28 Apr 2017  |   12:58am IST

Are your bags packed and ready to go?

With holiday season being on in full swing, Café looks into what the general perception is of where Goans like to go, and what they like to do

Fernando Monte da Silva

It’s the month of April, which means that it’s generally holiday season for all practical purposes. Much like Christmas is the season to be jolly, summer vacation is the time to pack those bags and head off into infinity and perhaps beyond. But this begs the question of where most Goans like to go, and what they like to do. For a large chunk of the rest of the country, the answer is usually “Let’s go to Goa.” However, when you’re already in the main vacation spot, where do you leave for?

Atish Fernandes of First Class Holidays has views that range from personal to professional on this front, and believes, “People who have the means travel internationally, but it is a very common trend for many Goans to travel within the state itself, and make, for instance, a waterfall excursion their plan. Others will travel to the nearest metropolitan city. The hot favourites on the international front include Dubai and Thailand, and people are increasingly looking into neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka and Bhutan. A very recent trend is the exploration of Eastern Europe and countries like Greece, which are more economical, and also offer better returns in terms of travellers getting better deals on hotels as opposed to Western Europe. The latter is a place where people usually tend to go when visiting family members in say the UK or France, or if they have a place to stay, and so on.”

Intrepid traveller and avid couch-surfer Jonathan Dias has a few observations on this front as well. “The older generation doesn't experiment too much, visiting popular places in West Europe and few countries in Southeast Asia such as Thailand and Singapore; and some go to New Zealand. The key driving factor for them is having family/friends living there. The younger generation’s travel pattern can be analysed in small groups, much like the rest of India (except the Gujaratis that travel as a state). The younger generation also experiments a bit with destinations like Eastern Europe and lesser visited Southeast Asia like Vietnam and Cambodia. Families indulge more in cultural visits, while couples or individuals tend to veer towards adventure and stuff that's more experiential. And I almost forgot Dubai…Goans love Dubai,” he highlights.

So where are you headed to this summer? What great series of mad adventures await you? Will they redefine the stereotypical Goan holiday, or will it just be more of the same old same old?