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Five nights for travellers who look at buildings, art and objects. Two nights at Charles Correa's Cidade de Goa for Fontainhas, its tile and art studios and Braganza House; three at Ahilya by the Sea for Reis Magos, the Museum of Goa, Assagao's design shops and Mario Miranda's Goa. Time it with Serendipity Arts Festival in December where possible.
Goa has long attracted artists, architects and designers, and the state's mix of Portuguese, Konkani and global influences shows in its buildings, crafts and galleries. This journey follows that thread, from the 18th-century salons of Chandor through Panjim's painted Latin quarter to a contemporary art museum in a converted industrial building.
You stay first at Cidade de Goa, the resort Charles Correa designed as a stylised Goan hill town, then at Ahilya by the Sea, a small hotel of antiques and art on the Nerul shore. If you travel in mid-December, we align the dates with Serendipity Arts Festival in Panjim, whose format and venues change each year.
Highlights
Day by day
Your driver meets you at Dabolim and drives to Cidade de Goa at Vainguinim. In the late afternoon, an architect walks you through the resort Charles Correa designed in the 1980s as an imagined Goan town, with stepped lanes, plazas, trompe l'oeil façades and painted walls, explaining how it borrows from Panjim and Old Goa. Dinner at the resort.
At 8 am, walk Fontainhas with a Panjim historian, reading the houses, balcões, oyster-shell windows and tiled street signs. Visit a studio where azulejo-style tiles are hand-painted, and a small gallery or two in the quarter. After lunch in the old town, see the Mario Miranda murals at the municipal market and, in December, the Serendipity Arts Festival venues along the Mandovi.
Drive south to Chandor for Braganza House, its ballroom of marble floors, mirrors and chandeliers, its library and chapel, and three centuries of furniture and porcelain. Lunch in Salcete, then drive north to Ahilya by the Sea at Nerul, a small hotel furnished with antiques and art in gardens on the water facing Fort Aguada. Arrive in time for a swim at sunset.
A morning at the restored Reis Magos fort, ten minutes away, whose careful conservation brought back its bastions and opened galleries of history and art. Continue to the Museum of Goa at Pilerne, the contemporary art museum set up by the artist Subodh Kerkar, for its current exhibitions and installations. Lunch in Saligao, then a free afternoon.
Spend the morning in Assagao with a local architect, walking past restored Portuguese houses and visiting the design shops, ceramic studios and textile stores that have opened in old buildings. Lunch at one of Assagao's best restaurants, then return to Nerul for a slow afternoon. In the evening, a farewell dinner on Ahilya's terrace.
A last breakfast by the water, then your driver takes you north to Manohar International Airport at Mopa, about 1 h 10 min away, or to Dabolim if your flight leaves from there. Any tiles, ceramics or textiles you have bought can be packed and shipped home for you.
Included
Not included
Where you sleep
A beach resort on Vainguinim cove near Dona Paula, designed by the architect Charles Correa as a stylised Goan village of lanes, courtyards and painted walls. …
A small, private hotel of white villas and gardens on the Nerul shore, looking across the water to Fort Aguada. With only a handful of rooms, …
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Questions travellers ask
Charles Correa, one of India's most respected architects, designed the resort as a stylised Goan hill town, with stepped lanes, courtyards and painted façades drawn from Panjim and Old Goa. It is still one of his best-loved buildings.
A contemporary art museum in Pilerne, near Candolim, opened in 2015 by the artist Subodh Kerkar. It holds rotating exhibitions by Goan and Indian artists, installations and events, in a converted industrial building.
Yes, if the festival runs in Panjim in mid-December as in recent editions. We add a day to see its exhibitions and performances. Its format and dates change, so check current status before you travel.
Small studios in Fontainhas and Assagao sell hand-painted azulejo-style tiles, ceramics and textiles. We arrange visits and can have larger pieces packed and shipped home for you.
Older children with an interest in art and buildings enjoy it, especially the Museum of Goa and the forts. For younger children, Taj Fort Aguada is a better base than Ahilya by the Sea.
Mario Miranda was a Goan cartoonist and illustrator whose drawings of Goan village and town life are much loved. His murals can be seen on the walls of Panjim's municipal market and elsewhere in Goa.
Cidade de Goa puts you close to Fontainhas and on the road south to Chandor; Ahilya by the Sea is close to Reis Magos, the Museum of Goa and Assagao. Ending in the north makes Mopa airport convenient.
Occasionally, by invitation. Goa has many working artists and designers, and our guides sometimes arrange studio visits. We cannot guarantee them, but ask us and we will try.
November to February, with mid-December for Serendipity Arts Festival. The journey also works in March and April, though midday heat makes walking harder. In the monsoon, galleries stay open but some studios close.
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