A First Class Passage To India – Park Hyatt Goa

December 7, 2011 By Meghan Hunter

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Park Hyatt Goa

This is a continuation of our First Class trip to India, a journey where we had Big Travel with Small Money!

Trip Report Index:

Goa is a small state on the western coast of India and a former Portuguese colony. It is famous for good food, good beaches, and a more tranquil pace of living.

We arrived in Goa and after collecting our bags we were greeted by the Park Hyatt Goa staff. They showed us to the hotel bus and soon we were on our way to the hotel.

I had booked the Park Hyatt Goa through a Virtuoso travel agent for ~$200 a night. Virtuoso agents are able to book select hotels at the same price as you would, but they are able to arrange extras such as breakfast, an upgrade, and a few extras.

If you’re looking for a Virtuoso agent, Ben from One Mile at a Time can help you out! If you are paying the regular price for a hotel room, it doesn’t hurt to check if you can get some extra benefits by booking through a Virtuoso agent for the same price.

The regular rate on the Hyatt website was ~$200 night, but didn’t include breakfast (I didn’t have any Hyatt Diamond elite status at the time which would have given me free breakfast). So I found a Virtuoso agent on FlyerTalk and had him book the same room at the same price, but with breakfast, a spa credit, and an upgraded room.

The hotel is built in the style of an Indo-Portugese village.

We checked in at the lobby (after going through the metal detectors) which is quite standard in Indian hotels.

View from the lobby.

We then walked to our room while the hotel staff drove our bags to our room on golf carts.

The hotel was very well landscaped and we felt like we were on vacation.

We passed the back of the front desk.

We finally reached our room.

Our room was pretty spacious with a bathroom 3/4th the size of our room. Someone was pleased. 🙂

Our room had a patio and there were lots of trees when we looked out.

The patio was a bit small, and both Emily and I wouldn’t have been able to sit out at the same time since there was only 1 chair.

There were fresh flowers on the bathroom counter, but otherwise was like a normal bathroom counter.

There was an indoor shower…

…and an outdoor shower.

Soon ~~I was dragged~~ we went to the pool.

The pool was very large and winded around the hotel.

I like Jacuzzis, but not when it is 90 degrees outside! But Emily does, so in I went.

The hotel is right by the beach, so in less than 5 minutes we were on the beach and went for a stroll.

Emily took pictures on the beach.

I found a shack on the beach which served very tasty food for much less than the hotel. Ordering lunch was easy!

Can’t remember what this was, but I know it was spicy and nice.

Since Emily is very allergic to fish, she didn’t join me for lunch. She packed her PB&J and had lunch on the beach. After finishing half her sandwich, she was dismayed to find ants had found the other half.

But the tastiest of all was the Goan prawn curry with rice. Goan curry is very thin with finely grated coconut and spices making up a very delicious curry.

I had a little crab and fried potatoes, which isn’t as bad a combination as it sounds!

Later in the evening we stopped by a fishing boat.

And we watched the beautiful sun set.

Watching the sun fall into the Arabian Sea.

In the morning we tried our hand at archery and repeated the activities above in a different order!

Bottom Line: $200 a night was more than what I like to pay for a hotel room, but since there are not many other options for using points in Goa, I ponied up the cash.

I could have redeemed 15,000 Hyatt points for a night at the Park Hyatt in Goa since it is a category 4 hotel, but I wanted to save my Hyatt points to use at Hyatt hotels where the rates are $800+ a night and which I could never afford otherwise.

The service, like in most Indian hotels, was excellent. Everyone smiled and went out of their way to help out. The chef specially cooked Emily’s food separately since she had a fish allergy. It is the little things like that which make me want to go back to the Park Hyatt Goa.

Emily Jablon: It was very relaxing and I felt removed from everything. Each night, there was entertainment during dinner at the hotel, and we had so much fun dancing and listening to music.

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