Goa
Goa Tourism: Welcome to Goa
Goa, India, is a beautiful place with a rich history and yore of the Portuguese colony. The state has a unique blend of Portuguese and Indian culture and architecture that attracts tourists from all over the world and promotes tourism in Goa. It is estimated that the place is visited by more than 400,000 foreign tourists per year. Since 1960, Goa has attracted tourists right from the hippies to the expatriate Goans and then the charter tourists that started with Germans in 1987. After that, it comes to the pilgrims visiting Goa, both Catholic, and Hindus to those who want to settle down in Goa forever. People also visit here for medical treatments. A large number of visitors in Goa are those who come here to attend conferences and seminars. Hence, Goa tourism is always on a hike.
Tourism in Goa is focussed on the coastal areas with the least inland tourist activities.
Location:
Goa – it is located on the south-western coast of India within the Konkan region. It s geographically separated by the Western Ghats from the Deccan highlands. Goa is the smallest state of India and is surrounded by Maharashtra in the North and Karnataka in the east and south and by the Arabian Sea in the west, forming the western coast.
Goa ranks on top for the best quality of life by the National Commission on population and as the best-placed state by the eleventh Finance Commission for the infrastructure. Goa is different from other parts of India because of the Portuguese rule, which isolated it from India for 451 years.
Capital, Cities, and Villages:
Panaji or Panjim (also known as Ponne’ Je in Konkan language) is the capital of Goa. Goa is divided into two districts that are, North Goa and South Goa.
For a state like Goa, a half village, and half urban, there are unexpectedly many villages than cities.
Even the cities of Goa are small and crowded. Vasco Da Gama is the largest city.
The villages in Goa are charming. It would be more suitable to say and you can experiencethat the Goan villages have a world of their own. The heart of Goa is in its villages. If you want to see real Goa, you have to visit Goa villages. Take a ride in a leisurely evening or on a relaxed morning and see the beauty of the place. The villages of Goa are excellent and clean and good value for money. Some of the villages are Assolna, Britona, Go Velha, Cortalim, Mollem, Curtorim Benalium, Reis Magos, Usgao, Shiroda, Savoi Verem. These villages are nearby such places where many tourists stay.
See the pure Goan Culture:
The Catholics and Hindus have fashioned the culture of Goa. The people of Goa are mainly ‘Sossegado,’ that means very easy going. With the advancement in communication modes, the influx of folks from other neighboring states has led to different cultures confinement. Many people from other parts of India and foreign countries have settled here. The Catholics of Goa concede their Hindu roots. They hold the traces of caste structure in their social attitude. In most families, it has been noticed that the Hindu family left one child to be a Catholic, and the rest of the family continued to own and manage the Hindu beliefs and migrated with the idols of the Hindu Deities to the neighboring areas.
See the Arts and Culture of Goa:
Goa has many art galleries, museums, and libraries. Most of the museums are run and managed by the government. In Panaji, the Goa State Museum, the Central Library, the Kala Academy, and the Goa Science Centre are run by the Government of Goa. You can see the Naval Aviation Museum in Vasco De Gama, a great place to see vintage aircraft.
Visit Old Goa, a great place to see the instances of Christian Religious Art and Secular Art. You can visit the Modern Art Gallery and the Christian Art Museum in Old Goa. The place integrates the work of surrealist Dom Martin. There is also a religious museum in Mormugao, which is of the Blessed Joseph Vaz. A Christian Art gallery can also be seen at the Xavier Centre of Historical Research in Bardez.
The Bohemian lifestyle of Goa has attracted many artists, architects, and painters, and they have set up their art galleries and museums in Goa. In Candolim, the art gallery of Subodh Kekar is the best instance. The most significant assortment of ethnographic artifacts that have been ever collected at a place is also present in the Goa Chitra Museum at Benaulim.
Goa has also developed itself as a creative hub of India and attracts the designers, contemporary artists, creative coders, and engineers. Hence, India’s first museum for technology and art, i.e., Sensistan, is in Goa. The museum features light and sound installations, new media, virtual reality applications. Sensistan is especially a digital playground designed for people of all ages and has an idiosyncratic space design of 700 sqm indoors and 1000 sqm in outdoors.
Other noticeable museums of Goa are:
House of Goa, Gerard Da Cunha’s architectural museum in Benaulim, Salcette museum, is an endeavor to illustrate and show the traditional past of Goa and Big Foot or Ancestral Goa, which is at Loutolim. Other than this, some museums have a vintage car collection. Ashvek Vintage World in Nuvem is one such museum.
Best Time to Visit Goa
If you want to travel in winters:
The best time to visit Goa in the Winter season is from November to February. It is the best time when Goa’s temperature hovers from 21°C to 27°C. The weather is very pleasant dry, and comfortable at this duration in Goa, which is ideal for lazing around on the beach. Secondly, the sunburn festival in December is the biggest attraction in Goa. There is a sharp increase in tourists around Valentine’s Week in Goa. After all, the state is contemplated as the city of romance and happiness.
If you want to travel in Monsoon:
To visit Goa in Monsoon, it is ideal for planning the holidays between June to October. The beauty and charm of mother nature is at its peak with lush greenery and full flow waterfalls in the monsoon season, which makes Goa a beautiful romantic place. Other than this, there is also a second reason to visit Goa in Monsoons. It is the Sao Joao festival, which is celebrated in June. It is a fertility festival in which men jump in overflowing wells to catch Feni’s bottles (a very famous local alcohol made of cashew nuts). Swimming is generally not allowed in Monsoons in Goa because the sea becomes tumultuous due to rain, and it is unsafe. You can laze down on the beaches to enjoy the weather.
If you want to travel in summers:
Summers are the hottest in Goa, and it starts from March and remains till May. The temperature in summers hikes directly to 40 °C. With a hike in day temperature, the hotel prices go down drastically. So, economically it is better to visit Goa in Summers.
Nightlife in Goa:
Goa ranks 6th in the list of top nightlife cities on the globe in National Geographic Travel. Some noticeable nightclubs in Goa are Sinq, Mambos, and Chronicle.
You can go for Goa Tourism Packages to explore the real Goa within your budget.