Novotel Goa Dona Sylvia Resort

The location and direct access to the beach is perfect. The rooms are spacious and well fitted out. The facilities at the resort are good, except the gym is well below standard for a 5 star resort. Breakfast is excellent. The staff were very attentive, particularly the housekeeper Vivesh. His care of our room and our needs at all times was above excellent.

The pool staff should monitor the pool lounge use. Most of the lounges are taken early by mainly the English/European people by placing a towel on the lounge early in the morning. Many of these people don’t even use their lounge until later in the day after they have been out. The resort should have a policy of 1 hour of lounge vacancy and the towel gets removed so someone else can have access.

We stayed here twice in December for a couple of nights each time broken with a brief break to Agonda. The first stay was wonderful. Helpful staff, excellent food, lovely room, good facilities, location to the beach etc The 2nd stay was TOTALLY ruined by HOURS (lunchtime to very late at night) with the most excessive and unacceptable noise of a wedding/party going on at the Radisson next door. It was so loud that the ground was shaking, you can’t hear the TV in our room (and we are at the far end of the Dona Sylvia resort!) and the staff say they couldn’t do anything about it?!?! This was meant to be a relaxing end to a long holiday touring India and it was completely ruined! It is such a shame because if I was just basing my review on the first part of our stay I would have recommended it. I’ve tried to be fair with the scoring because it’s not really the Dona Sylvia’s fault. However both hotels are owned by the same family so I’m sure there should be some responsibility of the Radisson to the Dona Sylvia as the noise is way beyond acceptable. A live concert in the UK is on a par with this noise and even then it’s not as unacceptable as this

NOISE

I am very happy with the prompt service and hospitality provided. The hotel staff is extremely caring. They took care of us. Lots of options in breakfast. Every member including chefs, managers, service boys etc are ready to help you to ensure you get the best service. The entire property is well maintained. Everything is neat and clean. The place is very scenic and adjacent to the beach. There is private access from the hotel to the beach. Overall we enjoyed our trip. I would like to recommend the property.

I would like to list a couple of points. 1). Breakfast timing is limited and not sufficient. We are always under pressure as everything will be closed at 10:30. We were not able to enjoy the pool and beach activities due to this. 2). Same thing with the Pool as it gets open at 8:30 am and gets closed at 7 pm.. If you want to enjoy it after 7 pm there is no option. Definitely timing has to be stretched further. Water polo balls are not available and you have to buy This is ridiculous as no-one carries balls with them. All the resorts and hotels provide water Polo balls by default. My son forgot his t-shirt on one of shacks near pool, we were not able ato find it later.

Very well furnished rooms, excellent swimming pool (3ft to almost 7ft in depth). Property very well maintained. Non reception staff very courteous and welcoming.

Staff at reception was not as polite/courteous as you would expect from such a prime facility. They do not have any facilities at the beach. You have to manage everything on your own and it is no different from visiting the beach via public access. - No recliners on the beach. - You cannot take towels from the resort. - The shower is far away. - Washrooms also not easily accessible from beach. - No bar/restaurant near the beach.

located deep in south Goa so was perfect for us as we were planning a getaway to a more secluded place. Beach was clean and sparsely crowded. Rooms were comfortable and housekeeping was very responsive and kept rooms clean, given sand from the beach et al. The check in staff was helpful and the process was swift.

Staff at buffets could have been more receptive and welcoming. It feels, especially in the morning, that the staff at buffet got overwhelmed and didn't know how to manage and respond to request. Notwithstanding the above, overall a wonderful stay.

The rooms were next to each other. Biggest plus point. The boutique villa room size was vast. The property is mainly on ground floor which I liked. Totally resort feel. The housekeeping and room service was excellent. Very prompt even when it was raining. Clean upkeep of lawns and other facilities. The beach was well connected to resort. The chef took our suggestion at the breakfast well and prepared us another dish as per our requirements. The pools was also excellent, quite deep upto 6'7" at one end which we enjoyed a lot. In fact a deep pool is one of the major criteria for booking as all family members love to swim. Holiday inn next door should work upon this. They will get more customers .Overall a very pleasant and excellent experience in our stay at Novotel Dona Sylvia resort

The pool bar should be in the pool as in other resorts. We shouldn't need to go out to order or drink. We would have loved to be in pool to have our drinks like other resorts. Otherwise for a drinks near the pool, the bar was quite good

Everything was great, we were upgraded to rooms in Lily area and had beach facing cottages Breakfast was good, housekeeping especially Paul was excellent, good places to eat at walking distance Kids enjoyed a lot, beach first and then straight to swimming pool Staff was cordial and polite and we enjoyed a lot and would definitely visit again

Nothing major but could be looked at Serving staff at breakfast was more keen on cleaning tables and setting them up rather than serving, cleaning and serving should be segregated Golf Carts took too much time to come Evening tea session was missing, it is usual feature in 4&5 stars

The premium sea facing room was spacious. The hotel manager Geeta, gave us a warm welcome and was prompt in her communication. We got a nice welcome tray with wine, chocolates and quick bites. The beach was nice and clean, 2 access points which was convenient. In room dining was good, food options a bit limited but whatever we ordered was quite tasty. The property itself is small but well maintained.

1. Check-in took too long, it looked like a lot of staff at front desk were new recruits 2. Room key cards were dodgy, stopped working once and had to be replaced 3. Oktober fest theme night, food was bad. Desserts were terrible. Beer was not chilled. Only saving grace was the 24k band, that too became uninteresting once they switched to bollywood songs.

The property is amazing and well maintained. Clean rooms and bathrooms. The rooms are spacious and have all the facilities. The property is right on the beach with pvt access so it makes it much more worth staying and enjoying the Goa. Very well decorated and light up during the festive session and new yr.

Unlike other 5 star, where hotel try to make things available to the customer here I find they are happy to serve but they are charging for few small things also, which somehow can be taken care for such big resort.

the resort is very big ..not conjusted at all.. the lawn and plantation are well maintained .. all the leaves that falls down during the are actually picked up by workers everyday leaving the garden and plantations extremely well maintained.. this is something you wont find in many five star resorts ..have been to taj as well.. the rooms are another highlights .. the way they are integrated with the plantations is a sight you will cherish ... very spacious ..open ..just strolling around will make you feel good .. the accessibility of beach is amazing .. you dont have to walk much..2 min walk and u are on the beach ..no crowd except the resort people .. the pool too is very big and clean ..very well maintained .. overall a very nice stay ... would highly recommend for a peaceful 3-4 day stay The main lobby and the attached restaurant ..Seagull.. has a very nice vibe .. people are very welcoming.. Abdul from the staff at seagull was very helpful and extra prompt..

the pillows in room are not good.. something that you might not have heard as a part of any review.. but they really need to change those .. should take some reference from othee resorts the food was pretty avg .. breakfast buffet was good ..but ala carte options that were prepared were pretty avg ..nothing that would tempt you to go again.. we went in off season .. and almost all of the south goa was closed ..otherwise would have preferred outside we ordered a burger via in room dining.. the bun was very hard and was crumbling.. seems like an old one ..it wasnt baked and the patty was not falvourful I only ate veg so cant comment on the non veg items daal makhani was good though .. you can have that ..recommended