After several days staying at the wonderful Joe Cons Beach Resort in Benaulim, Goa, we left most of our luggage at their front desk and rented some motorbikes to cruise down the coast. With only a backpack, we returned to our budget travel methods and decided to pick places to stay only after our arrival.

Some of the highways we were on had too many cars and trucks for our liking, but luckily it was for only short stretches. The first beach we arrived at was Agonda beach, where we spent the day relaxing on the sand and beach-front restaurants before finding a beach shack to sleep in that night.

This being India, of course there were cows on the beach. The beach shacks we stayed in were very basic and very cheap (about $10 per night). There wasn’t much to them – basically a bed and shower (cold water only), but you couldn’t beat the location just steps from the ocean.

The next day we went straight into the ocean from our bed and packed up our things to get back on the road. We drove south to a beach called Patnem, which was very quiet and had some vendors and beach chairs.

There was only one very big hotel near here, so we headed a little north to Palolem beach, which has significantly more options for accommodation, eating and entertainment.

We posted up for some drinks at sunset and asked around for places to stay. Once again we found a nice beach shack for about $10 per night.

Here’s a brief recap of the Goa leg of our India trip.

The first pic shows our quick flight from Mumbai to Goa, while the next pic is an enlarged route of our travels just in the state of Goa. We stayed four nights at Joe Cons Beach Resort in Benaulim beach before renting motorbikes to drive south where we stayed one night in Agonda beach followed by two nights in Palolem. After this, we drove back to Joe Cons to pick up our luggage and drop off our motorbikes. This would begin the very long journey back to the States, which would involved four connecting flights and over thirty-five hours of travel.

I had an amazing two months in this wonderful country and realize that there is so much more to see.