Goa

Goa isn't really like the rest of India, and everyone here knows it. Four and a half centuries as a Portuguese colony left it with whitewashed churches, Latin street names, a Catholic-Hindu mix found nowhere else in the country, and a word, susegad, that roughly means contented, unhurried, in no rush to be anywhere. The Portuguese only left in 1961. You still feel them everywhere. It's India's smallest state and one of its richest, and tourism runs the show. But Goa is two places stitched together. North Goa is the busy one: Calangute, Baga, Anjuna, Vagator, the beach shacks, the flea markets, the nightlife, the crowds. South Goa is the quiet one: Palolem, Agonda, Colva, long empty stretches of sand, fewer parties, more space. Which Goa you get depends entirely on where you base yourself, so choose carefully. The beaches are the obvious draw, over 100 km of coastline, but they're only half the story. Inland Goa is green and hilly, with spice plantations, wildlife sanctuaries, the thundering Dudhsagar waterfall, and old Hindu temples tucked into the forest. Old Goa, the former colonial capital, holds a cluster of grand churches that are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, including the basilica that houses the remains of St. Francis Xavier. Then there's the food, which is reason enough to come. Goan cooking is its own cuisine: fish curry and rice as the daily staple, pork vindaloo and sorpotel from the Portuguese influence, spicy-tangy recheado and balchão, chicken cafreal, and bebinca for dessert. Wash it down with feni, the fierce local spirit made from cashew or coconut. The Catholic and Hindu kitchens cook differently, and both are worth your time. The rhythm of the place shifts hard with the seasons. From November to February it's packed, sunny, and at its most expensive, peaking over Christmas and New Year when the whole country seems to descend. The monsoon, June to September, is the opposite: lush, green, cheap, and quiet, with many shacks shut and the sea too rough to swim, but a different kind of beautiful. Goa has its tensions. Over-tourism has strained parts of the north. The taxi situation is notoriously difficult. Drugs and beach parties give it a reputation that's only partly deserved. And the susegad charm can tip into things simply not happening on time. But for most visitors, Goa delivers exactly what it promises: a slower pace, good food, warm water, and the sense of being somewhere that runs on its own rules.