Taj Exotica Resort & Spa, Goa

South Goa is the calmer half of the state, and Benaulim is one of its longest and least developed beaches. The Taj Exotica spreads over fifty-six acres of gardens behind it, laid out in a loose Mediterranean style with whitewashed arcades, bougainvillea and lawns running down towards eight hundred metres of sand.

Rooms are scattered through low villa blocks, the best of them with private plunge pools and direct garden access. There is a nine-hole golf course, several pools, tennis and a large Jiva spa offering Indian and Goan treatments. Children are well catered for, which makes it a practical family option as well as a couples one.

Dining covers Goan and Portuguese-influenced cooking, seafood on the beach and an Italian restaurant; the local Catholic-Hindu culinary crossover is genuinely distinctive and worth exploring beyond the resort too. Old Goa's baroque churches, the Saturday night market at Arpora and the spice plantations inland are all within reach.