Amaraanth

The brief for the Binani family's house in Varca was to keep the building's footprint small and leave the rest to the garden, and the garden has had the better of the deal: mulberry for shade, and frangipani over grey stone terraces. George Seemon of Stapati kept the bones and took out walls, so that dining and lounging run into one another. The walls that stayed are laterite, the colour of the earth they stand on, under terracotta tiles; the twelve suites inside are cane and dark wood under a ceiling fan. In the Luxury and Signature Suites the bath is outdoors, open to the sky. The Signature swaps the balcony for a private yard and adds seventy square feet, which settles the choice.

Recommended for grown-ups who want a quiet stretch of the south coast and a house small enough to look after them: every suite has a butler, and breakfast in bed is in the rate. A private footpath runs through the garden to Fatrade Beach, seven to nine minutes away, and the 13.5-metre pool at the edge of the lawn is there for days when even that is too far. Ritu Dalmia's cooking at Amaraanth Kitchen runs from prawn balchao at breakfast to a coastal thali of Goan dishes, and the bar, The Lab, has named a tequila cocktail The Curry, which is either loyalty or nerve. The spa, The HVN, keeps a Hydrobed, a wet bed held at 38°C on which a massage, a scrub, a wrap, steam and a shower all happen without anyone getting up: breakfast in bed, taken to its logical end.