Goa, India - holiday on my own, late 50s?

[LandSight]

Thinking about this at the moment for next year. It will be after a long Winter, but also as a treat for myself after alot of struggles.

I would travel on my own, maybe backpack in hostels or small hotels. Can't afford expensive ones.

Probably stay two weeks, give or take. I have the time, but not lots of money.

So .... if anyone could help me that would be great ...

Is two weeks enough? Should i stay longer? If I was backpacking but staying in one place I would be concerned I'd be a bit bored after a week. If I got bored I could maybe do a tour with a travel company once I'm out there?

Is it relatively safe for a woman on her own? I've travelled to other closer places on my own but I wouldn't like to get into too many problems by myself in India - I'm also a bit of a wuss about insects and stuff, lol. But I get the impression women travel fairly commonly in Goa on their own.

Or should I just pick a hotel package and stay there for simplicity (though they do seem a bit pricey and I'd also have to stay in the same place and it might be away from the interesting parts)?

Any thoughts welcome ..... ?

Another alternative might be Thailand (though I have been there once before many moons ago, but might be interesting to re-visit.) I just need somewhere relatively warm and free for a couple of weeks wondering and peace.

Sorry for essay!

I really liked Bangalore but I didn't like Goa much, it was alright but I didn't like being constantly harassed on the beach

I went to the South of Goa on my own a few years ago. It was beautiful and I wasn't harassed on the beach

Interesting that the pile on is not on the person who described non-white countries as not civilised.

If only. If some posters behave the way they do here in real life, they’ll be being avoided as socially-inadequate weirdos.

I am anti-racist in real life too - the socially inadequate weirdos are the ones with racist views. Or the ones that don't care about people with racist views. But I'm entirely happy to be avoided by racists. Pretty much all decent human beings are. Which is why I don't give a flying about your opinion of people who don't tolerate racism.

@Jalisco

Just go away and leave this as a holiday discussion please .

Kerala is perhaps more interesting?

I'd never go back to goa or anywhere else in India. I went with another girl - we were harassed constantly, it was scary. we had to get armed hotel guards to walk us to taxi's and to ATMs (this was 6ish years ago). There was a rape on goa Beach while we were there too.

Gosh that's frightening , we had similar issues in Jamaica, beautiful country but you needed your wits about you . One person we met at the airport for the return flight spent his holiday in hospital having been stabbed .

@Carpediem15
The uk government is advising against travel to Sri Lanka at the moment due to civil unrest and economic issues which are severe. It’s really not a holiday destination right now.

I never feel Goa is India. Kerala is more interesting but Tamil Nadu is fantastic. If you can afford it, a group holiday is best.

I have stayed in a few cheaper hotels in India and you are likely to be ill. Hostels would be awful and standards would be very low. If you back pack, I would choose a country where students go with reliable standards. If your budget is limited I wouldn’t choose India. I’d choose somewhere in Europe. Ireland is laid back. Or maybe Northern Spain. India on a tight budget would be pretty difficult in my view.

Sooooo interesting ….. 🙏

I am coming round to the idea of a structured tour of some kind, then maybe some time for choosing somewhere I like for a short time on my own at the end.

Exodus have well priced tours. Flights won’t be cheap though.,

Highly recommend Kerala. It's much better, cleaner, and greener than Goa and rest of India. Beautiful beaches, lagoons, and backwaters, cool hill stations, and less number of people (beggars) pestering you for money compared to rest of India. Kerala also ranks highly on Human Development Index, at par or higher than many Western countries. Excellent and easily accessible public and private health care facilities. I would recommend flying to Trivandrum and travel in the northern direction (transit via Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Muscat. I wouldn't recommend transiting in an Indian airport because transfer from international to domestic terminal in some airports can be a headache). There is a direct flight from London Heathrow to Cochin/Kochi too (COK).

@Redwinemaestro
India is all about navigating less than healthy streets and seeing and understanding a different way of life. It cannot be perfect snd lush in western terms. To me, India is the variety: temples and forts, Food, wildlife, culture and festivals, Heritage hotels and helpful people.

Just look at the plastic in the filthy water at Cochin! The Brits tend to want India to be clean and pristine. It’s not. However that and it’s culture is what makes it so special.

