Curving down the west coast of India like an Arabian scimitar across miles of sun-drenched beach and dazzling waters of azure, lies a heaven called Goa. If words were to describe Goa, they would be hopelessly inadequate.

However, it’ll suffice to say that somewhere out there, playing hide and seek with itinerant travellers, is a place of calm and quiet a place where the soul skips a beat and the mind goes for an aimless walk. Somewhere out there is the place that you always want to go to…. InterContinental The LaLiT Goa Resort.

Located along the western coast of India, InterContinental The LaLiT Goa Resort is a luxurious five star resort built on 85 acres of land and offers a breathtaking view lapped by the Arabian Sea with a unique confluence of the Talpone River to its left, it’s tributary to the right, cradled by the majestic Sahyadari range and a kilometre long exclusive beachfront. Located at Rajbaga, Canacona, The LaLiT Goa is one of the most exquisite, beautiful and secluded Goa beach resort. It is also the largest property in Goa in terms of area and as well as number of suites offered.

The Portuguese style architecture with an elegant blend of Goan culture at this 5 star resort is the base of it’s twin storey sprawling structure – all nestled amidst formally landscaped gardens, a golf course and a multitude of hotel facilities ranging from modern meeting rooms to trendy bar and dining avenues, from beach activities to a holistic spa; and from water activities to sports facilities.

Our hotel in Goa also offers six dining outlets with live open kitchens including Canacona, Sea bq, Sirocco and Corta’s providing all popular cuisines, including seafood to cater to all types of palates. It also has its own luxury Yacht & a Helipad to facilitate the experience of life on all – air, water and earth. The LaLiT Goa hotel is also one of the few casino hotels in the city.

Calangute is the largest beach of north goa (largest beach of south goa is colva ) calangute is a census town in North Goa in the state of Goa, India. It is famous for its beach, visited by domestic and international tourists alike. The peak tourist season is during Christmas and New Year, and during the summer in May.

Luxury Cruises in Goa set sail from Mumbai to Goa. These luxury Star Cruises are designed and decorated keeping in mind the contemporary and cosmopolitan life of the people. It boasts of all modern amenities and it can be described as a floating resort on the sea. Luxury Cruises provide all types of comfort and relaxation to the passengers. It is skillfully designed to meet the changing and sophisticated needs of the passengers. Goa Luxury Cruises offers you an impressive high quality service that makes your journey comfortable and relaxed. Escape from the daily stressful life and get a royal treatment at these luxury Cruises.

Luxury Cruises is more of a luxury resort, complete with restaurant & bars that serves you all types of variety dishes, cocktails and mock tails. There is space for indoor sports, kid’s games parlor. You can rejuvenate your mind, body and soul by visiting the in – board massage parlor and fitness centre.

Luxury Cruises in Goa also has arrangement for casino rooms where you can try your luck and win a fortune. You can have good relaxing sleep in luxury rooms – Executive Suites, Junior Suites and Ocean view States room Suite. The rooms and suites are adequately furnished with separate living area. Some exclusive rooms are allotted with private balconies. You can even laze around the deck and overlook the panoramic view of the blue waters. If you are lucky enough you can even spot the ocean-going leaps of small herds of dolphins which will captivate you.

Beside these you can dive into the cool waters of the swimming pool and play some water sports like basketball and volleyball.

On board live entertainment include an open-style karaoke lounge, a discotheque, cocktails and pre-dinner lounge. Goa Sea Cruise offers some luxurious and royal treatment. You can board this Sea Cruises from Mumbai. Super Star Libra offers such luxurious and royal treatment. Make your journey memorable and unique with Luxury Cruises In Goa. These Cruises can be of 1 night, 2 nights and 3 nights. It also has arrangement for on – board doctors. Be safe and secure In Luxury Cruises.

Sunset at Anjuna beach, Goa

What do you get when you blend South India’s temple traditions with Portuguese heritage? A 5 star beach resort called The Leela Kempinski Goa, for one. Sprawled over 75 endless acres in idyllic South Goa, the property boasts a 12 hole, par 3 golf course for the aficionados.

And if you prefer to unwind by not doing anything at all, you have the Mobor beach pretty much to yourself. The bustling fishing village along the Sal River, to the south, offers a fascinating insight into how the lucky locals of Goa live.

Being a luxury resort means that The Leela Kempinski Goa offers you a choice 185 rooms, suites and villas, as well as from a host of dining options and leisure activities. Add to this a state-of-the-art business centre and you have the perfect destination for a company conference too.

Goa is the ultimate honeymoon haven for beach lovers. Laidback, Goa is a merry blend of Portuguese and Konkani, with the atmosphere of a lively carnival town.

Think Goa and you think beaches. All the beaches have a different character and are known by the quality of sand on the beach and the passions of the people who groove there. Anjuna is known for its shingle-sand and sixties-style flower culture. Peaceful Agonda, rocky and sandy Arambol, happy and happening Baga, red sand and coconut grove Calangute, popular Vagator, untouched Polem and Palolem and enchanting Colva are the other beaches.

