South America

Undeveloped hippie beach town island. Raw nature with many beautiful beaches and other islands nearby.

The magic being the “undeveloped” part. Unlike nearby Ilhabela island which has fully-developed roads and cars, far more crowded…Ilha Grande has a jungle beach bum oasis vibe. Dirt roads, far less people, actually see locals walking around barefoot. And while it’s casual and bum-ey, you also wouldn’t be so out of place if you want to dress up a little and go to a nice restaurant. It’s a perfect all-purpose island. All ranges of people, ages, etc, will enjoy Ilha Grande.

Beaches have many varieties, as typical in Brazil. Big space, little space, fish in water, rocks for beauty and elevated views, trees for shade, can walk to nearby ones, or hike/ferry to far beautiful ones. Plenty food options, from traditional to fancy. Only thing Ilha Grande doesn’t have is the “posh” vibe, and I like it that way! Non-pretentious, chill, beautiful, real.

5-7 days is a good start considering the effort to get here, 3-4 days can be minimum (but you’ll cry when you leave). Do I see it being a place you could stay for months and months? Probably not because of how far the better beaches are from town. A true beach lover would prefer nicer beaches within 15mins walk. But indeed, it has many things and a nice vibe.

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Lesser known peninsula area of Bahia, characterized by beaches with many rocks and natural pools, surrounded by chill and less developed islands.

The numerous rocks on the beach combined by the long inconvenient route to get here, help keep it a less popular tourist destination. Getting there requires the use of infrequent buses and/or ferry or driving on terrible rocky road full of potholes (that almost no taxi driver wants to do). Rocks on the beach are the sharp jagged kind that hurt your feet. Pretty to look at, can wander inside the natural pools or explore sealife at low tide, also fun for children and family activities, but maybe less desirable for those wanting a clear beach with just sand and ocean.

All areas of the peninsula (except for one) are very quiet and very few open business establishments (let alone nightlife) after a certain hour. Overall, it’s a nice place for couples or families. Young crowds or or solo travelers looking for nightlife and something more social may feel too disconnected from everybody else here.

I recommend 5-day minimum for Marau. Especially considering how much hassle it is to get to. Spend 3 days in Barra Grande and 2 days in Taipu de Fora. You could also switch that around if you want more remote and quiet.

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Small charmy colonial town, many cute shops and restaurants, with beautiful beaches and islands nearby.

Paraty is a nicely balanced destination. The town itself is small but its unique quality is the historical center (old town cobbled road) full of nice restaurants, bars, and shops. Relaxed vibe but people do dress up, so it’s not like a beach-bum town. The beaches by the town are not swimmable but within 15min-1hr drive you have many amazing beaches, waterfalls, rivers, parks, etc to do whatever nature activity you wish. You’ll usually spend the day driving around to beach and nature stuff, then come back home to the historical center at night.

The accommodations are not expensive. And there are all kinds of nature and animals in the area. You can see the little sagui monkeys running about your accommodation. With extra time in your day, you can drive just 35mins to reach Trindade (another nice tourist destination with its own vibe).

3 days gets you a sense of the area, 1 week would be more appropriate to have chill days exploring both the town and all the water activities and nature nearby. If you had to stay a month, you still wouldn’t be bored…there are many things to do and see.

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Small beach city with commercialized infrastructure…rains often (aka “Ubachuva”), crazy crowded sometimes, mostly family-oriented beaches but also a few nice chill beaches as well.

Although I had a great time going early Jan 2025, I recommend you avoid high season because you’ll have both crappy weather (lots of rain) and too much overcrowding. Car traffic all day long making exploring other beaches by car impossible, and lots of people on the beaches. Go during low season and it’ll feel like a more magical quieter beach town.

Indeed, Ubatuba has 100+ beaches over 100km of coastline, but you’ll probably see about 5-10 max. It really needs a car to get around. And thankfully, 99/Uber exists here but many won’t accept your call for remote locations so you’ll have to do side arrangements.

3 days is enough. Not practical to stay longer because of inconvenience…not as walkable compared to other beach towns. Many areas are far from each other, and beaches are not that nice. Ubatuba is a convenient beach escape for Sao Paulo people (“Paulistas”).

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Small beautiful beach island with a peaceful nature vibe (even during high season).

The main reason for going here is because you want something chill, peace and quiet. It’s the exact contrast to Morro de Sao Paulo, the larger much more popular island just north next door to Boipeba. Morro is known for being a massively popular touristic town with lots of restaurants, bars, nightlife, AND NOISE!

Boipeba is the opposite. Lots of nature! As enticing as it sounds…it doesn’t mean perfect for you. The “nature” I speak of means much less infrastructure. The only roads accessible by car are the very city center. And the rest of the island is reachable by ATV (“quadriciclo”) or tractor (yes, a farm tractor pulls a long wagon with many bench seats…treated like a bus on sand) or boat. Making getting around slightly less convenient. You can’t just walk to all the beautiful beaches the way you can on Morro de Sao Paulo.

Food options are much less abundant. I was disappointed in the food, actually. There are some great restaurants, like maybe 3-5 tops. At Morro de Sao Paulo, felt like I had great food every night and still had 30 more restaurants to try. Nightlife is almost non-existent. And I kind of liked it. The center square of Boipeba is very quiet, very low-level music if any. It’s not a dueling set of bars vying to see who was loudest. It’s also true that while Morro de Sao Paulo is for everybody, but most popular with young sexy party people…Boipeba is more for couples, older folks, locals trying to save money, or families. Boipeba is cheaper in general.

