Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu

This union territory is three separate places sharing an administration, and they reward being taken on their own terms. Diu is an island off Saurashtra with the most complete Portuguese fortress in India, built from 1535 with sea on three sides and cannon still on the ramparts. The town keeps St Paul's Church of 1610 in carved Gujarati wood, the honeycombed Naida Caves where builders quarried stone, and Gangeshwar temple, where five shivlings are washed by every high tide. Nagoa and Ghoghla give it easy beaches. Daman, on the Gujarat coast at the mouth of the Damanganga, is split by the river into Moti Daman with its 1559 fort walls and Church of Bom Jesus, and Nani Daman across the water. Inland, Silvassa is the old Dadra and Nagar Haveli, where Warli communities paint white rice-paste figures on ochre walls; Dudhni on the Madhuban reservoir does boating and kayaking, and Vasona has a lion safari. Signature journeys pair Diu with Gir, or Daman and Silvassa as an easy break from Mumbai.