I am here every day, not much going on is there.

Me too, all being well will return to Goa in February so I'm eagerly watching this waiting for the action

Same here, i`ve never known it to be so quiet on here, i often have a peep but nothing going on

I am busy watching 'er in doors getting ready to do the packing, we will have to have two new wardrobes built if we only take half of what she has bought

We go to Turunc in Turkey on Monday, 27th but we are already planning our days out in Goa in December. Feel a bit bad sometimes thinking about Goa when we still hve a great 2 weeks in Turkey coming up.

From my checking when I was thinking of going back for this coming season, I saw a very large reduction in the number of flights being run to Goa by both Thomson and Thomas Cook.
With each plane carrying maybe 300 people, there must be tens of thousands less seats to Goa this coming winter!
And this has obviously also pushed prices still further up and dissuaded even more folk from returning. I think this has a knock-on effect on the number of folk chatting on this forum.

After 9 annual visits to India, I’m going to Thailand and Sri Lanka this winter.
And saving the annual cost and hassle of getting an Indian visa.
I love the country, but it’s going to take an awful lot of change now to persuade me to go back again.

Quoting Bren Liz

We go to Turunc in Turkey on Monday, 27th

We go to Turunc on 2nd September! Never been there before so looking forward to it.

I think the fewer charter flights are a result of people making their own arrangements and using Qatar and Jet to get there.

It is very quiet on here. We need to start one or two new threads to gwake people up!

That's great Roma. We haven't been before but called in on a boat trip from Marmaris and as soon as we stepped off the boat we thought it was our kind of place. Say hello if you see my sister and I, will have my wristband on when in the bars and restaurants.

Will keep an eye open for you and I'll try to find my wristband, too!

Hope you have a great time!

You too, just heard from someone today who has just returned that it was 50 deg whilst they were out there. Looks as though we willbe doing a lot of swimming, not to mention drinking nice cool Efes.

It was reported in the Goan Herald a couple of days ago, re the drop in UK visitors, and the continuing surge in Russian ones. The paper stated that three years ago 18 charter flights arrived weekly from the Uk, for the coming season the number given was 7. On full flights that would make a drop of numbers of about 3000 or so tourists per week, so the lack of postings here is'nt surprising. As the two main package tour companies have now got the lions share of the market, with the reduced numberof flights, they are now able to demand huge increases in prices which will I imagine, lead to a further drop in bookings in seasons to come.
Alan

I'm off to
marmaris 30thAug. never been to Turkey before so am looking forward to it.Have booked Goa for 3 weeks 8th march.

After 9 annual visits to India, I’m going to Thailand and Sri Lanka this winter.

Think that is a good idea Bill, in the twenty plus years since we first went to Goa we have had several breaks and always enjoyed the going back all the more for it

Once about ten years ago we even said, been there done that, got the tee shirt, not going back but wound up going back after a years break and had such a great holiday that we decided it was the place for us to retire to and now spend the season out there

Like UK Bill after many years of Goa we have decided to give Thailand a try, I think last year was the straw that broke the camels back. The early closing, enforcement of the10 bed rule, the massive increase of domestic tourists (and the traffic chaos they cause with their scooters and chauffeur driven 4x4's), and the increased stench of rotten rubbish everywhere. We had a look at the prices for 3 wks Feb and were quoted btwn £1450 & £1600 flying cattle class with Monarch, then you have the added cost of visas recorded delivery and taxis to and from the airport. We have booked 3 wks in Phuket with 4* accommodation and schedule flights with Etihad with private transfers to and from the airport £1600. We will miss seeing our friends in Goa but the people who run Goa need to change their attitude they seem to think they are doing us a favor by allowing us to visit........cheers Keith

I'm sure you'll enjoy Thailand, Keith. The hotels are excellent and the food is pretty good too! The whole infrastructure is better than India with proper roads, devoid of cows!

I know what you say about the annoyances of Goa but there's just something that keeps us going back. The increasing numbers of domestic tourists are taking up the slack of the missing Brits so Goa just carries on being Goa. I'm not sure the domestics spend as much as the Europeans.

The place is changing and there will probably come a time when we hang our boots up but we're booked in for next year again.

KJF wrote:

Like UK Bill after many years of Goa we have decided to give Thailand a try, I think last year was the straw that broke the camels back. The early closing, enforcement of the10 bed rule, the massive increase of domestic tourists (and the traffic chaos they cause with their scooters and chauffeur driven 4x4's), and the increased stench of rotten rubbish everywhere. We had a look at the prices for 3 wks Feb and were quoted btwn £1450 & £1600 flying cattle class with Monarch, then you have the added cost of visas recorded delivery and taxis to and from the airport. We have booked 3 wks in Phuket with 4* accommodation and schedule flights with Etihad with private transfers to and from the airport £1600. We will miss seeing our friends in Goa but the people who run Goa need to change their attitude they seem to think they are doing us a favor by allowing us to visit........cheers Keith

WHAT????WHAT???? You're not going to Goa????!!!!

i come on every day,but there is not much going on

HI,

Like everyone here, I love goa been 17 times and love it! But this year our flight for two of us has increased by over £400 as we like to go for a month getting back to England round about the 18th Jan, (because of work). Have been quoted 780, this year, last year was 550. So we are still trying to see if we can still go. It will be horrible if we find we are at home, it will be the lst time for years, and not looking forward to it. Felt really bad leaving the gran kids and sons and daughters, but we are ok now, having to go back now to christmas food shopping and work up until christmas is not something I am looking forward to!!! I'm a sure you all understand, love the kids to bits, but it is our time and we love it!

On the same subject we always use to go in April, always get a cheap package between 300 - 400 pounds for 2 or three weeks, not this year, it was really expensive at 500 - 600pounds. So we did not go so really missing goa now!

Hudo have you looked at Turkish Airlines they had some reasonable flights also we got flights with BA from Newcastle -Heathrow-Mumbai -jet to goa for around £630 dec 21st to Jan 11th

Good luck