India (Frommer's, 4th Edition) - Keith Bain [183]
31 January Rd., Fontainhas, opposite Panjim Inn 403 001. www.panjimpeoples.com. Reception: Panjim Inn, E-212, 31st January Rd., Fontainhas. 0832/222-8136, -6523, -1122, or -6523. Fax 0832/243-5220. www.panjiminn.com. 4 units. Oct–Apr 15 Rs 7,200 superior double, Rs 1,000 extra person, Rs 500 child; Apr 16–Sept Rs 5,400 superior double, Rs 900 extra person, Rs 350 child; Dec 24–Jan 2 Rs 9,000 superior double, Rs 1,500 extra person, Rs 750 child. Rates include breakfast; 10% tax extra. MC, V. Amenities: Restaurant and bar (at Panjim Inn, across the road); airport transfers (Rs 500–Rs 600); Internet (in the gallery; 1⁄2hr. free). In room: A/C, TV, fridge, no phone.
Pousada Panjim This is a restored colonial-era Hindu-design house in a predominantly Catholic neighborhood. There’s nothing particularly luxurious about this atmospheric guesthouse, but it offers a fairly authentic taste of Panjim’s 19th-century upper-class lifestyle (along with hot water and “proper” plumbing). The simple rooms are furnished with antiques (including four-poster beds) arranged around an empty, courtyard—or tulus—where women traditionally prayed and performed the morning arti. Windows and balconies look onto the back streets and backyards of Panjim’s old “Latin Quarter.” The better-looking rooms are on the first floor, so book one of these. As with the nearby Panjim People’s (see above), guests at the Pousada have breakfast at the older, Catholic-built, sister hotel, Panjim Inn, where there’s a good restaurant and more space to unwind with a beer or a book. The inn offers budget rooms in an old family property dating from 1880, and there’s a newer wing offering smart, antique-styled rooms with chunky hand-carved rosewood beds—the best have big French doors that open on to a small private terrace overlooking the main road and the river.
House no. 156, Circle no. 5, Cunha Gonsalves Rd., Fontainhas. Reception at Panjim Inn, E-212, 31st January Rd., Fontainhas 403 001. 0832/222-8136 or -6523. Fax 0832/222-8136 or -6523. www.panjiminn.com. 9 units (with shower only). Oct–Apr 15 Rs 1,980–Rs 2,070 double, Rs 2,700–Rs 2,750 deluxe double, Rs 3,600 superior/suite; Apr 16–Sept Rs 1,620 double, Rs 1,800 deluxe double, Rs 2,340 superior/suite; Rs 600 extra person; Rs 300 child. Panjim Inn has 24 units with the same rates. Rates include breakfast; 5%–8% tax extra. Rates slightly higher Dec 24–Jan 2. MC, V. Amenities: Restaurant, lounge, bar (all at Panjim Inn); airport transfers (Rs 500–Rs 600); Internet (in the gallery; 1⁄2hr. free). In room: A/C, TV, fridge, no phone.
WHERE TO DINE
While you can eat heartily and comfortably at Panjim Inn, it would be a shame not to sample the produce of a few other kitchens in Fontainhas. Besides Viva Panjim and Horseshoe (both reviewed below), you can enjoy an atmospheric evening at Luiz D’Souza’s Hospedaria Venite (31st January Rd., Fontainhas; 0832/242-5537; daily 8:30am–10:30pm), a tiny upstairs restaurant in a 200-year-old building where you can sit on the balcony and order wonderful Goan specialties (or try the delicious shrimp salsa and stuffed crab). The restaurant, which has been going for over 50 years now, features a floor made from wood salvaged from a wrecked Portuguese ship, and in one room the walls are thickly covered with decades of graffiti, amateur artworks and assorted paraphernalia, making this feel like a seriously boho hangout. You can also head across the Mandovi Bridge to Povorim where O’Coquiero’s (near Water Tank; 0832/241-7271) has been churning out traditional Goan food for decades (try the squid masala or chicken cafreal). For more on Goan food, see “A Bluffers Guide to the Unique Flavors of Goa.”
Down the road from the Goa Marriott Resort (which, incidentally, has a very decent seafood restaurant, Simply Fish,