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.