Cruise on the Mandovi river - One of the popular tourist activity in Goa

Taking a cruise on Mandovi river and experiencing the dynamic city Panajim by water is considered as one of the must do thing in Goa. Although options available during Monsoons are comparatively lesser. But still we thought of taking a cruise on Santa Monica, which is managed by Goa Tourism Department. This Photo Journey shares some moments from this cruise experience and more details on various options available in and around Goa.

The Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) runs a variety of river cruises on the Mandovi river during daytime, sunset and moonlight. There are two types of day cruises which start from the Panaji jetty, down the Mandovi into the Zuari bay and up the Mandovi to Aldona and a mineral water spring. There are few private firms who also offer a variety of imaginative cruises or boat tours for sunset views as well as for crocodile or dolphin spotting. but we found is hard to identify these options during monsoons. Many of the folks gave us the reason that it's risky during monsoons to go deep into the sea, while we noticed many of the fishermen boats at a distance. Most probably, it's related to business reasons & low tourist inflow during monsoons.

We opted for evening cruise from Goa Tourism office which is near to Mandovi river bridge which connects North Goa to it's southern part & Panjim. Santa Monica is considered as a pride of Goa Tourism Development. This is used for daily evening cruises on river Mandovi with 'live' cultural programs performed by the best cultural troupes of Goa. Usually one cruise duration is 1 to 1.5 hrs and it takes multiple rounds in evening. Ticket was 200 Rs per person which quite cheap. Santa Monica has huge capacity so Goa Tourist makes enough money. And don't miss the video of a gentleman dancing at the cruise :) . It's placed in the bottom of this post.

 
At any point of time Santa Monica can accommodate approximately 200 guests. Inside the cruise, there is usually a bar counter which also serves very basic snacks, but not very exciting affair. very badly managed and crowd makes it worse. So we didn't even try to go near it. And fortunately it was just one hour. Santa Monica is also available for special parties on hourly basis and it seems, many folks book it for weddings as well. The Santa Monica cruise is the most attractive entertainment with live Goan Cultural Show and music on board. We loved this the most. There were some Goan performances by very sweet performers on the cruise. These performances keep you busy most of the time and you need to put efforts in taking out your attention & view other things around the river.

As ride starts, it moves across the riverside with beautiful views of Panjim town. Then it moves towards the other and goes deep into the river. Various ships and steamers come on the way and many of the ships are used for local transportation. Many folks use these ships to cross river with their vehicles.

There are different types of cruises available in Goa. Sunset Cruise one of the famous one which departs at 6.00 pm for one hour. The other one which starts at 7:15pm is known as Sundown Cruise. There is a special cruise called as Full Moon Cruise, which starts at 8:30pm & it's for 2 hours.   

 

'Dolphin Fantasy Cruise' sounds very interesting :) . This cruise is only available on Mondays, during mornings. I guess, for 2 hours. Idea is to watch the dark graceful water beauties in a playful mood and the rhythmic dance of love - yes we are talking about Dolphins in Goa. This cruise helps in sighting closely the head lands jutting out into the sea, the Raj Bhavan, Aguada Fort & Reis Magos. 

There is another cruise offered by Goa Tourism - 'Pearl of the Orient'. I loved these names :) ... This is an interesting cruise with walking experience which helps in exploring natural & cultural heritage by visiting World Heritage Monuments at old Goa. We were not aware of this option when we visited Goa, otherwise this would have been our first option. This happens only during Saturdays and timings are from 9:30am to 1pm.

 

If you want to experience Backwater Thrills cruise, plan your visit between Tuesday & Friday. Weekenders would miss this. This starts at 9:30am and ends at 4pm. It's about cruising along the riverine tip of Islands of Chorao, Divar, Old Goa. This cruise is very interesting for endless sights and sounds of Mandovi’s thick mangroves. Cruise offers the experience of typical Goan cuisine served in earthen pots and banana leaf. It seems that Goa tourism also arranges special cruises for longer periods of time. Panaji jetty ticket counter is best place to find out more details about cruise options in Goa.

Cruising around Goa is a fun activity and Goa Tourism department really does a very good job in managing these cruises very well with great flavor of goan culture and music. It's real fun to enjoy goan music on cruise with awesome performers. Most of the times, they also play music for guests, if they want to dance in the middle of the river :). 

If you plan for the cruise in Goa, be prepared for the long waiting queues and I am sure that wait would be more during the season. But it's all worthwhile.