🏖️ 5 magical rituals for a perfect holiday in Goa

Last updated Mar 5, 2025

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And for Goa to accept and the magic to happen, the first thing you need to do is let time go

The second thing you will definitely remember is paragliding

The third thing you might like is to rent a bungalow near the ocean

The fourth thing you shouldn’t give up sometimes is to ride a bike with the locals

A holiday in a place like Goa is always special. Service far from luxury, beaches shared with cows and dogs and half-empty apartments with a variety of living creatures will seem like a nice en- tour decoration against the backdrop of the magic that happens around and inside you. Goa either accepts it or it doesn’t – that’s what the regulars say.

And for Goa to accept and the magic to happen, the first thing you need to do is let time go

It's like he's not here. You come to a restaurant on the beach. You wait for a while until the waiter and cook finish their sweet chatter and turn their attention to you. The waiter takes the order and goes to the cook… to continue the conversation from which you tore them away.

The finished dish can be delivered in about two hours if the restaurant is not very busy. And at this moment you can be indignant and say: “No, well, in Turkey…”, or you can relax and accept the rules of the game. It is at this moment, with your growling stomach and amazing sunset, until the huge red sun falls into the ocean in a few minutes, that Goa welcomes you.

The second thing you will definitely remember is paragliding

The plan goes something like this: no plan. In the morning you wake up. You decide to go to Arambol to paraglide, you arrive in the village. And halfway to the goal you accidentally meet a guy:

Girls, where are you going?
Fly on a paraglider.
Great, I just have a paraglider.

And the pleasant stranger turns out to be a professional pilot with his own paraglider.

And then – the flight, and it’s unforgettable! You start running until your feet leave the ground. Run through the air for some time while people are rapidly moving away beneath you: a friend who is waving with one hand and trying to take at least one sensible photo with the other, pilots preparing their paragliders for flight, their future passengers and the endless ocean. This is how it works in Goa when you are on the same wavelength.

The third thing you might like is to rent a bungalow near the ocean

After the flight, you are unlikely to want to leave Arambol, if you did not initially settle here, and return to your hotel. In our case, the house was found in a few minutes, thanks to the same pilot, whose name was Rama. We only paid $10 per night. Rama also turned out to be the lead singer of some group in St. Petersburg. Our night passed to the sound of waves crashing on the coastal rocks, the smell of sandalwood sticks, which we prudently bought at the local market, and improvisation with a guitar.

Dawn was already greeted on the beach with the same blissful local dogs and yogis twisted into the most intricate poses.

There was a restaurant a couple of meters from the bungalow. There we ordered rice with shrimp and coffee. They brought them directly to our room. And quite quickly. It's amazing how in the moment a house with nothing but a bed and a shower can seem like the best place on the planet.

The fourth thing you shouldn’t give up sometimes is to ride a bike with the locals

Yes, it’s so easy to get on a bike, which is already too small, and ride away. The sense of the road that the locals have, the way they deftly navigate narrow streets and warm up with other drivers – this is an innate talent. Perhaps this acquaintance will stay with you for many years and turn into an international friendship with trips to visit each other and an invitation to an Indian wedding. But that's a completely different story.

Locals will help you get to know the national cuisine better and get the best price for jewelry and silk stoles on the local market. And they will also teach you how to do this characteristic Indian people swinging your head from side to side. They even have their own equipment! With them you can take a ride through the best cafes of the villages, which are known only to “their own”, and get to old Goa, where the luxury of majestic castles and temples contrasts with the homeless sleeping on cardboard.

The fifth thing to do is go to a disco

When you get bored with the cacophony of open-air parties that spill out every evening from almost all beach restaurants, head to a nightclub. This is where you can feel the atmosphere of a Bollywood movie. Indian songs and dances are mixed with world pop culture hits, and you play the leading role. There will really be a lot of attention. Light skin is considered beautiful.

I didn’t want the attention of our company, but I really wanted to dance and relax. So we went to a disco when some friends from the northern part of India came to visit us.

The trip to Goa left so many memories and such deep impressions. At first it was even difficult to explain what exactly I liked. At some point I even wanted to tear up my return ticket and stay. There was such unity with nature and the power of the ocean that it seemed as if the world stopped in those moments. If the goal of your trip is to gain invaluable experience and expand the boundaries of consciousness, then Goa is one of the most suitable places for this.