The towns and beaches are flooded with shacks and restaurants where you can gorge on Goan and Mediterranean cuisine, especially seafood and sample some local feni (cashew brew), port wine and passoa – liquor from passion fruit.

Goa is ideal for a passionate honeymoon, strolling hand in hand down the beach, dancing by the fireside at midnight, singing old songs to the beat of a strumming guitar. There is much to see and do – backwater cruises down the Mandovi and Zuari rivers, dolphin cruises on the high seas, adventure sports and water sports – para sailing, wind surfing and water skiing – or you can simply hold hands and dance over the crashing waves! Chances are that you may never want to come back to terra firma once you have been transported into raptures at Goa. But so what… you can re-live your honeymoon in Goa again and again.

Palolem beach stretches between two magnificent headlands and the beach is lined with towering coconut palms. Every season bamboo-hut resorts and restaurants are erected along the beach allowing tourists to stay right on the sand, only a few meters away from a swim in the Arabian Sea. The beach huts range from very basic to somewhat luxurious, with en suite huts becoming more common every year.

Palolem provides beautiful accommodation for all types of traveler with prices varying throughout the season; Christmas and New Year being the peak. Backpackers should have no problem finding somewhere to stay by just turning up and looking around, but if you are looking for something more exclusive it may be better to try and book in advance especially during December and January.

Palolem is also ideal for young families as the atmosphere is relaxed, friendly and safe. Restaurants in Palolem are varied and due to the amount of tourists, generally of a very high standard. You can get anything from local Indian delights to authentic Italian pizza and pasta, and an added bonus is that alcohol is completely legal and very accessible. (Alcohol is illegal in some Indian states). The locally produced Kingfisher beer is a favorite amongst all visitors.

Don’t Miss

-A dolphin trip.

-Thali, this traditional South Indian dish consists of a base of rice and chapattis served with little dishes of vegetable curries and sauces with coconut, mango and mixed spices.

-Fresh fish. The local fishermen bring fish in fresh every morning so make sure you ask to see the catch of the day at one of the restaurants. The Red Snapper is delicious cooked up with spices in a tandoori oven.

-A yoga class. There are plenty of places in the area where you can try out some yoga. Yoga at sunset under the palm trees is a serene experience that should not be missed.

-An Ayurvedic massage. Ayurveda is an ancient Indian tradition of natural medicine and treatment. The Ayurvedic head massage is the most popular.

The Goan identity is rooted, among other things, in deep enjoyment of food and drink. Thus when a Goan writer becomes nostalgic, he or she usually ends up reminiscing about the taste of their grandmother’s sorpotel, the texture of a perfect bebinca, or the aroma of a large glass of feni.

The basic components of Goan cooking are, not surprisingly, local products. The claim that every part of the coconut is used for something is not an idle one. Coconut oil, milk and grated coconut flesh flavor many dishes, while toddy, the sap from the coconut palm, is also used to make vinegar and to act as a yeast substitute. Another important product of the palm is jaggery, a dark colored sweetener that is widely used in preparing Goan sweetmeats.

Goan cooking generally involves liberal amounts of spices, too, giving dishes a strange taste and distinctive aroma. The most commonly used include cumin, coriander, chilies, garlic and turmeric. Another local ingredient used to flavor fish curries is kokum. Particular combinations of spices have led to a number of styles of cooking, which have subtly differing flavours-masala, vindaloo and balchao being some of the most famous.

For the main content of the meal, seafood of all varieties is eaten, and pork and chicken are the most commonly used meats. The Portuguese influence in goan cooking cannot be ignored. Dishes such as racheiado, caldeirada and cabidela reflect the legacy of the state’s colonial heritage.

Goan cuisine does not naturally cater for the vegetarian, and as compromise various cooking styles like xacuti, caldinha etc., are sometimes used in the preparation of vegetables. Two vegetable dishes, however, are mergolho, which is made from pumpkin and papaya and breadfruit curry.

Seafood

Goa is famous for its seafood, the ‘classic’ dish being fish curry and rice. With the variety and range on offer, however, combined with the skills of the local cooks, there is a mouthwatering choice. Kingfisher is probably the most common item, on the menu, but there are many others including pomfret, doumer, shark, tuna and mackerel. Among the excellent shellfish available are crabs, prawns, tiger prawns and lobster. Other seafood includes squid and mussels.

For the sake of our little tastebuds, many beach shacks and restaurants present seafood lightly spiced, or without spices at all. In this case the food is generally either fried, grilled or cooked in garlic sauce. Traditional Goan cooking methods, however, generally involve seasoning the seafood in some way.

