Place to Stay in Goa – Grand Hyatt – Part 2

 

Continued from the previous post “Place to Stay in Goa – Grand Hyatt – Part 1”

 

The hotel offers innovative speciality restaurants

Chulha: An informal, fun, local India “Home Style” food restaurant that serves a selection of tandoor- grilled meats, seafood and vegetables prepared live to perfection and served in clay pots and copper pans. It also offers signature Goan cuisine.

• Lunch: 12:30 PM to 3:30 PM
• Dinner: 7:00 PM to 12:00 AM

 

 

Verandah: It is one of Goa’s best seafood restaurants and offers a special menu crafted by culinary experts. The restaurant presents freshest of ingredients and perfect cooking methods to dish out signature meals that have international flair and local appeal. The head chef of Verandah, Rupesh Adfadkar, took great care of us and personally overlooked the food that was being served. We have our dinner at the Verandah couple of times and would recommend the following dishes to try out:

Peanut crusted Basa, Chicken Schnitzel, Shellfish Cappuccino, Betel leaves coconut chicken (starter) and Goan fenny spiked cake

• open for dinner only – from 7:00 PM to 12:00 AM

 

 

The Dining Room: It is an interactive buffet restaurant open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The restaurant serves buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner with ala-carte lunch in a contemporary setting. The restaurant also offers the visitors a varied choice of South East Asian, Italian, Indian and Middle Eastern cuisines. Special thanks to Narasinh Kamath, head chef of “The dining room” for supervising the food that was being served to our little one. It was the first time we were giving her outside food and it was assuring to see the staff taking extra care to ensure that we had a great stay.

• Breakfast: 7:00 AM – 11:00 AM
• Lunch: 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
• Dinner: 7:00 PM – 11:30 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Capiz Bar: Names after the shells found on the shores of the bay, the Capiz Bar is a versatile retreat and the ideal place to start the evening with sundowners. Capiz Bar features bar and lounge seating, a large outdoor terrace with a sunken lounge and booth seats for guests to relax.

Capiz shells found by the hotel bay are featured stylishly throughout the bar. The bar provides a perfect setting for an early evening to late night meeting place, with music in the background and signature cocktails and mocktails to sip on. You can also treat yourself with chilled beers and glass of wine.

• Hours: 4:00 PM to late night

 

Pool Bar and Grill:

The Pool Bar and Grill as the name suggests, caters to the guests who are relaxing around the pool area. The bar is a very short walk of about 50m from the beach and thus caters to the tourists who would like to grab couple of drinks and laze on the sun beds by the bay. The outlet also serves some quick bites like grilled dishes, fresh salad, sandwiched and ice creams.

•  Hours: 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM
• Food service would start from 10:00 AM only
• The pool bar and grill is closed during the monsoon season i.e. from June to September. 

 

 

 

 

Confeitaria: It is the hotel’s patisserie, serving home-made bakery items, pastries, cakes and speciality coffees and teas throughout the day.  It also serves guests with speciality coffee, tea and 3 dimensional cakes.

 

 

Activities in the Resort

The resort is fully equipped to keep you occupied and in good shape during your stay. The resort features indoor and outdoor swimming pools and a kids pool facing the Bambolim bay. The swimming pool is operational from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM

 

 

 

The resort has a fully equipped gym with an instructor. I tried out the gym once during our stay and had a great work out. The equipments are maintained very well and are in top condition.The fitness centre would be open from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM.

 

You can also book an appointment in “Shamana” spa and have a relaxing massage. The Spa offers South-East Asian and Ayurveda treatments with a contemporary approach. I opted for a Balinese massage ( a deep tissue massage) and the session was very refreshing – a much needed session after running around my toddler for 3 days in the resort. The spa also includes a beauty salon, whirlpools, sauna, steam and plunge pools. The Spa would be open from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM.

If you are a person who is looking out for activities they have “Aquasail” center which is dedicated for adventure sports. The offer activities like Sailing (one of their key offerings), rock climbing, hiring a bike to explore the resort, archery and other activities. The one activity that I was really looking forward was Sailing in their top of the line fleet. Unfortunately, could not book a slot for myself this time around, but would definitely want to come back some day and try it out

 

 

 

 

The beach

If at all there is something that you would be disappointed during your stay at this wonderful resort is – the beach. Goa is know for its beautiful sandy beaches and if you are expecting one at “The Grand Hyatt” – you are in for a surprise. The resort is located on a bay and thus the waters are very calm here – which is ideal for sports activities. But the coastline practically does not have any sand and is full of sharp sea shells which makes walking barefoot a bit irritating and painful.

If you are with kids and are planning to have a great time building sand castles, be prepared to be doing that in a small patch of sand (which is not very inviting).

 

 

Can’t hold the resort accountable for this as “Mother nature” has the final call on these things. To their credit the resort have a walkway inside the resort parallel to the beach and it is a very pleasant walk along this stretch. There are many sunbeds placed along this pathway and you can enjoy the view of Bambolim bay from the comforts of your sun-bed.

 

 

 

 

 

I usually rate my stay based on the feeling that I get while checking out. Usually I give a hotel a 5-star rating when I feel bad while checking out. Hyatt is one such resort which welcomed us with open arms, took care of us and ensured that we have great memories of our first Goa trip with our daughter. I will definitely recommend this resort and would be coming back for sure.

 

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