Thanks Silver Angel

Always good to read about other peoples holiday enjoyment and I am sure we will live Goa too when we eventually get there.

The Sonesta sounds good and it will give us a base to explore and even if it is not the most ideal hotel or location well we can have a look for ourselves and find what area / hotel we would like for next time.

We are very easy going and as long as the room is nice and the staff are friendly we will be fine, in all our years of travelling we have only had one dire hotel that we hated (currently in complaints forum).

You can be as active doing lots of trips or as inactive as you want to be over there

Strange you should mention this, we do like to get out of the tourist areas and see the real country can we do that easily?

Graham

hi Kiltman, you can go 40 minutes taxi ride up to the beaches of Mandrem and Ashvem further north for a day trip, its lots quieter there and your taxi driver will wait for you all day to take you back. Have lunch in a shack, or you can stay the night or two in beach huts at Mandrem. Alternatively, go down south Goa to Agonda and stay in beach huts right on the beach or a guest house there. Very quiet and nothing much there but a fantastic beach so this is ideal for chilling right out. We are doing this when we go in december and staying in a guest house for three nights in Agonda, really looking forward to it. You can get a taxi to take you which i think takes 2 - 2 half hours, but also can get the train from Thivim (near Mapusa) down to Margao then jump a taxi to Agonda. We will be doing this as you see lots more and its an experience.

There is a travel agent called Daytrippers in Calangute which does loads of trips, they have a website but i don't have it to hand at the moment. Just google Daytrippers which will give you ideas.