Kamat Holiday Homes, Calangute > Reviews > Just right for a certain type of traveller.

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Good
Quality of Rooms	Average
Standard of Service	Excellent
Cleanliness	Good
Quality of Facilities	Good

Advantages:	Lovely staff, 2 swimming pools, free gym, great evening food and close to both shops and beach .
Disadvantages:	Basic furniture, noisy air - conditioning units, poor breakfasts and quite busy area .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Desperate for a warm holiday, booking last minute and needing a bargain - my partner and I settled for a B&B deal at the Kamat complex in Calangute.

Neither of us had been to India before and to be honest we expected the worst of our hotel - but from the moment our maniac taxi driver set us down outside, we loved it. It's not a hotel I would recommend unreservedly (many of the things that we found endearing, might well drive someone of different sensibilities quite mad).

If your idea of the perfect hotel is something secreted away from the locals, where you can while away hours surrounded by European style furnishings with only the gentle hum of the aircon to disturb you - you'll be disappointed. (The aircon is there - just don't expect a gentle hum!)

And if you insist on a nice English fry-up in the morning you'll be REALLY disappointed. For although the dinner menu is delicious (and served outdoors on the poolside patio) the guys at the Kamat really haven't mastered English brekkie yet. It would be better if they served Goan style breakfasts instead but in a desperate bid to please the tourists they serve up the same soggy toast, eggs and fatty bacon day after day. But there are plenty of opportunites to stuff yourself with great Goan food (and even traditional English fare) throughout Calangute - so you're unlikely to feel that hard done-by.

The Kamat homes are situated in a busy side street in amongst Goan homes, tiny but busy shops, a mini coconut plantation and a primary school. If you're the type of holiday-maker who would relish sitting on your balcony absorbing a slice of Goan life - listening to children reciting their prayers in the playground, watching with awe as women walk elegantly by balancing the most enormous loads on their heads, laughing at the cows begging food from the restaurants and generally watching people go about their day-to-day life - then you'll love it.

The furniture is pretty basic with moderately hard beds and no sofas, but there are plenty of chairs so just pop your feet up on the coffee table as you skip through the Indian Satellite channels. The rooms were both spotless and spacious with an unexpectedly large kitchen area and a balcony equipped with tables and chairs.

The staff are lovely, from the security guards who insisted on waving and saluting as we walked by, to the receptionists who offered to have their own sofa carried up to our room to make us feel more at home (we declined).

As soon as you step outside of the hotel you'll be greeted by the loud hails of taxi drivers offering to take you to the temples, waterfalls, spicefarms, beaches and anywhere else that has offered them a commission for dropping you off. Just check out your travel guide beforehand, be firm about where you want to go and fix a price before you leave (not forgetting to barter) and you'll find these tiny white minivans to be a godsend.

And make the most of that driver who will undoubtedly adopt you for the whole of your stay, ferrying you around and waiting all day just to drop you home again - all for around £15 a day. It'll be worth it, there are many gorgeous beaches both north and south of Calangute not to mention temples, churches, markets and those ubiquitous spice farms.

Calangute beach itself is beautiful but busy - though it's not hard to wander to either end where the beach bars are quieter and you're less likely to get hassled by the beach sellers ("Hello pale milky lady, you look at my cheap cr&p? Cheap as chips!" I kid you not).

And you definitely can't be a snob about mixing with other tourists. Calangute is tourist-central, the whole place is geared up for those non-monsoon months of the year when the English, Russians, Scandinavians and Israelis arrive with their bulging purses. So just accept that you're a tourist, don't look too closely at the dutch guy in the lime green thong by the pool, make sure you arrange a few day trips (the Kamat is perfectly placed) and you'll be fine.

Just be aware when booking that some of the apartments are sited around the main pool and patio, which can get pretty noisy on the evenings when the hotel hires in local music talent.

Final impressions of the Kamat? Cheap accomodation, eager staff, clean rooms, traipsing red dust onto our white bath mat, watching the world pass below our balcony, eating dinner round the pool - and forgiving them their poor breafkasts and noisy aircon because it was all a very real part of a truly endearing experience. ...and yes we would go back.