The St. Regis Goa Resort

Bright, tall and busy in the right way — show kitchens down one side with the chefs working in front of you, an upper room and a lower one, and a terrace outside for the evenings that deserve it. The menu runs international classics beside Goan cooking, with a light section that earns its place over a week rather than a weekend. Breakfast is here. So is the Sunday brunch, which fills up with people who are not even staying, so ask early.

Rustic inside — bare wood, low light — and al fresco outside, where the tables are the ones to ask for. The kitchen cooks from Italy's olive country rather than from the international Italian repertoire, which shows in the simple dishes more than the elaborate ones. There are private dining rooms off it. The terrace at twilight is the best table on the property.

The one room here that faces the river rather than the sea. Cool white interiors, a terrace over the Sal, and the estuary going slowly past on the other side of the rail. The cooking is Pan-Asian and precise rather than sprawling. Come at 7, before the light goes, and take the terrace — the inside room is handsome and is not why you are here. They will also set a candlelit table for two down beside the water, away from the room altogether.

Susegado is the Goan word for the state's whole way of being, and this is a beach grill in the proper sense: on the sand, open to the sea, cooking the coast from Gujarat down to Bengal rather than only what Goa does with a fish. The cocktail list is the strongest on the property. Palmera and Gourmet Bites, the beach service and the food truck, keep the same season. Ask, and a table will be set for two alone — a dome on this sand, or a barbecue on the private stretch at Manor Beach. It shuts for the monsoon along with the beach it stands on, and comes back when the sea does.

It is the Great Hall: the room you walked into, and the room everything else opens off. Afternoon tea comes on silver trays, a classic set and a Goan one, and the Goan one is the reason to come. In the evening the coffee list turns into a cocktail list and the Goan Mary appears. Open from 11 until midnight, which makes it the one place here with no wrong hour.

Board games, a bar and something to eat, for the afternoons when the sun is too much and the beach is not the answer. It changes character as the evening comes on and turns into somewhere to sit with a drink and no particular plan. Open from 11 in the morning until midnight, with nothing formal about any of it.