As the title suggests, you can explore south Goa in 3 days or can say that's how we traveled and explored.
We have planned our trip from Jaipur and took a flight to Mumbai and then Mumbai to Goa, we landed at Goa International Airport at 5 PM. The best way to commute in the city from the Airport is the airport taxi which will take a minimal amount and drop you at your destination. That's what we did and took our taxi ride to reach Benaulim. It was a 45-minute ride with beautiful scenery to south Goa. There are many hotels but the best way is to book prior to Make my trip, we stayed at Fairfield by Marriott. Our Hotel was about 200 meters away from the beach and when we reached it we witnessed the sunset which was exhilarating.
We started our day at 10 in the morning, took a bicycle ride to the beach, and had our breakfast there, breakfast at the beach is wonderful. There are plenty of shacks at the beach and the good thing about the shacks is that the menu is very cheap and there are many options for seafood if you are a sea food lover.
We hired a Scotty that costs us INR 500 a day, their day starts from morning 8 to evening 8. We first went to Utorda beach and started exploring. The distance was around 10 km. It was a calm beach with no crowd.
Next to Utorda beach there is a Majorda Beach even more beautiful and you can walk on the beach and can reach there it is just 500 meters away from Utorda beach. There are good Shacks and the crown was also good, mostly foreigners. A good place to spend time and do water sports activities. Spent almost 3 hours there.
Then we went to Betalbatim beach. Every Beach at South Goa has a different vibe. The Betalbatim beach has a little loud vibe.
Next, we went to Colva Beach we personally didn't like Colva beach due to several reasons. The beach was overcrowded, there were a lot of shops on the road, a lot of beach activity like people selling ornaments and beads. The water sports were over boarded and overpriced. In general, the beach is very commercial and I personally would not go to that Beach. After that, we came back to our hotel and had dinner at Benaulim Beach. a Must must-try is a Butter Garlic Shrimp which you can get at any cafe/Shack in Goa.
We started our day early this morning and went straight to Margao to explore the local and try Goan breakfast snack. It took us 6 km to reach the old town of Goa "Margao" there we went to Dom Pedro and tried their breakfast. Dom Pedro is a must-visit as it is a very old and popular cafe. the food was also good with the essence of Sea food. We explored the street and saw Gandhi Market, it is a market hub where you can buy local items. Finally, we had a Goan Thali at the local restaurant. If you are coming to Goa a Goan Thali is must.
Then we took a little longer ride almost 27 km to reach Cabo de Rama Fort. It was a wort ride as the beauty was on another level, we crossed rivers and mountains. small beautiful villages and Churches. Cabo de Rama fort has an amazing view of the ocean and the beach. it was a peaceful place with the sound of nature.
Cabo de Rama beach is another beautiful beach to visit, it has big rocks on the shore that gives the beach a unique look.
After another 25 minutes of Scotty ride, we reached Betul beach. the beach is a little far from the road so you have to walk a little bit to reach the beach. The beach is very isolated and there were no people around. Of course, the view was mesmerizing with one side a hill. very few shacks and it is a good place for a couple to visit.
11 km away from Betul beach there is another beautiful beach to encounter is Varca beach very good crowd and a very calm beach to visit. Spend the whole evening there and it is a highly recommended beach to visit. the beach is surrounded by big hotels and resorts and the vibe is very good there.
This is our first anniversary and we have kept the whole day for this particular beach called Palolem beach. 40 km ride from the Benaulim. The Good part about our journey was our Hotel was at Benaulim, and the Benaulim is the center of South Goa. Whether you go north to explore or south to explore the distance is almost the same. The ride was a little long but with a great view, it was worthwhile. we Reached Palolem and started to explore the local market which was around and close to the beach. I found the market at Palolem unique as the items there are very different from the rest of the market and beach shops. There is a good scope of bargaining. The best purchase is a Beach shirt for men and jute handbags for women. We directly went on a boat ride which would take us to the Butterfly beach. the boat ride took us INR 2000. The butterfly beach is famous for its shape as the rocks behind the beach is in a butterfly shape and from the butterfly beach, there is a great possibility to witness dolphins, Although we didn't have a stroke of luck that day, going in a boat on an ocean is the only best part there, the beach was like an ordinary one. plus giving INR 2000 for it is a bit overpriced. There was an option of doing Kayaking there but we dropped the plan due to a time issue as we have to reach our hotel before 6 pm to give back our Scotty and also would not recommend travel back when it's dark due to long-distance and hill area.
So that is how we have covered interesting parts of the South Goa. This is pretty much to cover in South Goa, this itinerary is for the people who are visiting South Goa for 2 to 3 days.