Places To Visit In Goa | 4 Day Detailed Itinerary

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Goa is one of the best destinations in India. The season from Oct Feb is the best season to visit Goa. I
stayed in Goa for 2 years and have been able to explore places to visit in Goa. This itinerary would help
you to plan your Goa trip. I have covered the best places to visit in Goa along with some
recommendations for breakfast, dinner and nightlife. So, when you plan your next trip, keep this Goa
itinerary handy! There are many entry points in Goa. The two railway stations are located in Thivim &
Madgao. If you are reaching Goa by bus, you can drop at Mapusa, Panaji as well as Madgao. This
itinerary of 4 days/3 nights covers both, North Goa & South Goa. This itinerary will help you cover best
places to visit in Goa. I have suggested 1 night stay in South Goa and 2 night stay in North Goa. Your
stay in South Goa will help you cover pristine, white sand beaches and North Goa stay will let you
witness some of the famous landmarks in Goa. If you are looking for stay option, I can recommend an
amazing Villa! Drop me an email at Umang@travelmax.in and I will get you a good deal.

Day 1

Candolim Old Goa Panajim Dona Paula Panjim Candolim

For the first two nights, consider accommodation in Candolim, Goa. It will help you cover some of the
North Goa attractions. I have stayed at Maggies Resort & Shalom Resort in past. I would recommend
both of them. Both are budget hotels with swimming pools. However, Shalom resort has much smaller
pool than Maggies Resort.
Once you have checked in your hotel, freshen up and proceed for breakfast.I would
recommend Chocolatti in Candolim. Here, you can order english breakfast along with fresh juice or a
cup of coffee. The ambiance is really nice and you will have a pleasant time.

Chocolatti, Goa
(Source) Places to visit in Goa
After having a delicious breakfast, head towards Old Goa. You can rent a car or a bike to reach here.
The distance to Old Goa from Candolim is around 24 KMs. In Old Goa, you can witness the grandeur of
historical monuments.

Old Goa

(Places to visit in Goa)

Once you have admired the beautiful structures of Old Goa, visit Panjim to savor delicious lunch. My
personal favorite is Gene. Located next to the calm river mandovi, this place offers you amazing food.
Cheese Garlic naan is my favorite dish here. If you want to try some authentic sea food, Ritz is the
perfect place for you.

After having sumptuous lunch, head towards Dona Paula to witness the beautiful setting sun. if you still
have time before the sun sets, stop at Miramar which appears on the way to Dona Paula. Miramar is not
one of the best places to visit in Goa. So, if you want to spend more time at Dona paula, you can skip it.
Dona Paula is a jetty which will offer you spectacular view of the pristine arabian sea. As you witness
the sun hiding behind the waves, you will gradually be in awe of the panoramic view.

Sunset at
Dona Paula (Places to visit in Goa)
Leave Dona Paula soon after sunset as Goa roads become busy. Come back to the main city of Panjim.
To end your 1st day in Goa perfectly, I suggest you two activities:Dancing & Gambling. You can head
towards DTR (Down The Road) or a Casino. DTR is a small pub located close to Nescafe. It can offer
you good music and affordable drinks. However, if you want to try out some gambling, head towards
any of the Casinos floating on Mandovi River. I had visited Deltin Royale and had an amazing night.
Casinos are open throughout the night and are the best places to visit in Goa. So, you can combine both
these suggested activities.

Down The Road, Panajim (Source) Places to visit in Goa

In case you just want to have a peaceful dinner, visit Quater-Deck, a river side restaurant. If you are in
exploratory mode, visit Fidalgo and check out various restaurants here. There is also a food street located
right opposite Fidalgo. You will find a wide variety of food items here.
Once you have enjoyed to your fullest, call it a night and return back to candolim. Day 2 is going to be
even more fun by covering many places to visit in Goa!
Liking this itinerary? Here is a version of my itinerary which can be customized according to your
preferences. Give it a shot!
By TripHobo.com

Day 2

Candolim Arambol Ashwem Fort Chapora Vagator Candolim

On Day 2, start with breakfast at Inferno. Order some delicious eggs or savour the lip-smacking
pancakes.
Next, head towards Arambol beach. Located at a distance of 26 KMs from candolim, Arambol is
considered to be one of the best beaches in North Goa. Spend some time shopping. Later, grab a beer
and relax at a shack as the clean sea waves reflect the gradually soaring sun. You can also try
paragliding here

Arambol Beach (Source) Places to visit in Goa

For lunch, head towards Lamuella Boutique for some exquisite cuisine. If you are in mood to try
authentic North Indian food, Pajis is the place for you.

