Goa tours are tailored for people of different needs and preferences. Consult travel agents who will help you find out the most convenient flights to Goa, the cheapest or the most expensive Goa cruise packages, or Goa tours specially designed for families or for just married to spend their honeymoon.
What Goa tours may look like? I will not talk about hotels and cruise packages as it is travel agents' business. I prefer to describe Goa tours from the point of a holidaymaker who is going to Goa for the first time. I will point out some Goa beaches without which Goa will not be Goa, churches, a gift of Portuguese culture, Goa annual festival, and Goa towns. If you are interested in such things then follow me.
It is not a secret that the majority holidaymakers who have decided on Goa tours place their decision on Goa beaches. There are abundant of them. For example, Calangute, Baga, and Chapora have a great beach, lots of people, loungers, interesting beach front eating shacks and during the season (November to April),music and dancing. Quieter beaches are Anjuna, Chapora, Arambol and Vagator, with Benaulim, a near deserted paradise falling somewhere in between.
The entire offshore stretch from Calangute to Baga is dotted with a quaint assortment of hotels and eating-places. The ambience ranges from old-style Portuguese to modern and is part of the unique charm of Goa.
Calangute's heyday as the Mecca of all expatriate hippies has passed and it has undergone a metamorphosis to become the centre of Goa's rapidly expanding package tourist industry. It isn't one of the best Goan beaches, but there's plenty going on and people who find some of the other beaches too quiet may find Calangute more to their liking.
The beach at Baga is for those who wanting calm and repose. The landscape is more interesting. The estuary at the end of the Baga beach is particularly beautiful and the river is ideal for inexperienced swimmers.
An unspoilt tranquility marks Anjuna and Vagator. Anjuna, once the haunt of the flower children - fugitives from Western civilisation - still retains memories of those carefree days. Famous throughout Goa for its Wednesday flea market, this is the beach that everyone went to during the flower power era of the hippies. Anjuna is different things to different people. The only way to find out is to go there and find out on your own. Full moon is the time when the parties take place. Unlike Calangute, the place has retained its charm.Take great care of your possessions in Anjuna, particularly on party nights, as theft is a big problem.
As I have already said churches appeared in Goa thanks to Portuguese. Among the churches and cathedrals built in Goa you will find Basicila of Bom Jesus, Se Cathedral, Church of St. Catejan, Church of St. Augustine, Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, and others.
The Goa Carnival celebrated on the three days just before Lent, is also an integral part of the Portuguese heritage of the state that was a dominion of Portugal till 1961. The carnival epitomises the fun-loving culture characteristic of Goa. It was introduced by the erstwhile rulers as a rowdy celebration in which flour, eggs, oranges, lemons, mud, sand-filled gloves along with dirty water, various liquids and glue were aimed at passersby. Used pots, pans and other kitchen utensils were also thrown out of windows. Perhaps this was done to discard the old and the dirty before the Lent fast. Fierce battles were waged in the streets with plaster-of-paris eggs, wax lemons, corn cobs etc.
For those who not lucky to plan their Goa tours for the time when Goa carnival takes place Goa towns - Panaji, Mapusa, Vasco da Gamma, and Margao- offer their attractions.