Leela, Goa

The tariff included, pickup + drop from airport & bf. We just hired a cab and went to Leela. It was a long drive, but we had a sweet driver, who kept telling us lots of stories. We were tired by the time we reached and headed out for lunch at "The restaurant" at Leela. The spread was lovely. The beach and pool was fantastic. Little one had an amazing time at the play area. The room again at Leela was big. We had booked the premier conservatory room. The lagoon view from the room was to die for. We had dinner at "Riverside", the italian restaurant at Leela. It was unfortunate that we couldn't quite enjoy our meal, since the little was cranky and just slept midway.

What I didn't quite like about Leela was the corridor leading to our room was always wet and slippery. It was not raining all the time. 15 minutes probably every 3 hours. When I stay at Leela, I expect them to mop the floor but probably I have very high expectation. 

The next day again was beach, pool and it was time to check out. Since our flight was only in the evening at 5, we decided to head out for lunch before going to the airport. We went to this place called "Fisherman's Wharf" which was about 5 minute walk. Lovely food and little one had a nice play area again to entertain himself. When we came back by 2:30, they had a BMW waiting to drop us at the airport. The drive back was so smooth, that all of us slept. And the little one behaved so well in the flight back, that I was surprised!!! 

The trip was a wonderful one and it's a place that I want to go back again and explore. But to actually explore Goa, one needs to stay at North Goa. That is where one can experience the real essence of Goa. 

Goa It is!!!

I got the Rs. 1 ticket from Spice Jet and booked a return ticket for 4 of us for Rs. 3500. I was super excited and I made the booking almost two months back. Since it was my first visit to Goa, hubby suggested we stay at North Goa. I researched and narrowed it down to Resort Rio. We got a good deal for 3 nights, which costed us approximately. Rs. 16k, which included breakfast as well.  Now that seemed like a fantastic deal, airfare + accommodation was  less than 20k for 3 of us !!!

I'm not going to crib about the chennai airport about the lack of facilities.. Grrr... I was quite petrified about how my son would be in the airport and flight. He was running around so much in the airport that he slept through the flight journey :D. We reached Goa and took a taxi from airport. The Taxis at Goa are very expensive. They charged us Rs. 1500 one way. I think the resort was around 45 km from airport, but isn't 1500 bucks still too much?? The road leading to the resort was bad that made me doubt my decision about booking a room there but once we entered, we found the place to be nice. The basic room was huge that we were wondering how big the suite would be. 

We immediately freshened up and took a cab from hotel to baga beach. Here again, the taxi charged us Rs. 250 for just 3 -4 km. That was such a rip off. We hired a bike and roamed around the rest of us trip. It was such a different experience, riding on your bike and checking out the city. Goa had such a pleasent weather. We dined at Britto's and the food was yummy. 

The next day we went around checking out the beaches, fort, shacks. Unfortunately, we were not allowed at Tito's, Mambo, Cape town Cafe and other such places, because we had a baby with us :( By the time it was evening, I wanted to check out South Goa as well, since I've heard the beaches are fantastic. We checked out the next day and made a booking at Leela.

A short Break

Hubby and I wanted to go somewhere for our birthdays without our son, but work came by and the plan dropped. We realised that it was 2 years since we both went on a vacation alone and it was always with family. So we planned to go somewhere on our anniversary.We had decided on a 3 day vacation, since we were leaving my son for the 1st time. I so badly wanted to go to Taj Madikeri property, but the travel to that property would have taken up most of our 3 day vacation. So, we decided to go to Vivanta by Taj, Kovalam. Somehow everyone was telling me that I should stay at Leela, Kovalam but the recent reviews didn't seem that appealing and I stuck with going to the Taj property.

I got my booking, both Hotel and Flight done through Fernweh. As usual, they were great.  I booked the Superior Charm Room with Sea View under Advance Booking. The rates were much cheaper than breakfast inclusive rate. My flight was at 9:30 am and I reached the airport by 8:45. We were the last person to check in and they gave us seats which were not together :(. Why didn't I check in online?? God knows how I can be so stupid at times!! Anyways, it was a long 2 hour flight and I got super bored. We took a cab at the airport. Turned out to be a very wise decision. Yaj was charging us approximately Rs. 1500 for one way for a 15km distance. The cab costed us around Rs. 500. We reached the resort by 12:15 and it was well before our check in time.

Mr. Ganshyam, took us around and showed us the property. We realised they had booked the twin bed room. He said he would change the bedding style. By then, we went to have our Lunch at Jasmine Bay restaurant near the pool. The food I thought was average and was reasonably priced. Our room was very nice on a lower level and you have a sit out from where you can see the sea at a distance. I took a nice nap while hubby went around exploring the place. We were informed about the complimentary tea & coffee session in the evening and also a complimentary boat ride on the lagoon. We went for the tea & Coffee session on the beach and ended up spending amazing time there. 

Later that night, we went out to Bait for dinner. It's supposed to be their best restaurant and the setup was truly amazing in the night. They gave me a free mocktail and the food was very nice. 

The next day, we went to Jasmine Bay for breakfast. The breakfast spread was good. And guess what?? They gave us complimentary breakfast!! I have no clue why though. After lazing around in the pool, we went for our Spa treatment. It was brilliant and I just slept through. After that we had our lunch in our room and went around exploring the places nearby. There are auto and cabs right outside the property but we started walking to check out the place nearby. We walked to the beach and just lazed around. 

We made our dinner reservation at Leela. They informed us to be there by 7:30 pm to avoid cancellation. The distance between Taj and Leela was about 5 km. We caught an auto right outside our property who gave us his number to call him for our return as well. The view from The Terrace restaurant was just brilliant. I started thinking if I made the right decision by staying at Taj. The dinner buffet spread was lavish but the service was ok and the food tasted good. When I went back to Taj, they had done a beautiful room decor to surprise us on our anniversary. 

That's when I realised that the service and the food was so much better than Leela. Next morning at breakfast I got a surprise cake :) I was beaming like a small kid with all the complimentary things that I was getting and again another free breakfast!!! We checked out that afternoon and had lunch at Curries restaurant. The food was brilliant and the service brilliant. 

They have us a small take away home gift and this break turned out to be the best we've had in recent time. I'm sure to go back again