast)
Bike Rentals and fuel: Rs 600
Cab airport-hotel-airport: Rs 2,000