Senhor Francisco Road, near St. Anthony's Chapel, Gauravaddo-Calangute-Goa, Calangute, India | (888) 293-5302
Quiet backstreet location, a quick walk from the beach and the main road
Elegant rooms with big balconies and wooden furniture, most with four-poster beds
Al fresco restaurant with half-board options and thrice-weekly themed nights
Spa offers Ayurvedic massages
Lap pool with parasol-shaded padded lounge chairs
Free loaner bicycles and beach towels
Free Wi-Fi throughout plus free and secure on-site parking
Library lounge with books and board games
Mini fitness center with basic cardio and weight-training equipment
Children under 12 not allowed (a pro for some)
Entry-level rooms are dark
Hard to find location, not on the beach
Casa Severina is an elegant, four-pearl boutique hotel located on a hard-to-find but consequentially quiet back street in Calangute, a short walk from the beach. There are only 19 rooms here (including one suite), all of which feature beautiful wooden furniture and big furnished balconies. Features include a lovely lap pool with lounge chairs, a small fitness center, and a massage room for Ayurvedic treatments. There's also an open-air restaurant with half-board packages available and culinary theme nights are held three times per week. While this is arguably one of the nicer, more elegant places to stay in town, those with younger kids are out of luck, as guests must be at least 12 years old to stay here. For something more family-friendly, consider The Park Calangute Goa, which has the added benefit of being right on the beach.
Scene
Elegant purpose-built boutique hotel with lovely grounds and a Portuguese-Colonial look and feel
The hotel is housed in a gorgeous mansion-like structure that was built in 2009, but is styled to look much older, with terracotta roofs and wrought-iron green balconies and lamp posts that give it a colonial look and feel. A beautifully manicured courtyard with a tiered fountain separates the parking lot from the main building. Inside the main building is a small, elegant lobby with the hotel's name written out in Portuguese tiling flanking the front desk and a collection of Art Deco-style chairs, along with a chaise lounge and a few potted plants. Stairs lead up to the rooms, which are situated atrium-style around a central fountain, complete with a cascading waterfall feature and a resident population of koi fish. Each room has a set of big wooden doors crowned with colorful tiles displaying the room number spelled out in Portuguese. Most guests here are older couples, and children under age 12 are not allowed.
Location
On a quiet, narrow back street in Calangute, a five-minute walk from both the beach and the busy main road
Casa Severina is located on a narrow back road that's a bit hard to find (just keep going straight down the road past the spot marked as the front entrance) in Calangute. It's about a five-minute walk to the beach and a five-minute walk to the main road in Calangute, where there are lots of shops, ATMs, and restaurants. The Saturday Night Market in Arpora takes 15 to 20 minutes to reach by car depending on traffic. Anjuna is a 25-minute drive from the hotel. It's about a 40-minute drive to Panaji, traffic permitting, while getting to the airport takes around an hour.
Rooms
Elegant rooms with furnished balconies and colonial-style furniture, most with four-poster beds
This hotel offers Standard Boutique, Deluxe, and Super Deluxe Rooms along with a single Luxury Suite. The two Standard Boutique units are dark and don't get a lot of sunlight, though they do have porches. These are the only room types with either one double bed or two twin beds, and both units are located in a separate annex that runs along the side of the main building. The rest of the rooms are in the main building, spread across two floors. Deluxe and Super Deluxe Rooms are similar in terms of style and amenities (though the latter are larger) and both have balconies. The Luxury Suite is huge, with space for a living room and a gargantuan balcony with beautiful tiling and gorgeous wooden furniture, including tables with floral tile inlay. All rooms have lovely wooden furniture with a classic flare, complete with large cabinets and four-poster beds (in all but the Luxury Boutique units), plus soft linens in hues of muted sea-foam green and pale yellow. Standard amenities found across room categories include kettles, mini-fridges stocked with filtered water, safes, and small flat-screen TVs. Bathrooms are big, with a mix of off-white and dark-green marble, plus huge walk-in showers. Super Deluxe Rooms and the Luxury Suite also have tubs. Basic toiletries and hairdryers are provided.
Features
Outdoor swimming pool, fitness center, and massage room, plus restaurant with half-board packages
For a smaller hotel, Casa Severina offers a decent set of amenities. There's an outdoor rectangular lap pool with a few parasols and padded lounge chairs on the deck. The massage room offers traditional Ayurvedic massages, plus a fitness area on the main floor with a few cardio machines and basic weight-training equipment. There's also a small upstairs lounge with board games and a lending library. Dining takes place at La Taverna, an indoor/outdoor restaurant offering drinks and a mix of international and Indian dishes for all three meals. Half-board packages with breakfast and either lunch or dinner are available, and guests can switch from lunch to dinner with advanced notice. Special culinary nights are held three times a week, with themes such as Chinese and Mongolian food. Free amenities include loaner bikes, beach towels, and Wi-Fi. There's lots of on-site parking, secured behind the hotel's main gate.