Last week we went for a trip to Goa, but this time the aim was to just relax, eat and sleep(I know some of you would think...what a waste!! But believe me, to get a few nights at a stretch to sleep 8hrs per night and to get food without really cooking it is worth all the luxury for parents to little ones).
After much research, we finalized on "
Beleza...by the beach". I thought to dedicate a crisp blog to this property, which can help others in making their decision for staying here.
This property is located in south Goa, and has a direct access to the beach from within the property itself. The beach was kind of serene, clean and calm, in a complete contrast to calangute or baga which are overcrowded and thriving with activities, shops, eateries etc. Don't head to this beach with lots of activities and food on top of your priority list unless you want to be heavily disappointed. You would love it if your motive was to take a leisurely walk or a peaceful sunbath, have a relaxing time with your friends or family.
In short, this resort+beach is well suited for families/groups that want leisurely and peaceful vacation and don't really care too much about the thriving night life and too much of water activities. Since the resort has 3 bedroom villas, it's particularly awesome for a group of 3 families or similar group of friends. What I meant is that if you could book one villa all to yourself, you would have an awesome time with great privacy. Over all there are only some 10 plus villas which means never having an overcrowding in the resort, even if its fully booked. In case you want to venture out and hit other parts of Goa, the resort does provide for vehicles at fixed rate, which, you might find a little overpriced, but of course, there's always a trade off between price paid and the comfort received :)
To be precise, a half day trip to Panjim and rest of Goa would cost anywhere between 2000-3000 INR (Depending on the distance to be covered or the time involved)
Here's a brief list of pros and cons of the resort, as perceived by my family during our stay there:
Pros:
- Courteous staff. And I literally mean it. You would be greeted where ever you were spotted. Staff would be willing to go out of their way to help you out. A gardener left his work and strode along with us to show us the path to the beach. A waiter approached us and had a hearty chat while we were standing near the restaurant. Was it a necessity? No, it was courtesy. And the list goes on.
- Vast stretch of green lawn, decent swimming pool, on premises spa facilities, private access to beach, plus a children's play area that was big relief for me as my little one is used to it back home.
- Very good location and facilities to enjoy a leisurely vacation. We had leisurely walks across the beach, we could enjoy the sunset scenes on the beach sitting into the shack at nazare.
- The property is a collection of 3 bedroom villas, having 1 bedroom at ground floor along with kitchen and dining and 2 bedrooms on the first floor with a vast sitting area. The terrace had benches to sunbath and enjoy a glance on the stretches of the resort. The rooms were air conditioned, had a mini freeze tucked-in, a very easy to operate locker and a water heater kettle as well. Laundry service was available on the premises. In short, all basic amenities that you could ask for a comfortable stay were present.
- Free wifi but the strength was not that great in the rooms.
Cons:
- The biggest con was the food options available on the premises. Since the property is a little far from major markets, restaurants and other ready food options, until you are willing to venture out for long, you have to satisfy yourself with a limited menu. There are two restaurants - tentacao in the middle of the resort and nazare - the beach shack. Ambiance wise, both win. But food wise, both fail to satisfy. The breakfast option is decent, but for lunch, snacks and dinner there are very less varieties to choose from. Plus, we felt the food was overpriced for the amount of satisfaction it gave to the taste bud. Goan bun was way too chewy and we had a sundae which didn't have brownie!!! (essentially , it was two scoops of vanilla icecream with a little chocolate sauce).
- Little thoughtfulness was missing here and there : like no bucket in bathrooms!! (I had a hard time giving my little one a bath), no mosquito sprays (due to greenery there was a abundance of mosquitos but the provided repellants were not sufficient and they didn't have a spray available on the premises which we could use - again my baby came back home with quiet some gruesome mosquito byte marks), no refill/replacement of toiletries even when they got exhausted, no plane drinking water in site on the breakfast buffet spread etc. These are very little things that if not overlooked, can make the daily stay of a customer much more convenient and pleasurable.
Coming to the cost, the rooms were rated somewhere around 5000-6000 INR per night. But we contacted the resort directly and got a better package deal from them that included breakfast, airport pickup and drop along with stay.
Finally comes the question, if given a chance I would again consider staying here. Perhaps no, until the food options get elaborated out. But, at the same time, I loved rest of the facilities and we had a nice peaceful family time along the coast , definitely enjoyed our stay.
[PS:pictures soon to follow, do come back to have a look]