As with most Brazilian beach vacation towns, most people stay 5-7 days. But you can see everything within 3 days.

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Big friendly city in inland Brazil, known for good food from Minas Gerais region, modern architecture and art.

Belo Horizonte, aka “BH” and pronounced by locals as “Beaga” [bay-ah-gah], is the capital of Minas Gerais (historically known as a place of mines…gold, etc). Although considered an important tourist destination for its historical significance and natural beauty, foreigners don’t usually come to Minas Gerais.

And generally, nobody goes here because it feels like BH doesn’t have any of Brazil’s typical nature highlights…beaches, rivers, waterfalls, jungle, etc. And the town itself doesn’t have much to offer tourists. I’d say the best tourist highlight in BH is #1 Inhotim (outdoor contemporary museum), and #2 the best carnaval in Brazil. Other than that, it’s a chill city and mostly safe city.

You could easily pop in and out of this city in 2 days and felt you saw all the highlights. But if you stayed longer, there’d be plenty of everyday niceties and nearby towns and attractions to make it worthwhile.

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A smaller Sao Paulo. Modern, techie, safe, hip, arts, parks, eco-friendly, LGBT-friendly, and has capybaras.

Curitiba is probably Brazil’s hippest city…although labelled as the “world’s smartest city” (IMO nowhere near that but I appreciate the effort). Take the cool parts of Sao Paulo and compact it down to a smaller, more manageable version, making it overall cleaner and more modern, and you have Curitiba. It’s very green. Even things that are not a park, will have lots of trees and water and will look like a park. The weather here is among the nicest in Brazil, not too hot or too cold. Curitiba is also a good size for a city…not too big, not too small.

Curitiba is famous for parks and museums, and events…music, arts, theater, film. From what I see, it looks like your typical non-destination city (because it doesn’t have beaches or touristy things) that got gentrified and reinvested for tourism and quality of life. Many people say it’s boring in terms of tourism, and it’s a fair point. It seems tourists stop in Curitiba mainly for the capybaras, and as a stop between Florianopolis and Foz do Iguazu.

Curitiba’s strongest point is that it’s a nice place to live. Good quality of life due to the aforementioned qualities above. But from a tourist standpoint, it will definitely pale in comparison to a more majestic beach destination like Rio, big city metropolis of Sao Paulo, or a small charmy colonial town. Even within the southern states, Curitiba would probably rank lower to Florianopolis…a more picturesque beach city with lots of beautiful people and seemingly “fun vacation vibes” everywhere.

3 days is enough to see tourist highlights.

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Interior posh city, nice to live but not much in terms of tourism. Good food and bar scene, friendly sexy locals.

Goiania was historically known as Brazil’s city with the highest socioeconomic disparity, having the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor. Today, it seems like a very safe and well-off city. Everybody dressed up well and nice restaurants and bars everywhere. Very lively, very posh. Tons of nice apartment buildings to live in, trendy gyms, shops, etc. It’s known as a popular city for bachelor parties to mingle.

Stay for a couple days, a week, forever. Again…it’s not a touristy city. It’s always good weather.

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Beautiful island of beaches on the Sao Paulo coast, with mostly only Brazilians.

A family-friendly beach destination, developed infrastructure with city comforts (shopping, stores, etc), nice beach boardwalk, many levels of accommodations to choose from, nature and trekking. If you want to hit a full island instead of just mainland coastal beach area like Ubatuba, then Ilhabela is for you.

3 days minimum considering that there are many areas to check out, and also for the effort you spend getting there. As with many Brazilian beach destinations…5-7 days is more what people spend. Soak in the vibe and feel like you have time to enjoy more different beaches.

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Big state park in Brazil’s interior countryside, full of many beautiful natural attractions and activities.

Jalapao is a huge park with at least 50 activities, some more popular than others. So your experience varies depending on how many days you stay, without or without a tour guide, and of course which attractions you pick.

I’d recommend a minimum of at least 4 days (3 nights) to get enough variety. This makes sense since getting there already takes so much time, and then traveling between different parts also takes lots of drive time.

I had local friends who knew it well to took me around, and that was amazing since we spent as long as we wanted and never felt rushed. I’m sure other people going with a professional tour probably enjoyed it as well but didn’t have the freedom and flexibility we did. Flexibility is absolutely key if you have time, and/or want to alternate plans based on how you feel (e. g. wanting more X and less Y), or changing plans based on the weather.

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Popular party beach town in northeast Brazil. Many nice beaches, shops, restaurants, and party vibe.

Most Brazilian towns tend to lean towards more posh or more chill. Morro de Sao Paulo (or “Morro” for short) gives you a mix of both. It’s also nice that everything all conveniently located next to each other. You can easily choose what vibe you want to have. And if you wish for something more remote, just go a little further out and you’ll easily find your peace.

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Beautiful beach town with slow chill vibe. Nice beaches with rocks, solid nightlife options.

Florianopolis is a cool beach town that most people spend 1 week when visiting. Sure, you could dip in and out within 3 days but feel like you’re missing the slowdown vibe as everyone else is settling for longer and building closer friendships.

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