Once you have relished some delicious food, head towards Ashwem beach. This pristine beach with fine
sand is perfect to laze around. It is located at a distance of 6-7 KMs from Arambol, towards Candolim.
Spend some afternoon time here at a shack. Order a cocktail and relax.

Next stop, Fort Chapora. Located near Vagator beach, this fort is the famous Dil Chahta Hai fort. The
fort offers you the best views of sunset. To reach the sunset viewpoint, you might have to trek a little.
Hence, make it a point to reach in time. Reach the view-point and wait for the sun to set. If you are
facing west, on the right hand side you will notice Morjim Beach and on the left, Vagator beach. From
the top, you will see the arabian sea create stunning patterns. Enjoy the amazing sunset as the boats
return from their fishing trips.

Sunset at Chapora Fort (Places to visit in Goa)

Once you have trekked down, head towards the nearby Vagator beach. As the evening colors change,
take a peaceful stroll on the beach. Join the locals playing football or just dip your feet in the ocean.

Head back to Candolim to indulge in some lip-smacking dinner with exquisite cocktails & live music. If
its Saturday, check out Arpora Saturday Night Market before dinner. Arpora night market can top all the
places to visit in Goa if you are looking for unique experiences.

In case you want to party hard, Club Cabana is the place to be! The tagline, Night Club in the sky is

almost literal. Club Cabana is located in Arpora which is around 6 KMs from Candolim. This club is not
open in off-season. So, it is recommended to check the status before visiting. Other recommended night
life spots are SinQ in Candolim or Cafe Capetown in Baga. In case you want to sing your way along, St
Anthonys, Baga will be your best bet!

If you would like to have peaceful dinner, I would suggest LOrange. You can choose from a wide
variety of cocktails here along with tasty food. Also, you can enjoy live music here. Over the flames is
another recommended restaurant in candolim. It serves delicious food and is good value for money.
Another amazing option for dinner is Sunny Side up. The restaurant offers lip-smacking dinner along
with view of the sea. Dig in that delicious dish served as the gentle sea breeze soothes your senses.

Wrap up your night by visiting Lower Agauda Fort, behind Taj Vivanta, at Sinquerim beach. Dont
confuse it with Agauda fort which is way too commercial. Lower Agauda Fort will provide you pristine
view of the ocean and if the tide is high, you will be able to enjoy the arabian sea splashes. If you wish,
you can grab a hot chocolate in Taj, resulting to an epic end of Day 2.

Lower Aguada (Source) (Places to visit in Goa)

Day 3
Candolim Colva Benaulim/Sernabatim/Varca Betalbatim Palolem
On Day 3, you can explore South Goa. South Goa has all the best places to visit in Goa!

Check out from your Candolim Hotel and head towards South. Before getting on road, you can relish
delicious breakfast at Mango Groove. It is located on the main candolim road and serves decent food.
Post breakfast, your next stop will be Margao. This 2nd largest city of Goa is located at a distance of 44
KMs from Candolim. After reaching Margao, head towards Colva beach to enjoy delicious lunch along
with some chilled beer. Mickeys Restaurant would be a recommended choice here. Your other options
can be Jamies for the variety of cuisines they offer. However, it is not located on the beach.

Post lunch, you can explore the nearby South Goa beaches. You can visit Benaulim, Sernabatim &
Varca beach to witness the calm & pristine Arabian sea waters. Enjoy some leisure time at these clean
Goa beaches. You can find some shacks at Benaulim which can serve you chilled beer or a warm cup of
coffee. All these 3 beaches offer you spectacular sunset view. Just let the evening pass by and relax.

Thats what South Goa beaches are known for. Sernabatim beach is my personal favorite. It is less
crowded as there is only one shack. Perfect for a peaceful time. Also, these beaches are very clean.
Hence, you can consider taking a dip in the ocean as it changes hues along with the setting sun.

