The Panjim heritage walk begins outside the GPO at Tobacco Square, the riverfront square that once hummed with the trade that made Goa the most important port in Portuguese Asia. Tobacco, spices, silk and horses crossed the river Mandovi here for centuries, and the square’s grand buildings — now colourful and slightly faded — still carry the weight of that history.

From Tobacco Square the walk enters Fontainhas, the Latin quarter that is the heart of the Panjim experience. This is the neighbourhood that the Portuguese built for their bureaucrats and servants, a grid of narrow lanes lined with mustard yellow, ochre, terracotta and pale blue villas, each one different, each one with its own tile-roofed verandah and iron-railed balcony. Your guide knows which buildings to look at and which stories to stop for, including the wishing well that locals still visit and the Chapel of St Sebastian, a tiny whitewashed church tucked into the lanes, whose crucifix is said to have once hung in the Palace of the Inquisition in Old Goa.

The walk continues up Altinho Hill, where the oldest surviving building in Panjim stands — the Adilshahi Palace, built around 1500 AD under the Bijapur Sultanate and later used as the residence of the Portuguese Viceroy. The views from the hill over the Mandovi river and the city below are extraordinary.

Maruti Temple, dedicated to Lord Hanuman and tucked between colonial buildings on the hillside, is one of the most atmospheric stops on the walk — a reminder that beneath the Portuguese layer, Goa’s Hindu traditions continued uninterrupted.

The walk ends at the Church of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception, the gleaming white baroque church that is the symbol of Panjim. Originally built in 1541 as a chapel for Portuguese sailors arriving at the port, it was rebuilt and expanded in the 17th century into the magnificent structure that stands today, its twin bell towers visible from the river.

This Panjim heritage walk is available as a group walk or a fully private walk. All walks are led by an expert cultural guide. No transport is required as everything is within walking distance.