Discover Goa Route
The Coronavirus lock down has given me some free time to strike things off my to do list. One of them was to create a route passing through the innards of Goa, exploring some famous and some off-beat places.
The best way to explore Goa is by a two wheeler. Although this route can be driven by car, a motorcycle or scooter would be a better choice. As the crow flies, Goa is just 100 kms tall and 60 kms wide. However, this route is 700 kms long. To put this number into perspective, the length of this route is more than the distance from Goa to Mumbai, Bangalore or Hyderabad. I strongly advise you to ride this route slowly and stop regularly to talk to the locals. You will learn a lot more about Goa and Goans this way. You won’t find anyone in Goa in any particular hurry and neither should you be. You don’t need to do all the 700 kms in one visit to Goa. You can always come back again.
The route starts at the capital city of Panjim, but you can join it from anywhere you like, follow as much as you want in a day and exit whenever you feel like to return to your hotel or find a place to stay wherever you are.
The route takes you along the gorgeous coastline and also deep inside the state towards and up the densely vegetated Western Ghats. As you will see, coastal Goa is very different from interior Goa. This route may not interest first time visitors to Goa since they will be more interested to spend all of their time on or near a beach. But if you have already done the beach thing a few times and want to discover other aspects of Goa, you may find this route interesting.
The route has a number of way points which include beaches, forts, churches, temples, waterfalls, lakes, islands and even mines. There are a few ferry boat crossings as well, which can be pretty interesting.
The best time to ride this route would be during the winter (Oct to Feb). It can get very hot in the summer (Mar to May). Truth be told, I prefer to ride in Goa during the monsoons (Jun to Sep). That’s the time it’s green everywhere and I absolutely love riding in the rain. But that’s just me.
I will keep updating this route as time goes to include more places of interest. I’ve lived in this beautiful state all my life, but I still manage to find a gem every now and then.
Here is all the information you will need.
You can refer to the Google Map to find the way point nearest to you and ask the app to take you there. Then you can look up the next way point, see if it interests you and then ask Google Maps to take you there or skip to the next way point that interests you. I have chosen the way points in such a way that you will end up riding on the smaller inner roads of Goa. So if you skip a way point or two, Google Maps may take you along the main busy roads. Just something to keep in mind.
I also added the GPX and KML files for those who prefer to follow tracks instead of Google Maps. FYI, I use the BikeGPX app on my iPhone to follow tracks.
I would love to hear what you think about the route. If you feel like, please leave your comments below.
