The Northeast Coast: Salvador to the Dunes
Brazil’s cultural engine room and its strangest landscape: Salvador’s drums and gilded churches, the colonial towns of the Recôncavo, then north through Recife and Olinda to the freshwater lagoons of the Lençóis Maranhenses.
Salvador
Land and go up. The Elevador Lacerda from the port to the Cidade Alta, then Pelourinho’s painted grid and São Francisco, whose gilded interior is the most excessive thing in Brazilian baroque.
Bonfim and the bay
The Igreja do Bonfim with its railings of coloured ribbons, the Mercado Modelo for craft, and an afternoon boat across the Bay of All Saints to Itaparica. Evening: a drum rehearsal in the historic centre if the calendar cooperates.
Inland to Chapada Diamantina
Six hours west into a highland of table mountains, waterfalls and old diamond-mining towns. Lençóis, the base town, is cobbled, small and full of guides — hire one, because the trails here are not signposted.
The Vale do Capão
To Cachoeira da Fumaça — the Smoke Falls, where a 340-metre drop atomises before it reaches the bottom and blows back up the cliff. The approach is a steep two hours up onto the plateau, and the view down the falls is from above rather than below.
Caves and blue water
Poço Azul and Poço Encantado — flooded caverns where, in the right months and the right hour, a shaft of sun turns the water an unreasonable blue. Access is regulated and timed, so this is a day to be organised about.
North to Recife and Olinda
Fly from Salvador to Recife. Stay in Olinda, the hill town six kilometres north — colonial, green, artist-heavy, and the site of a carnival that is entirely street-based and unticketed.
Recife and the reefs
Recife Antigo, the old Dutch-built port quarter, and the Instituto Ricardo Brennand. Note the swimming advice on the city beaches — shark incidents have been a documented issue along this stretch of coast and the warning signs mean what they say.
Porto de Galinhas
An hour south, natural pools form inside the reef at low tide and fill with fish. Go at the tide table rather than the tour schedule, and consider the jangada rafts a transport option rather than an attraction.
To São Luís
Fly northwest to Maranhão. São Luís is the only Brazilian city founded by the French, tiled throughout in Portuguese azulejos, UNESCO-listed and considerably rougher round the edges than Salvador — which is part of its appeal.
Into the Lençóis Maranhenses
Four hours by road to Barreirinhas, then a 4x4 into the park: several hundred square kilometres of white dunes with thousands of freshwater lagoons between them, refilled by the rains and gone by the end of the dry season. Not a desert — the rainfall here is high; the sand simply cannot hold it.
Lagoons at either end of the day
The dunes are best at sunrise and sunset and unbearable in between. Swim in Lagoa Azul and Lagoa Bonita, walk barefoot between crests, and understand that the whole landscape reshapes itself annually.
Down the Preguiças river
Boat down the Lazy River to Caburé, a sandbar village between river and ocean, past mangrove and a lighthouse. Slow, hot, and one of the better half-days on this coast.
Back to São Luís
Return by road and spend the last afternoon in the tiled streets, with a plate of arroz de cuxá and, if it is June, the Bumba Meu Boi festival that takes over the entire state.
Out
Fly home via São Paulo or Brasília. The northeast is a long way from Brazil’s main international gateways and the connection is almost always domestic first.
Good to know
The Lençóis lagoons are seasonal. They fill after the rains and are at their fullest roughly June to September; by late in the dry season many have gone. Going in the wrong month means dunes without water.
The northeast is hot and humid year-round. Carnival (February or March) transforms Salvador and Olinda and requires booking many months ahead at multiples of the normal price.
Distances between the coastal cities are large; two internal flights are what keep this to fourteen days.
Shorter or longer?
Salvador, Chapada Diamantina and Recife/Olinda — drop the Maranhão leg entirely.
Add three days between Lençóis and São Luís for the dune village and its kite-surf season.
Bookend with four days in Rio de Janeiro before flying north.