Things to do
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Anjuna Beach
Red laterite rock breaks up the sand on this north Goa shore, which drew the first long-staying travellers in the nineteen sixties and has kept a market and a party reputation since. A flea market that began as a barter stall fills the ground above the beach every Wednesday from October to April. Rock shelves make swimming awkward at low water, and Vagator lies a short ride north.
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Basilica of Bom Jesus
Francis Xavier lies in this laterite church at Old Goa, in a silver casket set on a marble plinth given by a Medici duke. Completed in 1605, it lost its exterior plaster in the nineteenth century, so the red stone now stands bare. The relics are shown to pilgrims about once a decade, most recently over the winter of 2024.
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Dudhsagar Falls
Four tiers of white water drop about 310 metres down a forested scarp in the Western Ghats, on the Goa and Karnataka border. Jeeps run to the pool from Kulem when the forest department allows it, and the safari is suspended through the monsoon and into October. Trains on the Vasco da Gama line pass the face of the falls.
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Fontainhas
Narrow lanes of ochre, indigo and green houses climb the slope behind Panaji's creek, a Portuguese-era quarter laid out when the capital moved here. Owners repaint the lime walls after each monsoon, which is why the colours stay loud. Balconies, azulejo tiles and small bakeries reward an unhurried hour on foot, best early before the traffic builds.
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Fort Aguada
Bastioned walls above Sinquerim have guarded the Mandovi mouth since 1612, built by the Portuguese and named for the spring inside that watered passing ships. A four-storey lighthouse was added in the nineteenth century. Part of the complex served as a jail into the modern era, and the seaward ramparts give a long view down the north coast.
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Old Goa
At its height in the sixteenth century this was the administrative centre of Portuguese Asia, a river port said to rival Lisbon in size. Cholera and malaria emptied it, and the government moved downstream. What survives is a scatter of vast churches and convents on open lawns, protected by UNESCO, walkable in a morning.
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Palolem Beach
A crescent of sand about a kilometre and a half long closes between two headlands in Canacona, in the far south of the state. Bamboo huts line it from October to May and come down before the rains, under a state rule that bars permanent building on the sand. Silent discos with headphones run here because amplified night music is restricted.