This was my 4th trip to Goa. I just managed to juggle it somehow on a long weekend (Shivratri) amidst the maddening schedule at work. So clearly, I was not looking out for partying away all night. Yep you guessed it right! South Goa was my destination. Since, I had stayed at Colva beach before, we had decided to stay at Palolem beach this time. This beach exemplifies serenity and tranquility. We were a group of 3 friends and had booked O3 Beach Resort in advance. Our flight from Hyderabad got delayed from 7:30 PM to 10:30 PM. We reached Goa at 11 :30 PM and it took us 1.5 hours to reach Palolem from the airport. At 1 in the night, there is only one eatery open in the whole beach - Silver Salt Restaurant. It's a bit overpriced but you really don't have any other option left at midnight.
We started by having our breakfast at O3 only. We had ordered tea and crispy prawns along with beer. Honestly, none of us liked the food. Also, the food and beer were both overpriced. After taking a dip in the calm sea, we wen out for lunch to Neptune Point Restaurant. We had a really good lunch of seafood along with beer and feni. During sunset, we went out to this Chaska Restaurant which is on the extreme end of the beach. (Note that the place is reported to be permanently closed in google but it's very much open). The place is comparatively cheaper than the others and the location is picturesque amidst the pink sky. For dinner, we chose Dreams of Palolem. It was a dreamlike dinner just on the beach with the calm sea waves lashing against your feet with excellent seafood platter and port wine. In short, it was a perfect relaxing day that I experienced in a really long time!
Although we woke up early to catch the sunrise, we realized that sunrise doesn't happen on the side of the sea. So, it's always better to catch sunset if you are staying in Palolem around this season. For breakfast, we again went to Chaska and had lasagna. After taking a nice dip, we decided to head off to Rajbag beach. Transport is an issue if you don't have your own vehicles. Tripling is not allowed on bikes. Since we were a group of 3 and only 1 of us knew how to ride, we had to rent an auto while going to Rajbag beach and come back in a cab. The place is extremely secluded and autos are not available. There are also no proper shacks to eat. Although one can call it a virgin beach with only one hotel The Lalit sprawling over the entire 1 km stretch, I think I would any day choose Palolem over any other beaches in the South. After again hogging on food and drinks, we headed for our bus at 6:30 PM from the Canacona bus stand. I would not suggest anyone to take SRS Travels at least in this route because we reached Hyderabad almost 6 hours late the next day at 12 PM. Also, there are a lot of resorts and shacks available just on the beach which are not shown online. We had booked our stay through booking.com but once you reach there, you'll realize that there are a lot of other better options available. So, it will be wise to reach there and then book your stay. Overall it was a beautiful trip with sandy beaches, calm water and shady coconut trees. And just like my title says, "Goa never gets old", I can't wait to get back to Goa again.
