Goa Honeymoon Tour Package

Goa has two airports, Manohar International at Mopa in the far north and Dabolim near Vasco da Gama, and we can work with either. Your driver waits outside the arrivals exit with a placard, loads the bags and takes you to a boutique beach resort in the Candolim and Sinquerim area, about an hour from Mopa or forty-five minutes from Dabolim. Connections through Dubai, Doha or Muscat tend to touch down around dawn, and booking your room from the previous evening means you can collapse into bed on arrival. On the drive, our host goes over the week's plan and can hand you a local SIM card on request.

Nothing else is planned for today. Many couples spend the first afternoon by the pool or under an umbrella on Candolim beach, where the sand runs wide and flat toward the headland of Fort Aguada. Lifeguards watch the main swimming zones in season, and red flags mark the stretches where currents pull hard. If jet lag allows, a short walk south brings you to Sinquerim, the quieter end of the strip, where fishing canoes rest under the coconut palms and the water is often calm enough for a first swim before the light fades.

For the first dinner we suggest a beach shack rather than the resort restaurant. Tables are set right on the sand, menus are chalked on boards, and the kitchen will grill whatever the boats brought in that morning: kingfish, red snapper, tiger prawns or squid, served with a fiery red recheado paste or simple garlic butter. Ask for cashew feni with lime and soda if you want to try Goa's local spirit, or stick to a cold beer. Shacks stay open late in the season, but there is no need to; tomorrow starts at an easy hour. Overnight in North Goa.

Take breakfast whenever suits you, then start at Fort Aguada, which the Portuguese raised in 1612 on the headland where the Mandovi meets the sea. The name comes from the freshwater springs inside the walls, which once filled the casks of passing ships, and a large cistern still sits within the upper fort. The old lighthouse, added in 1864 and long since retired, looks across the river mouth toward the Dona Paula headland. Come in the morning, before the tour buses arrive, and the ramparts are quiet enough for photos of the two of you against the Arabian Sea.

In Panjim your guide is waiting at the foot of Altinho hill, where Fontainhas, the old Latin Quarter, spread across the slope in the 1800s. Houses here are painted ochre, indigo, lime green and deep red, and many still keep their oyster-shell windows, carved balconies and blue-and-white azulejo tiles showing the family name or house number. The little Chapel of St. Sebastian keeps a crucifix brought from the long-demolished Inquisition building in Old Goa, and a few small art galleries share the lanes with family homes. Stop at a tiny bakery for bebinca, the layered coconut dessert, and a coffee.

Before sunset you board a private boat at the Panjim jetty for a cruise on the Mandovi River. The public cruise boats play loud music and stage folk dances, but a private launch makes for a very different evening: just the two of you, a crew member and a cooler of drinks as the light turns gold over Reis Magos fort and the mangroves of Chorao island. The boat passes the floating casinos moored midstream and turns back as the lights of Panjim come on. Your driver collects you at the jetty, and dinner could be Goan fish curry rice at a family restaurant in the city. Overnight in North Goa.

North of Baga creek, the coastline changes character. Red laterite cliffs drop into the sea at Anjuna, and the beach is broken into small coves by black rock shelves that make good spots to sit and watch the waves. If today is a Wednesday, the Anjuna flea market spreads across the field behind the beach, with stalls selling Kashmiri shawls, Tibetan silver, Rajasthani textiles and second-hand books. It began in the hippie era of the 1960s and 70s, and while it is far more commercial now, an hour wandering the lanes together is still good fun. Bargaining is expected, so start at about half the asking price.

A short drive brings you to Vagator, where steep paths lead down to two beaches, Big Vagator and the smaller Ozran, sometimes called Little Vagator, where a face of Shiva is carved into a rock by the water. Eat lunch high above the water at a clifftop café, the kind of place with low cushions, an unhurried kitchen and the sea filling the whole view. Afterward the hours are yours: swim in one of the coves, sleep it off in the room, or book a treatment at a small spa that borrows its oils and methods from Kerala's Ayurvedic tradition. Carry sunscreen and water, because the cliffs have little shade in the middle of the day.

Save the last hour of daylight for Chapora Fort, a ruined Portuguese stronghold on a hill between Vagator and the Chapora River. Little remains inside the walls apart from scattered tombstones and the mouths of old escape tunnels, but the view is what brings people up: the river mouth, fishing boats returning to Chapora village, and the long curve of Morjim beach across the water. Wear shoes with grip, since the path from the parking area is uneven and loose. Afterward you can stay for dinner in Vagator or, on a Saturday in season, visit the Arpora night market with its food stalls and live music. Overnight in North Goa.

Bags go into the car after breakfast for the forty-minute run east to Old Goa, which governed Portuguese India and, according to some chroniclers, rivaled Lisbon for population in the 1500s. Cholera, malaria and a river clogged with silt emptied the city over the next two centuries; the churches and convents left standing on its grassy grounds now form the UNESCO site called the Churches and Convents of Goa. Your guide begins with the Basilica of Bom Jesus, whose red laterite face was stripped of plaster long ago, where St. Francis Xavier rests in a silver casket set on a marble tomb that a Medici grand duke of Tuscany sent from Florence. Shoulders and knees should be covered inside.

Facing it is the Se Cathedral, the biggest of Old Goa's churches, built in honor of St. Catherine, whose tower holds a bell so admired for its deep sound that people called it golden. Next door, the Church of St. Francis of Assisi has a carved and gilded interior, painted panels from the life of the saint and a floor laid with worn tombstones. The Archaeological Museum in the former convent holds portraits of the Portuguese governors and is closed on Fridays, so your guide will adjust the order if needed. Allow around two hours here in total before driving on toward the hills.

