AM Hotel Kollection:Ivy, Morjim

At the price they are renting their cottages and suites you cannot expect LUXURY. Getting there is NOT easy or obvious. You will need Albert on the phone if you've never been there. Albert is the owner and himself runs the place. He is the kind of caretaker who will give you advice about the surrounding areas and even help you, for example, arranging a scooty or car for you late at night if you want it. By the way, you should opt for a scooty instead of a car due to the roads in this area. Albert is accommodating and will take care of your wishes as far as it is possible in this remote location that is not even known by cab drivers. I needed access to work during my week-long break, Albert got a Jio Hotspot arranged for me. I wouldn't rely on that for the long term but it sufficed for logging in to do basic, light bandwidth work. The road leading to the stay is a dirt road, raggedy and dark. Nights are quiet. You hear the crows and crickets in the night, and the air through the coconut grove. You can see on your walk to the beach that there was a shack/restobar there but due to pandemic that is all dismantled. There is a swimming pool but who wants to go there when you have a full sea in front of you that has almost no public, you feel like the beach is yours. The tides follow a six hour cycle so most of the day the water recedes by a lot and you can walk into the waves for quite a distance before it gets deep. In fact you would have to go very far in for you to not feel the sand below your feet. The only drawback IF you can call it that, given the current Covid-19 times is that there is NO food besides breakfast served at the location. You can request an occasional chai or coconut water to your room but it's not guaranteed that the kitchen will be operational during the afternoon or night. Also the breakfast is mostly set items, poha, toast with omlette or you can request egg bhurji, there is a pav with some bhaaji cooked in coconut curry, and chai or coffee but that's about it. Not too far are some convenience stores and a wine shop but you are out of luck if you think you will request full lunch or dinner, with the shutting down of their restobar, this is no longer an option. Grab your scooty and take a ride to the nearby fancy Jardin D'ulysseus or other humble eateries around Morjim or the nearby Ashwen. Arambol is too crowded of a beach but we did see an amazing sunset there, once you have seen other beaches in the area you will realize how lucky you are to have the best stretch of beach in Morjim. Another great option for a night out are the not too far on the beach bars in Morjim itself, Burger Factory, Cape Town and Urva. These you can actually just walk into from the beach in front of the stay, they are to the right a short 3 / 5 min walk. The place does have signs for wearing masks and has sanitizer available for you at the lobby but honestly, when people get here they drop their masks and some don't even social distance because they probably think they are too far from crowds and the whole area is just too empty. I think this is a risk you take, if you are travelling during Covid-19 you should already be fully aware of the risk you are taking. The place does its job by putting signs and providing sanitizer. Another random but totally worth it experience was Albert arranging a boat ride for us out to the sea, we saw Vagator and Anjuna beaches from the sea. Like I said, Albert takes care of you, if you ask him for advice and help he will come through or let you know in a straightforward manner what is possible and what is not.