Goa in the monsoon is a different place. Most of the shacks are down, most of the tourists are gone, and most of the roads look like they were painted this week. The green is louder than the traffic.

The mornings are cool and long. The rain has its own hours — an assertive one before noon, a shy one at four, a slow one after dinner. You learn to plan around it, and then to not plan at all.

Some of our favourite weeks at Blue Breeze and Hillside Haven have been in July. There is no better time to be inside a well-designed stay than the hour a proper monsoon squall rolls in.