Goa is small on a map and much bigger in practice. Sixty to seventy kilometres separates Arambol in the far north from Palolem in the south, and the road between them is neither fast nor straight. Decide which half you want before you book the hotel.
North or south
North Goa is the busy one — Baga, Calangute, Anjuna, Vagator — with the markets, the shacks, the nightlife and the traffic. South Goa is quieter and greener: Colva, Benaulim, Agonda, Palolem, longer stretches of sand and far fewer people on them. Families and couples looking to read a book usually prefer the south; groups in their twenties usually want the north. Splitting the trip, three nights in each, is the compromise that works.
Best time to visit
November to February is the peak, with the best weather and the highest prices — Christmas and New Year are a category of their own and need booking months ahead. September, October and March are the value months: warm sea, everything open, noticeably cheaper. The monsoon from June to August is beautiful and green, but the shacks close, water sports stop and swimming is genuinely unsafe. April and May are hot and humid.
Getting there
Mopa in the north and Dabolim in the centre both take flights; Madgaon and Thivim are the main railheads. By road, Mumbai is about 590 km and eleven hours on NH66, Pune roughly 450 km and nine. From Delhi it is 1,900 km, which is a drive nobody enjoys — fly or take the train and arrange a vehicle at the other end.
What to see beyond the beaches
- Old Goa — Basilica of Bom Jesus and Sé Cathedral, best in the early morning
- Fort Aguada and the Chapora headland at sunset
- The Saturday night market at Arpora and the Wednesday flea market at Anjuna
- Dudhsagar Falls, reached by a forest-department jeep from Kulem, not by your own vehicle
- The Divar and Chorao island ferries, which carry vehicles and cost almost nothing
- A spice farm inland near Ponda for a genuinely good lunch
Where a tempo traveller helps
The default Goa advice is to rent scooters, and for two people it is right. For a family with children, luggage and a grandmother, it is not — and the distances are longer than the map suggests. A tempo traveller with a local driver handles the airport transfer, the north-to-south move mid-trip, the Old Goa morning and the Dudhsagar day, and removes the question of who drives back after dinner. Raahi Vacation arranges Goa vehicles on a per-day basis rather than per-kilometre, which suits a trip where most days involve short hops.
Rough budget
- Vehicle: ₹3,500 to ₹5,500 a day for a 12 seater with driver, airport transfers included
- Stay: ₹1,500 off-season in the south, ₹6,000 upwards in the north in December
- Food: ₹800 to ₹1,500 per person per day; shack seafood is the good value
- Dudhsagar jeep: around ₹400 per person plus the entry fee
Book the south for the end of the trip. It is a much better place to spend the last two days than Baga is.
