Goa has two reputations and both are out of date. It is neither a full-moon party nor a resort strip – not in the south, and not if you stay away from the twenty kilometres everyone else books.
What is actually there: the largest concentration of Portuguese colonial architecture in Asia, a Catholic-Hindu culture that exists nowhere else in India, some of the best home cooking in the country, and beaches you can walk for an hour without meeting anyone.
A starting point, not a fixed departure. Every element below can be lengthened, shortened or swapped.
Fontainhas on foot, the riverfront, and Old Goa’s basilicas before the heat.
Upriver to the spice country, a plantation lunch, and the Dudhsagar falls if the season is right.
Agonda or Palolem. A cooking morning, one boat trip, and otherwise nothing scheduled.
Every journey is quoted individually once we know your dates, party size and pace. The first conversation is free.
Goa is at its best either side of the peak – November, or late February into March. Christmas and New Year are expensive and full. The south is quiet; the north is not, and we will say so if you ask for Baga.
Direct flights from most Indian cities, and the Konkan railway from Mumbai is one of the great train journeys if you have the day.
Standard beach sense. The undertow on some south Goa beaches is stronger than it looks; swim where the flags are.
Something to cover up in for the churches, and reef shoes if you plan to swim off the rockier southern coves.
Add a week, drop the walking, bring the children, or start somewhere else entirely. We redraw every itinerary from scratch.
