Planning · when to go

Best time to visit Panjim, month by month

November – February. Clear, hot days and cool nights from November to February, the church illuminated on 8 December, Carnival in the four days before Ash Wednesday, Shigmo's floats in March. Christmas to New Year is the crush — Fontainhas books out. The monsoon, June to September, empties the coast but not the capital, and it is cheap. Our pick: Late January — dry, the Christmas crowds gone, the Three Kings just past at Reis Magos, and Carnival still to come.

The season, honestly

Panjim is hot and humid all year and wet for four months of it: about 2,865 millimetres of rain, almost all between June and September, with July the wettest at over 900. November to February is dry, 32–33 °C by day and 20–22 at night, with nine to ten hours of sun. The monsoon closes the coast's shacks and water sports and flies the red flags, but Panjim itself — museums, churches, Fontainhas, the ferries, the casinos — stays open. The figures are an aggregator's, not the IMD's.

October to March

Oct: 32° / 24° — drying; the coast reopens

Nov: 33° / 22° — season; IFFI film festival late in the month

Dec: 33° / 21° — feast of the Immaculate Conception on the 8th; Liberation Day on the 19th; the Christmas crush

Jan: 32° / 20° — dry; Asmitai Dis on the 16th; Three Kings at Reis Magos on the 6th

Feb: 32° / 21° — dry; Carnival before Ash Wednesday; feni distilling begins late in the month

Mar: 32° / 23° — shigmo float parades; feni distilling in full swing

April to September

Apr: 33° / 26° — humid; the coast emptying

May: 33° / 27° — pre-monsoon storms; urrak season ends and the beach shacks come down

Jun: 30° / 25° — monsoon arrives — over 800 mm; Revolution Day on the 18th; São João on the 24th

Jul: 29° / 25° — wettest month, over 900 mm

Aug: 29° / 24° — wet; Bonderam on Divar, fourth Saturday; Ganesh Chaturthi

Sep: 30° / 24° — easing

If you can only come in the heat

Start at opening, be back indoors by eleven, and go out again an hour before sunset. Fontainhas at eight at 8am in May is emptier and better than at noon in December — the city's rhythm is the desert's, and it rewards anyone who keeps it.

Keep going

Panjim in one day — the order that works →Two days in Panjim →Where to stay in Panjim — the areas compared →Things to do in Panjim, ranked →Panjim, the Latin Quarter — the full guide →The Panjim Shot List — twelve frames →

The 32-page guide

Everything on this page, inside the full The Panjim Guide guide — the story in acts, checklist itineraries, Look Closer and the Shot List. Your first City Edition is free.

Get the The Panjim Guide guide →