Goa is India's smallest state and its most unusual. Portuguese rule lasted 450 years — until 1961, 14 years after the rest of the country became independent — and it left a lasting mark: Catholic churches, Latinate family names, a seafood-and-pork cuisine unlike anywhere else in India, and a laid-back coastal rhythm that feels more Mediterranean than subcontinental. The hippie trail arrived in the 1960s and never entirely left; today's Goa is part beach-holiday destination, part party island, part working Indian state.
The beaches stretch for more than 100 km down the Arabian Sea, from Tiracol in the far north to Palolem in the south. Broadly, North Goa is busier and louder: Calangute, Candolim, and Anjuna are the package-tour heartland, with Anjuna's Wednesday flea market a Goa institution. Vagator and Morjim attract the trance-music crowd. Further south, the beaches quieten down — Colva is mid-range, Palolem is a crescent of white sand with a smaller, more relaxed scene.
The state capital, Panaji (Panjim), has a compact old quarter of pastel-painted Portuguese villas — Fontainhas — that feels like a transplanted fragment of Lisbon. Old Goa, a short bus ride east, was the capital of the Portuguese empire in the east in the 16th century and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site; the Basilica of Bom Jesus holds the mummified remains of St Francis Xavier.
Goan food is worth seeking out — vindaloo and sorpotel are the signature Portuguese-influenced pork dishes, xacuti is the coconut-and-spice chicken curry, and fresh fish is everywhere. The feni spirit (distilled from cashew fruit or coconut sap) is distinctive and best drunk where it's made. The annual Carnival in February/March is one of the few Catholic street carnivals in Asia, and the Christmas and New Year period is when prices spike and the beach parties are at their loudest.
The best time to visit is November to March. April and May are very hot; the monsoon (June to September) shuts down most beach establishments but the state is spectacularly green.