Sun-kissed beach, Sernabatim (Places to visit in Goa)

After spending 4-5 hours at the beaches, get ready to have the time of your life! Think no more and head
towards betalbatim beach. Here, you can find the best restaurant in South Goa, Martins Corner.

I highly recommend this restaurant for mainly 3 reasons. Wide variety of cuisine, lip-smacking food &
live music. The music is simply amazing as the singer takes you through a joy ride. I have never seen
such a varied collection of compositions being played in a restaurant. Price maybe slightly towards the

higher side. But, it is totally worth it.

Post dinner and some fun to remember, head towards Palolem beach, located at a distance of 43 KMs
from Martins Corner. In Palolem, there are plenty of accommodation options available. You can take a
cottage close to the beach and wake up next morning to the music of ocean. Also, Palolem has some of
the best restaurants in Goa for breakfast. Hence, I would recommend to stay your last night at Palolem.
Reach Palolem, check in your cottage and take a stroll at the beach. If you are tired, just relax as the
sound of waves put you to sleep.

Day 4

Palolem

Its your last day in Goa. Relax. Spend the day peacefully at Palolem, one of the best places to visit in
Goa!

The morning waves of the Arabian sea crashing on palolem beach will start your morning perfectly. I
recommend to get up early and take a dip in the calm ocean till the sun starts shining. Once you are
refreshed with the morning swim in the ocean, head for breakfast. I would recommend Ciarans for great
coffee and english breakfast. This beach shack is located right on the beach. It gives you amazing view
of the arabian sea. Another recommended restaurants for breakfast would be Cafe Inn or Little world.
Both of these restaurants serve amazing breakfast and will leave you completely satisfied.

Post relishing breakfast, opt for a boat ride to Butterfly Beach or Honeymoon beach. For reaching
butterfly beach, you will have to take the boat. However, in order to reach Honeymoon beach, kayaking
would be ideal. You can hire a Kayak at Rs 150-200 per hour and paddle your way in the relatively calm
& deep waters. Its an exciting adventure when you realize that if your kayak topples, you might plunge
100 meters in the ocean. However, you will be wearing the life jacket which will prevent you from
drowning. In case your return journey from Goa does not start till late night, you can keep boating &
kayaking in evening.

Palolem Beach View from the boat (Places to visit in Goa)

Palolem is the best beach in South Goa as it offers amazing restaurants, water sports like kayaking,
breath-taking view and clean white sand. I would recommend to spend the whole day here lazing around
and admiring the surrounding beauty. End the day by relaxing at Cocktails & Dreams or Papilons
Restaurant while sipping your favorite cocktail. The sunset at palolem is simply spectacular. You would
feel like you have entered a different universe.

Cocktails & Dreams, Palolem (Places to visit in Goa)

Palolem will help you end your Goa trip perfectly. Start your return journey from Goa, reminiscing the
awesome memories you just made.

I hope you liked the itinerary. What do you think about it? let me know in the comments. In case you
have recommendations for restaurants or hotels, I would love to know about them. In case you would
like to know about things to do in Goa apart from visiting beaches, do give my previous post a read.

Cheers!

A relaxing week in Goa with family (Itinerary Advice)

05 November 2013, 14:35

Just back from a 5 night trip to Goa with family so wanted to share my
experience along with a little bit of itinerary advice for the people planning
their Goa visit. Since we were there with kids, this itinerary does not include
night club hopping but it is planned in such a manner that you can
accommodate club hopping on any night.
Getting there: This section is specific for Pune folks. Most people prefer
traveling by own car from Pune to Goa which is good option since this
allows you to have your own transport in Goa. But we went by train. There
are a couple of trains from Pune and train travel time from Pune to Goa is
just a few hours more than car travel time and most of these hours are
overnight so you will reach Goa fresh (no driving strain). Also some trains
like Poorna Express go via Dudhsagar so you will get majestic view of falls
from the train. You should explore this.
North vs South: You may have already read a lot about this debate. Yes
south side beaches are cleaner, less crowded and less commercialized.
South side hotels are also bigger and plusher, some with even their own
private beaches. So its a great place to be if your idea of vacationing is
lazy-ing around on beach all day every day. However, most of other
activities (night clubs, places to see, good places to eat etc) are on north
side. Though the distances on map do not seem large but roads are narrow
so travel takes time and cab fares are high so choose wisely. We stayed at
Fahrenheit Hotels and Resorts (FHR) which is located
between Baga and Calangute. FHR deserves a full review of its own. The
link to my FHR review is at the bottom of this post.
Day 1: Arrived at hotel by 4 PM. Check-in, a quick bite at hotel restaurant
and then off to activity that everyone visiting Goa should do first, a sunset
walk at beach. After that, window shopping on Baga Calangute main
street followed by dinner at Caf Souza Lobo located right on the beach at
Calangute with live music and some dancing.
Day 2: Breakfast at hotel at 8:30 AM and off to beach for whole morning.
Came back to hotel at noon, enjoyed a dip in the pool and rain shower with
funky lights (more about that in my FHR review). Then off to lunch at Chef