Among the most famous Goan dishes is ambot tik, a slightly sour curry dish which can be prepared with either fish or meat, but more usually fish. Caldeirada is a mildly flavored offering in which fish or prawns are cooked into a kind of stew with vegetables, and often flavored with wine. Racheiado is a delicious preparation in which a whole fish, usually a mackerel or pomfret, is slit down the center and stuffed with a spicy red sauce, after which it is cooked normally. Balchao is a method of cooking either fish or prawns in a dark red and tangy sauce. Because of the preservative qualities of the sauce, balchao can be cooked in advance and reheated upto four days after preparation. Rissois are snacks or starters, which are made from prawns, fried in pastry shells.

Meats

Sorpotel is one of Goa’s most famous meat dishes, and is prepared from pork, liver, heart and kidney, all of which are diced and cooked in a thick and very spicy sauce favored with feni. Sorpotel, like balchao, keeps for several days, and is actually considered to taste better if left for three to four days before being reheated. Xacuti is a traditional way of preparing meat, usually chicken, by cooking it in coconut milk, and adding grated coconut and a variety of spices. The result is mild curry, but with a distinctive and delicious flavor.

Chouricos are spicy pork sausages, which owe more than a passing debt to Portuguese culinary traditions. Goan sausages are prepared used well salted and spiced cubes of pork. Once they have been made, the strings of sausages are dried in the sun and then hung above the fire where they are gradually smoked. Traditionally they are eaten during the monsoon, when fish is scarce. In preparation, they are soaked in water and then usually fried and served with a hot sauce and rice.

Cafrial is a method of preparation, usually used with chicken, in which the meat is marinated in a sauce of chilies, garlic and ginger and then dry-fried. The result is rather dry, but spicy dish.

Breads

Bakers regularly do the rounds of each village in Goa, pushing bicycles laden with fresh bread and either rings a bell or hooting a horn on the handlebars to let the villagers know they’ve arrived. There are several types of local bread. Uned as small round crusty rolls, which are usually served fresh from the bakery, and an ideal alternative to rice when eating, say, a sorpotel. Particularly famous and unique in goa are sanna, which are steamed rolls made with rice flour, ground coconut and coconut toddy, which are ideal to eat with any of the spicy Goan dishes.

Sweets

The most famous Goa’s sweetmeats is bebinca, a wonderful concoction made from layer upon layer of coconut pancakes. Cooking the perfect bebinca is an art form, for not only does the cook have to be timed just right to ensure that all layers are cooked equally, it’ll put inches on you waistline if you develop a taste for it, but it’s not to be missed.

Dodol is another famous Goan sweet, traditionally eaten at Christmas time, and made with rice flour, coconut milk, jaggery and cashew nuts. It is usually cooled in a flat pan and served in slices, and is very sweet. Doce, made with chickpeas and coconut is another favorite.

Drinks

Feni

Undoubtedly Goa’s most famous tripple, double distilled perfectly clear and fearfully potent, this is a drink which deserves respect.

There are two types of feni, both of which are made from local ingredients. Coconut or palm feni is made from the sap drawn from the severed shoots on a coconut tree. In Goa this is known as toddy, and the men who collect it are toddy taper’s. Toddy tappers at work are common sight; crouched in the canopy of the palm tree, they collect the terra-cotta pot, which has filled with creamy white sap, then trim the shoots to facilitate further collection. Tie a new pot over the top, and descend to move into the next tree. Toddy can be collected year-round, and thus palm feni is in plentiful supply at all times.

Cashew or caju feni, on the other hand, can only be made during the cashew season in late March and early April. Cashews are an important crop in Goa and pretty much wherever you travel in early spring you can see them. The cashew apple, when ripe, turns a yellow-orange color and the nut ripens inside it. When the fruit is harvested, the nuts are separated from the ‘apples’, and are laid out to dry in the sun. The apples, meanwhile are place in a pit and trampled by foot to collect the juice. Both palm toddy and caju juice can be drunk fresh immediately after collection and are reputed to be delicious. Left for just a few hours, however, they soon start to ferment.

Having been left to ferment for a day or so, the toddy or caju is distilled for the first time. In typical local stills, the juice is placed in large terra-cotta pot over a wood fire; the vapor exits through a tube, which typically passes through an oil drum filled with water, below which the distillate is collected. This first offering is called uraq, and is of medium strength (10% to 15% proof), making it a pleasant and reasonably alcoholic drink. While a little saved (you can but uraq in the shops) the rest is distilled again to make feni. By the time it comes out of the second distillation, Goa’s national drink has an alcoholic strength of around 30% yo 35% proof.

Although the feni is ready for drinking soon as it has been collected, traditionally it is sealed in huge terra-cotta jars and may be left to mature for anything up to a number of years. Many people enjoy drinking straight feni, but it’s also very pleasant mixed. Uraq goes well with a drink like Limca, while feni tastes great mixed with Coke or Pepsi. Goans are keen to offer advice not to drink it on an empty stomach and mix with other spirits and certainly don’t swim after a couple of fenis. But the best you will hear is ‘you don’t realise how strong it is until you get up’.