Before the Portuguese claimed it as part of their empire in 1510, the island of Goa had been passed back and forth between Hindu kingdoms and Muslim sultanates since antiquity. At that time, the south was the heart of Goan culture, its capital city at the southernmost tip of the island. Those days are long gone, however, and South Goa has few historical remains. There is the pre-colonial Cabo de Rama Fort, and some fantastic, if decrepit, Portuguese mansions scattered through the hills — but nothing like the faded splendor of Panjim in the north.

Paradoxically, South Goa’s lack of heritage sights is part of what has allowed it to retain the sleepy, old Goa charm that the North has lost — and that’s exactly what you come here for. Fishermens’ hamlets cluster by photogenic golden beaches, while lovely narrow lanes wind through a lush countryside of spice plantations, sloping eastwards up into the tropical forests and waterfalls of the Western Ghats.

South Goa is the place to go trekking through forests of crocodile bark trees to look for flame-throated bulbuls, white-bellied woodpeckers and Indian bison. At Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary you can spot black leopards, Indian pangolins, sloth bears and painted bats, then have a picnic and swim in the river. In the far east there’s Dudhsagar Waterfall, where trains trundle across a railway bridge that passes in front of the falls, and at Palolem you can kayak with pink dolphins off the coast of one of India’s most beautiful beaches. In between, stop in at a plantation to try the local cashew hooch (it’s a taste we’ve not yet acquired).

You don’t really need to do any of this, however, to soak up what South Goa is all about.

Come here to be cossetted: there are some wonderful, secluded hotels along the coastline, and the living is very, very easy. Lounge by the pool, get an Ayurvedic spa treatment, and enjoy doing nothing much at all.