Goa’s newest luxury address is a sprawling hotel complex from the IHCL group

The Taj Hotel & Convention Centre is contemporary in design and uber-luxurious, with a rooftop infinity pool.

Goa has a swanky new address.

The Taj Hotel & Convention Centre, one of the state’s largest conference and convention facilities, threw open its formidable doors to welcome guests. The hotel, in the planning stages for many years, was to open in 2020, except that a pandemic threw it out of gear. We are still in the middle of a huge surge, but then Goa is open and there is no better time than now.

It is ‘co-located’ with the lovely boutique hotel Cidade de Goa, which the IHCL group manages as part of its Taj SeleQtion portfolio. The integrated luxury hotel and conference facility, with over 500 rooms and 60,000 sq. ft of conference space, is a mammoth property that will cater to MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) and destination weddings. Interestingly, IHCL remains the largest hospitality operator in Goa with the maximum number of hotels and rooms.

Rising behind the original quartos of the Charles Correa-designed Cidade de Goa, its visual landscape spans the Arabian Sea, Zuari River, Mormugao Harbour and Vainguinim Beach. Guests who come to the Taj will have access to Cidade's facilities, and could consider staying back or travelling to Goa again to enjoy its quaint boutique luxury experience.

Unlike the heritage Cidade, the Taj Hotel & Convention Centre is contemporary in design and uber-luxurious, with a rooftop infinity pool and a 40-seater cinema. It is a MICE and destination wedding hotel, so it is imperative to speak about its 13,000 sq. ft pillarless hall, the six breakaway spaces, an open-air terrace, lawns and a multitude of banqueting options.

Vincent Ramos, area director, IHCL Goa, and general manager, Taj Hotel & Convention Centre, says, “Despite all the disruptions, we have been performing phenomenally well since we opened. The two hotels have attracted not only leisure travellers but also the wedding segment. The complex is unique—both the properties complement each other. This helps us to cope with the challenges. Our teams went through training sessions in the last few months on the hygiene and sanitisation practices that are in line with the ministry of tourism and WHO guidelines.”

While the MICE business is pretty much of no consequence at the moment, Ramos says they have been attracting domestic tourists, with occupancy at almost close to the pre-COVID times. “The wedding segment has done rather well and it is this business which drove revenues over the last few months.” Programmes such as ‘Destination Dining by the Beach’, ‘SeleQtions Pawcation’ and inter-property experiences that involve the Taj Hotel & Convention Centre and Cidade de Goa, have helped keep guests engaged. Conventions, he says, will take at least three years to come back. Leisure travel, on the other hand, is doing rather well. “Guests, who have attended small conferences at Taj Hotel, often return with their family to stay at Cidade.”

The jewel in the leisure crown is Cidade de Goa, the ‘co-hotel’ as it were, a classic property located on the isolated Vainguinim Beach, at the cusp of Zuari River and the Arabian Sea. The complex is divided into two distinct parts—the lower one with the original resort by Correa, and the upper portion, the new hotel on the cliff.

Correa was inspired by his home state, Goa, the powers that ruled it and defined its architecture and culture, and by Cubism while designing Cidade. He created a lovely hotel with an ochre-yellow façade and seamlessly integrated outdoor-indoor spaces. Cidade, which means ‘a village within a resort’ in Portuguese, drew references from a quintessential village back in Portugal. “Not many know that Cidade de Goa was the original name for Panaji, or Panjim, Goa’s capital city,” says Keith Pinto, Director of Sales. Goa-born Pinto has incidentally curated the heritage walk across the hotel.

The view from the hotel and convention centre spans the Arabian Sea, Zuari River, Mormugao Harbour and Vainguinim Beach.

The design story

Set on a rocky outcrop, Correa has created a 'Portuguese hamlet'-sort of ambience, with little nooks that characterise a small Portuguese town or a South Goa village. Across the hotel are Goa’s classic cultural and design elements—intimate alcoves, overhanging balcaos, murals, the entrance arch, the tavern and the coconut palms that circle it. Meandering hallways, elevated terraco, art commissioned by Correa, and cosy courtyards transport guests to an era when life must have been much slower.

Correa once wrote about his multi-fragmented approach to design. "Many buildings present you with a series of spellbinding effects, without any real inter-relationship. That one set-piece follows the previous one in a knockout sequence..." The late architect, inspired by Cubism, created a hotel with seamlessly integrated indoor and outdoor spaces. The corridors are partly open to the natural elements and command a view of pretty courtyards that have patches of green and are open-to-sky. The façade wall has square punctuations through which you see a quick flash of the sea as you walk past. Whatever the season, the hotel doesn’t require constant air-conditioning; it has fresh air flowing in from the outside.

A mural in the Charles Correa-designed Cidade de Goa.

The art palate 

There is art all around—on the walls and in the corridors, some inspired by other artists, such as Spanish artist Giorgio de Chirico, whose silhouette pops up on a wall inspired by his art. Correa used a cinema poster painter, one Mr Bhidekar, to hand-paint the art. A wall in the passage of the lobby is not just a wall but painted like a village street. The balcaos have been re-imagined in a modern context, and the building blocks are articulated in such a way that the resort looks like a part of Lisbon washed up against the shore.

A painting of a buzzing street deli, inspired by the ones in Lisbon sprawls across Docaria, the bakery and snack bar. Across the corridors that connect the reception with the suites are pathways that run up to the hill, reminiscent of the pathways in Lisbon in their play of colours such as yellows and browns. While the top-draw Presidential suite, the Vasco da Gama suite, epitomises luxury with its theme décor, the Jardim Suite has an enclosed garden and barbecue area. The most expensive suites are on the seafront, where the verandahs have in-built furniture and the views are of Dona Paula in the distance.

Designed for meetings, conferences, exhibitions and weddings, the hotel has a 13,000 sq. ft pillarless hall, the six breakaway spaces, an open-air terrace, lawns and a multitude of banqueting options.

The experiences 

Alfama, the elegant restaurant where every week, a local musician family sings The Fado (sad and haunting Portuguese songs), is imbued with design elements of a bohemian quarter of Lisbon, the birthplace of the music form. Singers and musicians serenade guests while standing, or seated, in romantic balconies and alcoves.

Among other experiences is a heritage journey across Cidade, which is pretty much like strolling through an old beautiful city peppered with murals, such as two sentries guarding the entrance and figures from history, or a mural defining the three facets of Vasco de Gama— as the statesman, the explorer and the philosopher, which stands in the lobby.

Cidade de Goa and Taj Hotel & Convention Centre also offer a walk across the Panjim, or Panaji, the city that blends within its restored and preserved architectural heritage, the Latin Quarters and the ruins around. A narrative woven around the powerful dynasties and colonisers who ruled Goa, from the Chandragupta Maurya dynasty right down to the Portuguese rulers. Your guides will also trace the signs of early human inhabitation which can be traced back to the Palaeolithic age. Some of the rocks found in Goa are as old as 3,600 million years. This region has successively been ruled by some of the greatest dynasties in Indian medieval history—the Satvahanas, the Chalukyas of Badami and the Vijayanagara Empire, among others.

The experience includes a session of music and some wine at a local musician’s heritage home, followed by a sumptuous Goan lunch at yet another family home.

Much like most experiential travel, while the Taj Hotel & Convention Centre is a luxurious getaway, its co-hotel Cidade de Goa is a journey into Goa’s past, its history, its architectural and culinary heritage, its music and the arts.