I go to Goa frequently because my DH has family there. I always feel very safe. I know I'm not a woman travelling alone but I do often go out and walk about on my own. It's fine. Goans are very used to Westerners so I find them quite relaxed. I've been to more conservative places in India where I have been stared at and received some disapproving looks (I assume because I'm white and married to an Indian). However, in Goa the locals are very laid back and don't bat an eyelid at westerners behaving like westerners. I don't think you'd feel out of place at all. So many Brits and Europeans there. Yes you do see some poverty but it's nothing compared to the poverty I saw in big cities like Mumbai and Bangalore. I'd say Goa is a very good place to visit as a lone traveller and for your first trip to India.

@TizerorFizz - Tamilnadu is a well kept secret and hardly any western tourists there.
I haven't been to Goa but have been to Kerala and it is very safe. Been to backwaters of Alleppey, Cochin and surrounding areas. Very safe and you could get a tour company or even look at a yoga retreat in Kerala - they will arrange for you to be picked up, stay in a safe place, will arrange for local travel and drop you off at the local airport. We stayed in a yoga retreat for couple of days and there were few westerners staying for weeks there.

XelaM · 06/08/2022 23:13

I have friends who absolutely LOVE India and go there every year, but my parents went in 2019 and came back to say it is their idea of hell with extreme poverty and skinny cows roaming the streets everywhere. I have not been to India, but I have been to Lagos (which is my idea of hell) and from my parents' descriptions I imagine it to be similar. It's not somewhere I would want to go without a tour group or local knowledge. Why not go to the US for somewhere far, warm and with loads to see, but still relatively civilised?
Your racism is disgusting. Civilised?? How dare you
We have the oldest faith in the world And we had a medicine art and philosophies that are still admired today.

I travelled all around India in my early 30's.
I absolutely loved it but regularly got groped when travelling alone.
My friend who I was traveling with however, didn't.

Russia had the biggest literary giants of all time. Things change...

But I appreciate that "civilised" was the wrong word to use and I apologise for that. There is extreme poverty though and I still think it's madness to travel without a tour group, especially wanting to stay in hostels! I see the OP has reconsidered though.

XelaM

Russia had the biggest literary giants of all time. Things change...

But I appreciate that "civilised" was the wrong word to use and I apologise for that. There is extreme poverty though and I still think it's madness to travel without a tour group, especially wanting to stay in hostels! I see the OP has reconsidered though.

Our faith remains pertinent today as does our medicine. You are right civilised is the wrong word. I fear it does say a lot about you and you might want to reflect on your somewhat misguided sense of superiority.

🙄Ok then.

Did I say that Kerala is a perfect destination? No. It's relative. Compared to other regions of India, Kerala is better. Of course there is filth and pollution in Kerala too. Kerala is also rich in all the aspects you mentioned - temples and forts, wildlife, food, culture, heritage and so on.

You think that politics and holiday destinations are not the same thing when people describe countries as uncivilised?

No I won't go away and you don't own this site.

I will never walk away from disgusting levels of racism. Tough luck. Some people have ethics and honesty. Get over it.

Just to add, yes Russia had SOME literary giants and SOME great composers etc. You can't judge a country by single factors. Like the invasion of the Ukraine, awful war crimes, and uncivilised behaviour. Russia is a wonderful country with a great legacy. Russian people are open and generous. I'd rather go to India right now, with its thousands of years of civilisation. It isn't perfect. Nowhere is. And anyone who can't see the connection between tourism money and development issues is naive. Or are we sanctioning Russia for nothing?

Goa is a shithole and I wouldn't go back if you paid me to. We stayed in a resort and men used to jump up on the walls to stare at us in the pool. The beaches at Anjuna are full of needles in the sand and people trying to suck spirits out of your ears with needles. The beggars and badly injured are everywhere and the ditches are full of mountains of plastic bottles. Goa is the destination for all

Contd for all the down and outs from other states trying to make a living from you.

This is why I said - Hopefully - we can go to Sri Lanka.
We own an apartment in Goa which we rent out to Goan friends for a very nominal rent, they are happy there and we are happy that they are looking after it for us and we don't want to holiday there anymore. Will probably end up giving it to them as it cost us £8 thousand and we had 10 winters there so really has cost us nothing. We have travelled all over India over these years but other countries have called us.