Goa India For Sunburn and NYE

So over NYE and Christmas I headed over to India with some traveling friends for the famous Sunburn festival.

Accommodation for Sunburn Festival

We stayed here : http://www.prazeresresorts.com/Home_Pr.html , the room rate was 4000 Ruppees a night which is quite expensive for India. The resort does have a pool, and moved us into a appartment for 4 people with a balcony overlooking the pool which was good. It was also a 10 minute walk to the beach and festival! After Suburn, in true Indian style , we battered them down to 3000 Ruppees a night over New Years Eve which wasn’t bad at all over the peakest season in Goa!

There looked like lots of places around Candolim for accommodation , however best to organize first during peak times!

Sunburn Festival

Tikets

I purchased my tickets online after the first pre sale via the offical ticket reseller bookmyshow.com on 17/10/2011. Another friend purchased her ticket on November. We found when we arrived in Goa the tickets where still on sale right up to the day and during the festival but the website was falling over daily! You could buy day tickets to each of the other days. One thing to note, you need to collect your tickets on the first day with ID, ( a credit card proving your name on the booking). They don’t check if it’s the credit card you booked with online, so it can be any and make sure you have it on your first day otherwise you won’t be allowed in!

Starting Times

On the first day, the festival was supposed to start at 4pm. We arrived at 5pm and the festival was pretty dead. There was no beer or spirits available , caused by the trucks waiting outside and the correct people in the police to be bribed! We left for the beach and had dinner in a nearby beach bar with music. The festival really didn’t start until 8pm which is a shame considering it finishes at 10pm!

The next two days the festival was scheduled to start at 4pm/12pm again respectively , and it was much busier than the day before.

After Parties

Unfortunely due to licensing laws, the festival only goes on till 10pm everyday. After this the whole of Candolim gets flooded with traffic and the time to travel anywhere north or south of the coast doubles as well as the price

A few after parties we checked out :

Candolim

Club Cubana

Costs : 1500 Rupees for a couple or 1000 Rupees per person. It cost 3 of us 700 Rupees in a taxi from the Suburn Exit

They call this the Night club in the Sky as it’s right on the top of a hill in Arpora. The club is mainly outside and boasts a swimming pool, lots of outdoor seating and a bar. The only inside bit is the dance floor which plays a range of club hits. The entry does include free drinks throughout the night

Butter

Cost : Free for Suburn Festival VIP wrist band , otherwise 2000 Rupees

Suburn have their offical “After Dark” parties which tool place in this club from 10.30 pm until 5 am. The benefit of this, is it’s about a 20 minute walk from the Sunburn exit

Baga

One night we ventured to Baga beach after a tip off from some locals , cost of this was 600 Rupees in a Taxi and took 20 minutes

Tito’s in Goa charged 1500 Rupees per person. The whole islands surrounded is flyered with bill boards for a place!

We found this place with was also adjoined with Cafe Mambo , costs for this was 800 Rupees per person

We then found a place with free entry called : Cape Town Cafe. It was more of a bar then a club however there was a good dance floor inside and outside was really busy

Ajuna Beach

After staying here on Christmas Day and boxing day, we knew most of the bars on this stretch. However this was still a popular spot to go after the festival

There was UV bar which was hosting a 5 day non stop party throughout Sunburn. The music in this bar was pretty intense and entry was 500 Rupees!

The rest of the bars on the Anjuna beach front where free and had different price drinks. These weren’t policed though, so you could take your drink from any of the bars, a few favorites where http://www.cafelilliput.com and a bar called Hippies. There is also a famous bar called Curlies , however I did not have time to visit!

During the second day of Sunburn due to the 4pm start , we rented scooters and headed to Arambol beech, This took about an hour to get there from Candolim , but was a really good ride with amazing views. I would of really liked to stay here , the beach , people and general vipe seemed a nice relaxing place to stay.