Where to stay in Goa. Gosh, that terrible question where you are scanning through a hundred places and trying to find a good deal along with being extremely skeptical as to whether the property will look the same as you’re seeing it online! Believe me I have done this way too many times and 10 years to doing this, I was getting a little tired of being disappointed. To be honest, in our hay days, we didn’t mind. We were young, we were mostly out there on the beach and only came back to crash. But as I crossed over {to the 30s and the other side of roughing it out} I realized how painful it is to take a holiday and voluntarily suffer.

We’ve always been budget travelers- unless we pre-decide to splurge- and we travel super light and we are known to pull out some crazy numbers as a personal record while traveling which often became the joy of our frugal life. And like I said, when you are young, the whole idea of roughing it out really appeals to you. Not that we couldn’t afford or have a luxurious stay but in the vanity to make our stay a one of its kind, memorable one, we always took risks. And often than not, it used to be a big blob of compromise where I am perpetually cribbing.

Age I tell you is a great thing and it makes you wise! If you plan out a little in advance, in the same amount of money or little extra, you can make your stay infinitely better and it can be just as memorable as suffering in a terrible room. I figured this pretty late in life that there is no prize for suffering- let alone in your travels!
So if you are asking yourself “where to stay in Goa” today, allow me the liberty of suggesting Oyo Home which can make your stay truly memorable sans the shudders! And its totally in your budget.

What’s so great about an OyoHome?

Well, to begin with, the feeling of familiarity in a fairly unfamiliar city is unbeatable. Oyo Homes unlike rooms are fully furnished apartments that offers you the comfort of home stays sans any sort of compromise. Replete with a fully functional kitchen, hot water, water purifiers, fridge and air-conditioners in all rooms- an Oyo Home is truly like living in your own home, just the way you want to. I absolutely loved how it felt like home from the minute we stepped in!

The second thing that checked massive with me was the freedom it offered to do so much under a roof: Stay together in one space if you are in a larger group, sleep wherever you want, chill, feel at home as you make a local meal or two in your kitchen and jam in the balcony when you want to. There are absolutely no rules! But this is not the end.

The third and the best thing about an Oyo Home is that you get all the services of housekeeping- which means even if you cook, you don’t have to do the dishes or change the towels! The housekeeping guys magically redo the space every day and you can choose a comfortable timing for them to do that! We used to ask them to do our apartment up at about 3 so we could come home to a pretty place post lunch and beers! It’s really like having a home in a different city where you are spoilt rotten!

Clearly, we loved the answer to where to stay in Goa

In the beginning of March, we took a small trip to Goa {a wedding and all} and chose an Oyo Home as our nest for 4 days and we came back leaving a piece of our heart in that gorgeous little apartment- it almost felt like leaving home! And if you know me well, you’ll know what that means to me.

You know, funny part is, I have been to Goa some 10 times in the last 10 years? But I’ve never felt this nostalgic about leaving Goa and coming home before. That (not so little) apartment was so cozy, so hyggeligt, so “mine” that I didn’t quite realize that it was not my home. Wake up at your own time, have a cup of coffee wherever you please {oh they had three beautiful balconies- one with a hammock in the living room, a pretty sun room with a trunk full of books and a slice of balcony outside the kitchen with a few chairs overlooking a little orchard} and then go out for a walk/ride. Meanwhile, your house keeping would come and toss the already tossed bedsheets to its proper place, fill my coffee deck with coffee, fill up water in the water purifier, air the place out and sweep the room and leave the place just as I found it. In the evening when I used to return, I used to always feel like I returned home and not just a place I am boarding for a few days. And an entire apartment for 4 days, for 4 people ran upto 23000 which is roughly 6000 per head/4 days. Not a bad deal eh?

Clearly within the next few days, the duvets were casually placed on the sofa, cushions moved to the hammock, more kinds of coffee and a bowl of Chicken Caffreal was made and some book was read, though I couldn’t go beyond 2 pages- I am a horribly slow reader. When Oyo Rooms and I talked about this integration they asked me to use the hashtag #StayYourWay in the communications. I didn’t think it’ll come this naturally to me, because well, I just naturally turned the whole place into one big trumatter’s home no.2. And I have never felt this good about staying anywhere.

But is Oyo any good? We’ve heard horror stories

Now I am aware of a few of you having hiccups with OyoRooms, and you all told me so, and I appreciate it. And I am sure you’ve read horror stories about Oyo not helping out. But I on the other hand have stayed in Oyo in Goa before and I have always had great deals and great stays. Believe me, because if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have opted to tell you all, talk about this in my blog, which is really the most sacred place on earth for me. Yes, I do value integrations but not at the cost of your happiness and believe me when I tell you, Oyo Homes are quite nice! There is a “Captain” assigned to you as you book an Oyo Home who helps you with directions and also guides you as you arrive. You can call your captain for any grievance so you have help at hand and you are not left at the mercy of customer care sitting somewhere else.

The housekeeping is safe and sound and makes sure everything is spic and span. We had a puddle of water in our bathroom which they immediately sorted it next morning, as we told our captain of the same.

So if you are being led by your Oyo Room experience, I’d request you to not let your past experiences cloud your thoughts. Try it out.

Leaving you out with a little to ponder this Monday. I know there will be summer vacations and you’ll think of a nice family vacation and I would love for you to check this out. I’ll do a part 2 with all the photo details of the OyoHome we stayed in, in Goa so you could make better stay decisions, when you ask yourself “where to stay in goa” because bruv, we are already 1300 words strong.

Alright. Off now.
Rukmini

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