BeachThemes:NatureFoodAdventureCulture
Goa
North Goa
Beach shacks, flea markets and Indo-Portuguese village lanes
- Ideal stay
- 4 days
- Best time
- November to February; December is peak and the monsoon closes most shacks
State · West India
Goa
राज्यपश्चिमी भारत
Konkan sand, Portuguese churches and fish curry rice afternoons
The place
Travelling in Goa
परिचय
India's smallest state by area packs a hundred kilometres of Arabian Sea coast, laterite forts, baroque churches from four centuries of Portuguese rule and the Western Ghats behind. Goa runs on sussegado: fish curry rice at lunch, feni at sunset, and a beach for every mood from party-loud Baga to quiet Galgibaga.
Goa is small enough to cross in two hours and layered enough to keep you for two weeks. Portuguese rule from 1510 to 1961 left Old Goa's Basilica of Bom Jesus, which holds the relics of St Francis Xavier, the vast Se Cathedral, and the pastel lanes of Fontainhas in Panaji where houses are repainted after every monsoon. The coast changes character as you drive it: Baga and Calangute for crowds and shacks, Anjuna for its Wednesday flea market and cliff sunsets, Ashwem and Mandrem for quieter sand, and in the south Palolem, Agonda and Galgibaga, where olive ridley turtles nest between November and February. Inland the state turns green and wet: Dudhsagar Falls drops in four tiers on the Mandovi in the Bhagwan Mahaveer Sanctuary, spice plantations near Ponda serve thali on banana leaf, and Divar and Chorao islands are reached by flat-bottomed ferries. Signature journeys mix a north-coast base with an Old Goa and Fontainhas heritage walk and two slow days in the south.
What it is famous for
Goa, in three lists
पहचान
Famous for
- Basilica of Bom Jesus
- Fontainhas Latin Quarter
- Palolem and Agonda beaches
- Dudhsagar Falls
- Fort Aguada
- Anjuna flea market
- Feni and Goan seafood
On the table
- Fish curry rice
- Pork vindaloo
- Chicken xacuti
- Prawn balchao
- Sorpotel
- Bebinca
- Feni
Through the year
- Goa Carnival
- Feast of St Francis Xavier
- Shigmo
- Sao Joao
- Ganesh Chaturthi
3 places we travel to
Places to visit in Goa
गंतव्य
Every Goa destination we plan journeys around, with the best months and the ideal stay for each.
Beach
HeritageThemes:HeritageSpiritualCulturePhotography
Goa
Old Goa
Baroque churches standing alone where an empire's capital stood
- Ideal stay
- 1 day
- Best time
- November to February; the feast of St Francis Xavier falls on 3 December
BeachThemes:NatureRomanceFoodFamily
Goa
South Goa
Long empty sands, spice hills and grand Goan mansions
- Ideal stay
- 4 days
- Best time
- November to March
Goa tour packages
Journeys through Goa
यात्राएँ
1 of our routes pass through Goa. Each one is a starting point — tell us your days and we reshape it.
21 days · 20 nightsThemes:HeritageCultureFood
Moderate · Best Nov–Feb
Grand India Odyssey: Delhi to the Coromandel Coast
Three weeks down the whole length of India, Delhi to Chennai
Route: Delhi → Agra → Jaipur → Udaipur +6 more
- Group
- 2–8 (private)
- From
- ₹2,45,000 pp
Time it right
Goa festivals
त्योहार
SepAugust or September, ten days from Bhadrapada shukla chaturthi to the Anant Chaturdashi immersions. Dates follow the lunar calendar; many households keep the idol for only a day and a half.
Ganesh Chaturthi
Ten days when Maharashtra installs Ganesha in homes, street corners and enormous pandals, feeds him modaks and then carries him to the sea. Mumbai's Lalbaugcha Raja draws queues that last all night, Pune keeps a procession order set in 1893, and Konkan villages fill up again.
Maharashtra · Goa
DecAdvent through New Year, with novenas from mid-December, midnight mass on 24 December and the Feast of St Francis Xavier on 3 December at Old Goa.
Christmas in Goa
Goa keeps Christmas with four and a half centuries of Portuguese habit: paper star lanterns strung over village lanes, crib competitions, midnight mass in the laterite churches of Old Goa, and a tray of bebinca, dodol, neureos and kulkuls that families begin baking in early December.
Goa
Eat here
What to eat in Goa
खानपान
Non-vegGoa
Goan Xacuti
Chicken or lamb cooked in a masala of dry-roasted grated coconut, white poppy seeds, dried Goan chillies and a dozen spices ground on stone, dark and nutty rather than hot. Eat it with pao at a Panjim taverna, or alongside the everyday fish curry rice that keeps Goa going all year.
SweetGoa
Bebinca
A Goan pudding of coconut milk, egg yolk, flour, sugar and nutmeg, baked one thin layer at a time until it stands seven to sixteen layers deep. It takes hours and a patient cook. Bakeries in Margao and Panjim make it for Christmas, and it is served in slim wedges, often warm with ice cream.
From the journal
Reading for Goa
पत्रिका
· Guide · 6 min
Best Time to Visit India: A Month-by-Month Guide
India is not one climate but six, from a Himalayan cold desert at 3,500 metres to hills that take eleven metres of rain a year. Here is the whole calendar, month by month, with the regions, roads and parks that open and close with it.
3 more in West India
Next door in West India
पड़ोसी राज्य
StateWest India
Gujarat
White salt desert, Asiatic lions and stepwells of stone lace
- Capital
- Gandhinagar
- Destinations
- 9
StateWest India
Maharashtra
Rock-cut caves, Sahyadri forts and a city that never sits down
- Capital
- Mumbai
- Destinations
- 10
Union territoryWest India
Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu
Portuguese forts, Warli villages and quiet Arabian Sea sand
- Capital
- Daman
- Destinations
- 1