There’s a lot more to Goa than the gorgeous sunny beaches and freewheeling party scene. Our Goa Cycling Tour goes beyond the stereotypes to give you a totally fresh holiday experience of this coastal state in south-western India.
Goa is doubtlessly among the most popular tourist destinations of India, particularly for foreigners who come drawn to its white-sand beaches, incessant parties, music, nightlife, and its uniquely hybrid Portuguese-Konkani culture. Most travellers wander around the beaches, go surfing, hit the bars, get high, trip out at music festivals, and go back with memories of a party-fuelled holiday in Goa.
Yet, there’s a whole new world to explore if you venture beyond the obvious Goa tourist hotspots and go deeper into the rural parts. You come upon farming villages surrounded by paddy fields. You see fishing communities eking out a living from fresh catches from rivers. You pass by old churches and temples of historical and religious significance. You drop by old forts, and – believe it or not – primitive rock engravings going back thousands of years.
ALL THIS AND A LOT MORE ARE ON OFFER IN OUR CYCLING TOUR OF INDIA.
I would even stick my neck out to say that biking is perhaps the best way to explore Goa. To drive around in a motorized vehicle is to pass by the treasures of Goa that hide in plain sight. It’s when you relax and take your time to bike around and appreciate Goa landscape, admire its world-heritage listed architecture at leisure, meet its people, try out its cuisines, wet your whistle on the local brew called Feni, and live it up on its many beaches, that you feel you have truly explored and experienced Goa.
Our Goa biking trip has been designed exclusively for such an all-round holiday. The itinerary takes you not just to the Goa holiday hotspots and places off the beaten track, it gives you a fair share of a biking adventure as well.
Goan landscape is mostly flat, but it does have hillocks and some of them are steep enough to test your pedal power. Our itinerary includes Goa biking trails that cut through an easily navigable flat landscape but also snake up and down the hills. The tour has easy days of cycling, and also days that will leave you in sweat.
The good news is that our <>biking tour of Goa starts off easy. Cavelossim, a coastal village in South Goa, is our first port of call. The village has a quiet beach overlooking the blue Arabian Sea and we can spend a morning taking in the sea breeze and the sun before mounting the saddles for a bike ride through nearby villages and towns of Fartrade, Pedda, Benaulim, Varca, Orlim and Carmona before returning to Cavelossim in the evening. Just listen to these names. Each one has a beautiful Portuguese ring to it.
The biking route runs somewhat parallel to the coast, so that we can take a beach break anytime you feel like. On the following day we take a longer route north to the towns of Colva, Betul Batim, Majorda, Utorda, Cansaulim and even as far as Velsao. Having explored the beach towns and villages in the initial days of the Goa biking adventure, we then take a whole day’s break to lounge around at some of these beaches. The break helps you charge up for the long rides in the days ahead.
The first long ride is to Goa’s capital Panjim (Panaji) located along the banks of the Mandovi river estuary on a spout of landmass jutting out into the Arabian Sea. It has a distinct imprint of the 450 years of Portuguese rule. Because the city has terraced hills and one has to ride up and down the rolling landscape to reach it from south (as we would be doing), cycling to Panaji is quite an adventure to test your biking mettle.
We enter Old Goa and visit some of its many cathedrals, but the highlight clearly is Our Lady Of The Immaculate Conception Church in the heart of Panaji. The church is a beautiful structure with Portuguese Baroque architectural elements. It is painted bright white to signify the Immaculate virgin, Mary, and its location on a hilltop makes it a dominant feature of the Panaji cityscape. We end the long day of cycling by checking into Panaji Residency and then we dine out at one of the best restaurants of Goa.
Next day, our Goa cycling adventure takes you further north along the coast. We first ferry across the Mandovi River to visit the famous Aguada Fort, a simple 17th century fortress built by the Portuguese. We then visit the Anjuna Market to shop souvenirs before crossing the Chapor river to cycle towards Mandrem and the famous Junas Beach, where we overnight at Dunes Beach Resort.
Mandrem is an excellent place to unwind after biking through busy parts of Goa. The beaches here are less crowded and the local brew, Feni, a big rage. But we check our urge until we’ve done some leisure biking in and around Mandrem. We cycle northwards to cross the Tiracol river and visit the Tiracol Fort around lunch time. This is the northernmost extremity of Goa. We lounge around at the fort, now converted into a hotel, before biking back to Mandrem in the evening.
The next day sees us biking all the way back to Cavelossim, the starting point of our Goa cycling holiday. The reason for doing so is to explore the eastern and southern parts of Goa in the days ahead
We set out first to Shri Chandreshwar Bhootnath Temple, which is near Paroda to the east of Cavelossim. The temple attracts thousands of worshipers every year and is located on top of a hill. We brave an uphill slog of 5km to reach the temple. The cyclists have their task cut out here. After the temple stopover, we bike on to Chandor to visit the local attraction called Braganza House, a museum belonging to the once influential Portuguese family. At the end of the day, we return to Cavelossim.
Our biking trip to South Goa begins the next day. We set off with invigorating ride through hills to Cabo De Rama, which, according to Indian mythology, is where Lord Rama and his wife Sita stayed during their exile. The Portuguese built a large fort and prison on this location. We take a picnic lunch at the fort before pressing on to Palolem beach, our destination for the day.
Palolem Beach is a beautiful place to hang out. We may spend here a few morning hours on the next day and then bike out to Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary where we may go out on a nature trail to a treetop watchtower position to see animals coming in for a drink at a waterhole. The best time to watch these animals is at dusk after which we cycle back to Palolem.
The final day is reserved for resting and relaxing around the pristine beaches of Palolem.
The entire biking adventure of Goa is planned to mix cycling challenges with leisurely holiday experiences on the beaches. You ride through plain landscape, you bike over the hills, you cross the rivers (on ferries) and you pass by quaint villages with distinct Portuguese old houses.
From north to south, the entire state of Goa is covered in our special Goa Cycling Trip.
