You can get Goa bound trains either from Bandra Terminus, Dadar or CST. The most popular trains on this route are the Jan Shatabdi, Kokan Kanya, Mandovi etc. The journey approximately takes between 8 and 10 hours. It may seem long, but its 10 hours of such awe inspiring landscape as the train takes you through one ravine after another and bounds past one waterfall after another (in the monsoons). The innumerable tunnels that you encounter, only adds to the charm of the journey.

The only train which traverses from Pune to Goa is the Goa Express which starts from Hazrat Nizamuddin. You can board it from the Pune railway station. It’s an overnight journey and the stations it stops on are Margao and Vasco where it terminates. The train stops at Belgaum, from where Margao is about four hours away.

Very few trains run from Bangalore to Goa. The one we know of is the Yeshwanthpur Vasco train which starts from Chennai and takes you to Margao and Vasco railway stations.

The Matsyagandha express travels between Mangalore and Kurla. But the train halts only at Margao. You can switch to slower trains to get to the other Goan stations you want to. The train stops enroute at Udupi too.

Several trains connect Delhi to Goa. The most prominent of these are the Goa Sampark Express (Weekly), Mangala Express, Goa Express and the Thiruvananthpuram Rajdhani. The distance takes upwards of thirty hours barring the Rajdhanu, which does it in approximately 26 hours. Goa express takes the longest, as takes a skewed route down to Karnataka and then snakes northwards again to Goa.

Goa is served by a few trains from Surat too. You have the Okha express and the Margao special. The latter is a newly introduced train. Travel by either takes a bit shy of 20 hours of travel along the beautiful Konkan belt which is dotted by countless valleys, hills, waterfalls and tunnels. But the train which you take you the quickest to Goa from Baroda is the Goa Sampark Kranti express or the Trivandrum Rajdhani. With the Rajdhani the number of stations between Baroda and Margao drops to a mere 5. But one thing worth remembering is that the Rajdhani halts only once in Goa and that too in Margao in South Goa.

Chennai is connected to Goa by just one train. The Chennai – Vasco express. But there are other alternative routes which would be worth a try. You could hook up to Goa from Bangalore, by picking up the Yeshwanthpur express from the capital. The other alternative would be to try the Mangalore connection. Mangalore is well connected to Goa by train. You could for starters board the Matsyagandha to Margao. Another alternative would be to travel to Guntakal junction from Chennai by the Chennai express or the Mumbai mail and from Guntakal take the Yeshwanthpur express on its way to Margao after a night halt.

The Vasco – Howrah runs through Kacheguda station which is as close as a Goa bound train from Hyderabad can get. The journey takes approximately 24 hours. But the catch is that its not a daily service, its more of a thrice a week train.

The Konkan railway network has completely threaded through the West coast stretch. The Thiruvananthapuram – Delhi Rajdhani halts at Margao. Or the other option would be to head for Ernakulam and catch the Mangala Lakshwadeep Rajdhani which stops at both Thivim and Margao, both important stations in Goa.

For both, the Goa Express and the Mangala Lakshwadeep Express Bhopal serves as an important junction. From Bhopal Delhi is an overnight journey, while the time taken to travel from Bhopal to Goa is a reasonably upwards of 20 hours.

A weekly train, the Jaipur Ernakulam Marusagar express is the only railway connection, which connects Goa to Jaipur. The other best alternative route would be to either chose on from the numerous intra-state trains from Jaipur to Kota and then head for Goa using either the Trivandrum Rajdhani or the Goa Sampark Kranti express. Both are not daily trains.

Distant Koltata is connected to Goa by one train. The Howrah express takes you right up to Vasco railway station. The best alternative would be to take the Geetanjali express from Kolkata and travel up to Mumbai from where numerous connecting trains to Goa can be availed.

The route is so immensely popular, that you even have a movie ‘Bombay to Goa’ on the subject. The NH 17, which runs through the Konkan, is the best way to head for Goa. The road is curvaceous, courtesy the mountains of Konkan which are a part of the backdrop. The distance is about 580 km.

The most convenient way to head for Goa from Pune is to get onto the Pune Bangalore Express way. Once you reach Nipani look out for a right that takes you to the Amboli ghats and into Goa. It is more convenient that the conventional NH 4, which runs via Solapur. The distance is about 460 km

Goa does a roaring trade with Belgaum when it comes to vegetables and food, which travels to Goa by road. Via the Anmod – Ponda route, Goa can be reached within four hours. It takes a tad lesser is you take the more complicated by shorter Khanapur – Chorla ghat route.

This is another bus route which is gaining in popularity. The most convenient route is the NH 4 A, which passes from Mangalore – Hubli and then on to Margao.

The distance between Bangalore and Goa is 592 km and is a convenient overnight journey.

The distance between Mangalore and Panaji is 402 km. The swiftest route is the NH 4A again, which skims along the coast before it hits Ponda and then Panaji.

Of late several tourists use the road to drive down to Goa. A majority of these tourists hail from Surat and Baroda. All they have need to do is hook on to the NH 8 and come down to Navsari and Valsad after which you slip into Maharastra. Once there all you need to do is latch on to the NH 17 which dissects Goa North to South.

Located at a distance of approximately 24 hours, a single bus service by the name of Paulo travels connects Hyderabad to Panaji. The fares pegged at 800 bucks approximately. If its your plan to drive down; here’s the route we suggest you take. The shortest run is from Hyderabad to Sangreddi to Bijapur to Belgaum to Panaji.

Another city with a 24 hour run to Goa. Although very few people actually drive down from Chennai, the excellent state of roads should try to spur you on. What you can do is take the extremely popular track from Chennai to Bangalore and once there take the Dharwad-Londa connection on NH 4A which will take you straight to Ponda (in Goa) and thirty km later to Panaji.