Royal Goan Beach Club

We stayed at this Australian managed timeshare resort with our teenage daughter and none of us wanted to leave! 40 apartments are located in three storey buildings all overlooking a wonderful, warm, outdoor pool. The smaller apartments are on the ground floor with 2-bed ones above. Our 2-bed had a spacious lounge/diner with partial kitchen (no microwave, washing machine or oven) and a bathroom on the 1st storey of the block and two good bedrooms and a 2nd bathroom on the floor above. Separate air conditioning units serve the living room and bedrooms and worked well. There is a good multi-cuisine restaurant on site called China Beach which offered table meals in the evenings (main courses £2-£3) and room or poolside snack and meal service from breakfast to dinner. We also ate at Joecons Restaurant just outside which we enjoyed even more and strongly recommend. The pool has a swim-up Hollywood style bar and you can also sit on the other side of it on dry land! A small shop is open on site 7am - 11pm providing most basic needs. Staff were all friendly and keen to help. When my wife needed a doctor to treat food-poisoning (caused by food eaten before we arrived here) the receptionist arranged for one to call. He was there in 30 minutes, brought 3 drugs with him collected from a pharmacy on the way, spent half an hour examining and reassuring my wife, and charged us the equivalent of £10 including the medication! What a bargain! A couple of small negatives: the furniture and decor in the apartments is a little tired. The only way to get to other places in Goa is by hiring a car or scooter or one of the taxis lined up outside. Tip: We recommend a tour by taxi organised by the resort to the Madrasser waterfalls (2nd highest in India) and the Spice Farm. To get to the waterfalls you change to a Jeep for the last bit through a National Park with wild monkeys. Local entrepeneurs try to sell you bunches of bananas to feed the monkeys, as you get out of the taxi into the jeep. DON'T buy them! When you reach the entrance to the National Park officials confiscate them and there are lots of notices telling you that feeding animals is prohibited. These monkeys are quite capable of finding food in the wild without human help.