South Goa self catering villa, India
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
Ok so we're not completely 'eco' or 'green' but we are making positive steps in order to become so.
All rubbish, which is a problem here, is recycled and disposed of responsibly.
We regularly clean the surrounding area to make it more aesthetically pleasing whilst educating the locals (nicely) in looking after their beautiful home. Being situated next to a 'holy' banyan tree which is the centre point of many religious festivals in the village we clean this area and provide lighting and decoration to support the community.
The Villa has been built using when possible natural materials such as clay bricks and natural stone sourced locally and has been designed with care to compliment its' surroundings.
Riverview Villa is situated on a protected bird sanctuary.The garden is richly populated with coconut trees which are harvested by the locals, there are lots of beautiful tropical plants and flowers which are home to numerous species of huge butterflies, birds including sea eagles and kingfishers and many other living creatures.
As a collective, we can all make substantial efforts to save water,electricity and other fuels & resources and start living in a more natural manner, going back to basics as much as we can,helping to conserve this beautiful area.
Community
Our Villa Manager, Suraj who is from the local village, has been working with us for 4 years, he joined at just 18 and has been trained to very high standards of customer care and villa management. We helped support Suraj to set up his own scooter hire company so he can support his family as he is the main provider. Suraj is a lovely guy and can help you with most of your requests during your stay.
We provide a welcome pack to our guests recommending: local restaurants who can also deliver excellent Goan food to the Villa,our general stores and chai (Indian Tea) shop owned by Pramod and his wife who also serve tasty samosas,bhaji and chai,if you need to hire taxis and rickshas we use ones which are owned by the villagers where we endeavor rotate the business fairly.
Often when the fishing boats arrive back they will offer to sell amazing freshly caught fish and prawns which we promote to our guests again supporting the local fishermen/women which is one of the main source of income for the village.
As we live next to the 'holy tree' which is the hub for all the religious festivals in the area we contribute both physically and financially to help support at these times and our guests and ourselves enjoy partaking where appropriate in these celebrations of life.
We aim to encourage you to have a more authentic experience of living in a traditional village rather than a touristy one whilst spreading the love in the village!
1of3
