The Hotel Mandovi Maruti — Hotel in Goa Island

My desire to explore the lesser known side of Goa took me to this temple. Just adjacent to the busy city of Panji lies the मळें town which still has the old world feeling. Narrow lanes with typical old style serial Goan houses crowded by the roadside might have you stuck in traffic during the wee hours, yet you'll not be bored to see the town still living in its own exuberant splendor. Overlooking the town is the Altino hillock which houses this grand temple. Since the Government has sadly not bothered to publicise this temple, most tourists dont know about it. I too chanced upon a serendipitous glimpse of it while commuting around Fontainhas for a casual photowalk. At the first glance i was very much tempted to visit it .Since it lies at the hillside, you got to climb around 3 sets of stairs amounting to 70-80 total, to reach the main shrine, so it may not be favourable for the elderly if unfit(although there's a road from Altino directly bypassing the stairs). On reaching the top, you can get spectacular views of the entire Panji city right upto the Bamboli plateau and the cable bridge of Atal Setu. Despite the lack of visitors(which is obvious given the Government's apathy for temples in Goa) it has been really well maintained by the locals of temple committe, run on donations made by locals and rarely tourists. The surrounding area is lush green semi forested terrain with an amazing variety of birds chirping melodies that can only make you fall in love with this place! The temple has a unique architecture although no carvings it has decoratives like a couple of wheels in a wall and also has a pagoda type hall(mandap) where various classes/competitions are held for local children. The priest is friendly and will tell you about the temple and the places around it. It is best to take bath and embark on a trek to this hill temple early in the morning( by 7am) and seek blessings of the presiding deity, Lord Hanuman besides enjoying the lovely scenes and birds. You can either choose to walk around the premises or simply sit inside the temple with your eyes closed and meditate which can feel very rejuvenating amidst the rewarding silence of the place. I was disappointed to know that the Government has done nothing for this beautiful temple, except for installing lights at the roadside while they spend crores of rupees on other structures. Frankly speaking it is much better than any of the churches or places they advertise on the Government tours i have been on! Id love to visit it again for the local festival on the 4th of February this year. Much...

So we were on a family vacation to Goa and we got a great deal from make my trip and hence we booked this hotel. Coming to the hotel it is located facing the Mandovi river and you get really nice and stunning views of the Mandovi river in the morning and evening.

Coming to the rooms the rooms were neatly arranged and super clean. The rooms were designed in traditional architecture but they do look super good. The best part is that the entire hotel is centralized A/C so the temperature remains the same throughout no matter what and that makes it even more comfortable.

They also included breakfast as complimentary with the package. And the breakfast was really sumptuous. It included south Indian foodstuffs such as Idli and chatni to North Indian foodstuffs such as the chole bhature. The also had cream cake as breakfast during our stay and the cake was super delicious. They also serve freshly cut fruits, fruit juices, and omelet or boiled eggs if you need. The dining hall is huge and nicely decorated.

All in all the hotel is superb if you want to experience what is living in a luxury hotel and that too without burning a hole in your pocket. Regarding the tourist spots, you have plenty of casinos around the hotel especially the floating ones if you are interested to gamble a bit of your money. Superb experience and truly one of the Finest...

Peaceful temple..... Very clean and there is a calm vibe in the temple premises. We visited the temple in January. The weather was nice. The temple was easy to find. Though don't expect wide roads. I don't think the temple is as famous as other places in goa. But you should give it a shot if you're visiting panjim. Infrastructure wise , the temple is quite big , all orange and is situated on a hill. Its not an ancient temple.There is no wheelchair accessible entrance. There is no designated parking place. The priest was very kind. The place was not at all crowdy. In fact me and five other friends of mine were the only visitors there. Other than that, the temple has a big open space, which was supposed to be for any big event. To our surprise, the open space was used as a place to teach martial arts, judo or karate maybe. If you visit the temple in the evening and you are lucky enough like us, you might find cute little children learning martial arts, which is kind of cute and fun to watch for a while. The temple even gives a wonderful view of the city panjim because of the slightly elevated location. Not a place where you may spend too much of your time. You can just visit the temple while roaming around residential area of panjim and you may find some homes of old goan...