In the green hills around Ponda, a family-run spice farm welcomes you for a guided walk under areca palms, pepper vines and nutmeg trees, with the guide crushing leaves and pods for you to smell. Lunch is a Goan Hindu-style buffet served on banana leaves, usually with a coconut curry, local red rice, seasonal vegetables and a fish fry. Afterward you continue south through Margao and the Canacona hills to Agonda, about two hours away, arriving in time to see the sun drop behind the long, empty beach. Your beach cottage sits a few steps from the sand. Overnight in Agonda.

Agonda is one of the least developed beaches in Goa, a three-kilometer curve of sand with a single road behind it and no high-rise buildings. Olive ridley sea turtles nest at the northern end in winter, and the forest department fences off nesting sites so the eggs can hatch safely, so please keep your distance from any marked area. Mornings here are for slow breakfasts on your cottage veranda and long walks at low tide, when the sand is firm underfoot. The sea is generally calm in season, though the bottom can shelve quickly in places, so swim near the middle of the beach.

Around eleven, the two of you lie side by side in a palm-thatched treatment hut behind the dunes for an hour-long Ayurvedic massage with warm herbal oils. Our team books it in advance and it is included in your package. Lunch can be a simple thali or grilled fish at a beach shack, followed by an afternoon in a hammock with a book or a paddle on a rented kayak. Agonda also has a handful of yoga schools offering drop-in classes, usually early in the morning or late in the afternoon, if you want to try one together.

Toward five o'clock the car climbs twenty-five minutes north to Cabo de Rama, a headland fort that Hindu kings held long before Portuguese troops took it in 1763. Inside the ramparts a little white chapel still holds Sunday mass, and rough tracks run out to the cliff edge, with waves striking dark rock a long way down. Find a spot on the western ramparts for sunset, with nothing between you and the horizon but open water. A simple restaurant near the gate serves cold drinks and snacks if you want to linger before heading back for dinner. Overnight in Agonda.

After a relaxed breakfast it is a short drive south to Palolem, the most photographed bay in South Goa. The beach forms an almost perfect crescent, framed by a wooded headland at each end, and the water inside the bay stays shallow and calm through the dry season. Wooden cottages and painted huts line the sand under the palms, and your boutique resort sits at the quieter end of the bay. Once you have checked in, take a walk to the northern rocks, where at low tide you can wade across to a small wooded island that local boatmen call Canacona Island.

In the early afternoon a local boatman takes you north along the coast to Butterfly Beach, a small cove backed by forest that is easiest to reach by sea. The ride takes about twenty minutes, passing rocky headlands and sometimes a white-bellied sea eagle circling overhead. There are no shops or shacks on the cove, so bring water and towels, and the boatman will wait or return at a set time. Many couples find it the most private stretch of sand of the whole trip. On the way back the boat can stop at Honeymoon Beach, a tiny neighboring bay with room for only a few people.

Evenings in Palolem have their own rhythm. Shack owners pull tables onto the sand, lanterns come on, and on some nights a silent disco hands out headphones, so the music stays private and the beach stays quiet. For dinner, ask for a whole pomfret grilled with green masala or a plate of crab xec xec, a dark curry of roasted coconut from the Goan Catholic kitchen. If the moon is up, the low tide leaves a wide strip of wet sand that reflects its light, an easy place for a long walk back to your cottage. Overnight in Palolem.

The dolphins off Palolem are most active just after sunrise, so the boat leaves the beach around 7 am, before breakfast. Your small private boat heads out past the headland into open water, where Indian Ocean humpback dolphins often surface in small groups to feed. Sightings are common in season but never guaranteed, and a good boatman will cut the engine and wait rather than chase them. The trip lasts about an hour, and the early light on the Canacona coast is reason enough to be on the water. Life jackets are provided, and a light jacket helps in the morning breeze.

Breakfast is ready when you step back onto the sand, and after that there is no schedule at all. You might hire a kayak and paddle the bay together, walk south over the rocks to Patnem, a smaller beach with a handful of cafés, or spend the afternoon in the shade with books and fresh lime soda. For a change of scene, a short drive inland leads to the Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary, a forest reserve with tall watchtowers built for spotting gaur, deer and birdlife. Your driver is available all day, so plans can change on the spot without any extra arrangements on your part.

On the final night we set a single table on the sand, well away from the shacks, with lanterns and a few flowers, and agree the menu with the chef ahead of time. Typical courses are tangy prawn balchão, green chicken cafreal and serradura, the Macau-born dessert of whipped cream layered with biscuit crumbs, with wine or cocktails to match. Waiters keep their distance, and the sound of the waves does most of the talking. If you prefer more privacy, the dinner can move to your resort's garden deck instead. Overnight in Palolem.

Enjoy a final breakfast by the sea before checking out. From Palolem, Dabolim is roughly ninety minutes away and Mopa nearer three hours, so the pickup time depends on which airport you use; plan on reaching the check-in desks a full three hours before an international flight. Evening flights leave room for a late check-out, booked ahead, and the drive can pause at the covered market in Margao for cashews, spicy Goan chouriço or dried kokum to carry home.

Over eight days you have had two very different Goas: forts, flea markets and lively shacks in the north, and slow mornings, turtle beaches and dolphins in the south, with old churches and spice gardens in between. Should an anniversary bring you back, Hampi, Gokarna or the Kerala backwaters pair well with another week on this coast. Our representative stays with you until the terminal entrance. Have a safe flight home.