The beautiful country of Goa in south west India, is many people’s idea of an idyllic holiday. Sun drenched, palm fringed beaches of wonderful white sands looking out over the Arabian sea, and a warm welcome, what could be better.

Goa is a great place to visit, and can make a pleasant and relaxing change from the faster paced harder lifestyle that can be found in India. There are a number of well known resorts here such as Calangute and Baga, both of which lie in the beach area to the north of the state capital Panaji, but if you’re backpacking and want to keep things cheap, then these areas are best avoided as they do cater more for the tourist crowd and can therefore be more expensive.

The coastal areas to the south of Panaji and the Zuari River are somewhat less developed, and are therefore generally quieter and cheaper – a meal somewhere like Benaulim is likely to cost around half the price of one in Calangute for example. If you want to visit the parts of Goa which are least touristy then you need to go inland away from the beaches, and head for the quiet villages that you can find nestled among the rice fields and coconut palms here.

The best time to visit Goa is between October and April weather-wise, with the main tourist season being November to February. This means that to experience the best weather but avoid the highest prices and busiest times it’s best to go in either October, or March/April time where you can get cheap flights to Goa relatively easily.

Goan food is wonderfully rich with beef being a common dish on the menu. It’s often served either as steak or shredded and fried which chilli, and ‘vindaloo’ is a Goan specialty here. Goa has very low taxes on alcohol, so beer and wine here are very cheap and hard liquor is much cheaper than in the rest of India.

A few places you might like to visit while here are:
Sahakari Spice Farm – Situated at Curti in wonderfully lush green surroundings, this spice farm is a place for relaxing under the dense forest cover. There is an amazing aroma here from the spices that grow here, and you can learn loads about what they can be used for including their many medicinal values. You can also enjoy a traditional Goan style lunch here.

Dudhsagar Falls – This is a wonderful tiered waterfall that is located on the Mandovi River on the border between Goa and Karnataka, India. The best time to see these is during the monsoon season when they are transformed into one of the most powerful waterfalls in India and the water plummets down the four tiers falling a total of 310 metres.

Cabo De Rama Fort – In Canacona, South Goa, this interesting fort can be easily reached by bus from Margao. It is said that Lord Rama and his wife Sita took shelter here when they were banished from the kingdom for 14 years of exile in the forests of India. It’s exchanged hands many times and some gruesome battles have been fought here. There is a small chapel insite which is still in use, and people come here to pray as well as to see the fort and the views from it over the sea.

Many of us have realised that with the wide range of choices that are available to us on the internet, we can often save money by making our purchases on there rather than looking on the high street. It’s also much easier of course and we can shop at home at 3am while in our PJ’s if we want to.

What many people are also realising now is that voucher codes offering money off items or at certain online stores can help us make additional savings while we do our online shopping.

These online money off codes can be found in lots of places and can offer all sorts of different types of discount. There are those which are quite general offering a specific amount off when you spend over a certain figure at a certain store – such as £15 off when you spend £100 or more at Currys, and those which offer you a percentage discount in a similar way such as 10% off when you spend £50 or more at buyagift.com website. These sorts of discounts let you shop at the store and save money regardless of what you’re buying – so the Currys one would be useful regardless of whether you were buying a washing machine, laptop or a TV.

Others discount codes offer a more specific type of discount such as £20 off any washing machine over £200, while others again offer a free gift with a purchase such as a Vodafone promotional code giving you a free broadband dongle when you take out a 12 month contract with Vodafone.

Regardless of what the code offers you, it’s important to remember that it will only save you money if you were planning on making that purchase in the first place, otherwise you’re falling into the trap that the manufacturer wants you to fall into of making an impulse purchase based on the coupon code they’ve offered you.

Used in the right way however, these codes really can save us all money, and there are plenty of them out there to use. Some are sent to us in the post while others arrive in our e-mail in box as part of a newsletter, and others can be found on sites dedicated to finding and sharing them with people. However you find them, it’s good to know that even in this modern world shops realise that we all want to save a little extra when we can.