Amrapali House of Grace, the old Goa everyone else drives past

The rooms are named like blessings. Creation is the grand one, a 650 square foot master bedroom looking onto the garden. Peace is the smallest and arguably the sweetest, with a freestanding copper bathtub and a private garden facing the water. Compassion is a glass house with a 180 degree view of the pool from the room and, pleasingly, from the bathroom as well. Harmony gives you a proper lounging space and a bathtub of your own, Devotion faces the pool with a writing desk, and the Moroccan Pool House is a standalone powder-blue cottage with shuttered arches and a Moroccan-inspired lounge, right on the pool.

The bits you will write home about

The pool sits in a courtyard between the red arcaded wings, watched over by a stone Buddha. The kitchen cooks slow and à la minute, and the waterfront café serves gourmet desserts from a pastry chef the hotel says is Le Cordon Bleu certified alongside teas from Assam estates. Five in-house dogs handle the welcome committee.

The house will arrange yoga, massages, private picnics at Siridao Beach and guided tours to Old Goa, Divar Island and the Salim Ali bird sanctuary. They say you can catch crabs off the veranda, which we intend to verify personally. Bambolim beach is five minutes by car. Candolim is forty, which is exactly far enough.

A British guest called it "one of the loveliest places I've ever stayed", and it shows off press headlines calling it among the prettiest boutique hotels in North Goa. We would put it more simply. This is what people mean when they say old Goa, minus the guesswork.

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