Panaji is the capital of Goa and is, in the way of state capitals in India, somewhat underestimated. It is a small city on the Mandovi River with a population that actually lives there, a working waterfront, and Fontainhas behind it. The Latin Quarter is a pocket of Portuguese urban planning from the 1820s, the houses painted in yellows and blues and greens, narrow lanes, a chapel at one end. It is not a museum. People live in those houses. The laundry is on the lines.
Old Goa, six kilometres east, is the former capital of Portuguese India: the Se Cathedral, the Basilica of Bom Jesus which holds the relics of Francis Xavier, the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception visible from everywhere. The scale of these buildings against the surrounding landscape is still surprising after five centuries. UNESCO listed them in 1986. They are active churches, not ruins, and the Basilica in particular has a quality of light in the late afternoon that makes the three-hour round trip from wherever you are staying worth the effort.
Together, Panaji and Old Goa make the case for a Goa that existed before tourism and continues despite it.
Travellers who want a sense of Goa's actual history rather than its beach reputation. People who want a town base with restaurants, a functioning market, and a shoreline that is a river rather than a sea. Architecture enthusiasts for whom the Portuguese heritage is as interesting as anything else in Goa. Anyone who has already been to the beaches and wants to spend a day looking at something different.
Not the right choice if the beach is the entire point of the trip. Panaji is a short drive from the coast but its character is town-rather-than-beach, and the vibe is slower and more local than the northern beach strip.
Fontainhas in the early evening: the narrow lanes around 31st January Road for the painted houses and the small chapel that anchors the quarter. The Saturday Night Market in the riverside district, not to be confused with the tourist version. The Municipal Market, a working produce market that opens at six in the morning. Old Goa by taxi: the Basilica of Bom Jesus for the interior and the light, the Se Cathedral for the scale, the Convent of St Francis of Assisi immediately behind it. Ritz Classic near the market for the fish curry and rice at lunch, a meal that costs less than anywhere else you will eat in Goa and is better than most.