Soumyens Kitchen (full review link at the bottom of this post). Back to hotel
for an afternoon siesta. Evening was spent on Mandovi on a river cruise.
River cruise was ok experience, not that great. The problem is that you do
not get to choose which boat you will go on. You have to buy ticket from a
central ticket booth and board on whichever boat that is loading at that
moment. If you are lucky to get a small or midsize boat, you may be ok but
if you get a large boat (like we did) with approximately 500 people on
board, its not that great of an experience. You will be better off spending
the evening at one of the river casinos, if you are not with kids and like to
gamble. Alternatively you can spend the evening at Donna Paulo and
Miramar beach which are very nice places to be in the evening.
Day 3: Early Morning start. We had hired a cab on previous evening to pick
us up early. Left hotel by 6:30 AM to go to Dr Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary. Its a
must visit place. Link to my full review of sanctuary is at the bottom of this
post. Then we went to Panaji for a quick breakfast and visited old Goa
church complex (Bom Jesus and St Augustines ruins) after that. Again a
must visit place. You must hire a guide for Bom Jesus visit. The guides
there are very knowledgeable and charge just Rs 100. Without the guide,
you would not know what you are looking at (unless you are a history buff).
There is a hidden gem in that area. An old closed down church on a small
hill. Views from that place are amazing. Hopefully your cab driver would
know about it or you can ask your Bom Jesus guide about that. You have to
take the road that goes towards the Arch of Vasco Da Gamma from Bom
Jesus and from that road you will take a right turn on a narrow uphill road to
get there.
After Old Goa, we came back to hotel to have lunch and catch a break
since we woke up very early in the day and kids were getting cranky. Early
evening was spent at a nearby spa while kids were busy on PS3 (provided
by hotel, more about that in my full FHR review). Late evening was devoted
to window shopping session in Baga followed by dinner at OPescador. If
you are looking for a more spirited experience you can go to Titos night
club or Caf Mambo or Brittos for a night of party, all of which are at Baga.
Day 4: This was again a late start day like day 2. Morning at the beach.
There are water sports activity centres on both Baga and Calanguate
beaches that you can try. We hired a speedboat for Rs 2000 and went for
an hour ride. We caught just a glimpse of Dolphin but if you are lucky, you
may have better sighting. Better chances of spotting dolphins are earlier in

the morning. But the ride itself was fun too. Day after lunch was spent at
famous Anjuna Flea market, which happens only on Wednesday. After flea
market, we visited the nearby Chaporafort for a sunset viewing.
Day 5: Day 5 was devoted to Dudhsagar falls visit. I have a detailed review
posted for Dudhsagar. See the link at the bottom of this post. On the way to
Dudhsagar, we stopped at Mageshi Temple, which has some connection to
great Lata Mangeshkars family. Its ok place to visit if you are going
Dudhsagar since its on the way but I would not suggest going 25 KM from
Panaji just to visit this place. After Dudhsagar, we were hoping to get back
to Dona Paulo before sunset but we could not so stopped at Miramar
beach for a cup of coffee and called it a day. Dinner at Da Bagas Deck.
Day 6: Checkout day. Since it was our last day in Goa, obviously we had to
spend another morning on beach. After checking out at noon, on our way to
Madgaon railway station, we paid a quick visit to Dona Paula, Panaji
Church and Fontainhas after grabbing the famous fish thali of Ritz Classic
in Panaji.
Line to my full reviews from this trip:
www.tripadvisor.in/members-reviews/GT-Pune