Best Places to Visit in Brazil: A Coastline of Rhythm, Colour and Light
Rio de Janeiro’s mountains rise beside the Atlantic. The coast offers a varied introduction to the best places to visit in Brazil: music in Rio, slower days by the water in Búzios, Maceió and Paraty, and beaches reached by boat on Ilha Grande. Brazil is too vast to see in one trip, and the best time to visit Brazil depends on where you are headed, though the southern summer, from December to March, suits the coast best. This guide follows the route a ship would take, port by port, with the food, music and natural landmarks that belong to each. It is also the logic of Explora Journeys' Winter 2027–2028 season in South America, when the coastline comes into view from the sea.
Rio de Janeiro: The Cidade Maravilhosa
Rio announces itself before the ship has docked. Granite peaks rise straight from the water, and the city arranges itself around them. Christ the Redeemer stands 30 metres tall on the 710-metre summit of Corcovado. Sugarloaf Mountain, 396 metres high, guards the mouth of Guanabara Bay and two cable cars carry visitors to the top for a view across the whole harbour.
Then come the beaches. Copacabana curves for four kilometres beneath its apartment blocks, while Ipanema is calmer, and Arpoador, the rocky point between the two, is where Cariocas gather at sunset. Samba is the city's pulse, rooted in Afro-Brazilian communities and still played most nights in the bars of Lapa.
Among the cultural attractions in Brazil, Rio's are unusually close together. UNESCO inscribed the city's Carioca landscapes, where mountains meet sea, in 2012. Across the bay in Niterói, Oscar Niemeyer's contemporary art museum sits on the shore in the shape of a saucer, and the Museum of Tomorrow, by Santiago Calatrava, reaches out from the Praça Mauá pier. EXPLORA I counts Rio among its overnight ports in Winter 2027–2028, which leaves room for the views and an evening in Lapa.
Along the Coast: Búzios, Maceió and More Places to Visit in Brazil
Beyond Rio, the coast becomes a sequence of small harbours. Búzios is a fishing village turned seaside retreat, its coves best seen from the water. Maceió, in Alagoas, is edged by reef pools that warm in the sun. At low tide, small boats take visitors to the natural pools off Pajuçara beach, where the water is shallow and clear enough to count the fish.
Farther south, Paraty keeps one of the country's best-preserved colonial centres, with whitewashed façades along cobbled lanes. It was inscribed by UNESCO in 2019 together with Ilha Grande, an island without cars. Off the São Paulo coast, Ilhabela is largely wrapped in Atlantic Forest, with waterfalls tucked behind its beaches. Balneário Camboriú, in Santa Catarina, is livelier, a city of high-rises on a long bay and the setting for New Year's Eve fireworks.
Overland, this stretch means buses, domestic flights and a new hotel every few nights. By sea, it is one Oceanfront Suite, one Terrace and a coastline that arrives at breakfast. South America Journeys follow it from Brazil all the way to Patagonia.
The Best Beaches of Brazil's Atlantic Coast
The best beaches in Brazil are rarely the easiest to reach, and the way you arrive shapes the day. Ilha Grande has no roads, so ferries and boats bring everyone, and Lopes Mendes, a long curve of pale sand backed by forest, is reached on foot or by water. Boipeba, in Bahia's Cairu archipelago, is also boat-only, a car-free island of sandbanks and warm tide pools.
Others come by road. Arraial do Cabo, east of Rio, has water that runs from turquoise to deep green, with boats leaving for quieter coves. Jericoacoara, in Ceará, sits between dunes and a lagoon, its streets made of sand, and the final stretch is crossed by four-wheel-drive. Locals climb the big dune at dusk to watch the sun drop into the Atlantic.
Only Ilha Grande lies on EXPLORA I's Winter 2027–2028 route. The others suit extensions before or after a Journey.
The Best Time to Visit Brazil
The answer changes with the region. On the coast, December to March is summer: warm, bright, the busiest months for the beaches and the hottest in the north. Carnival usually falls in February or March, and Rio's parades fill the Sambadrome for days.
Rio's winter, from June to August, is mild and drier, with fewer crowds. In the Northeast, the heaviest rain tends to arrive in the middle of the year. Inland, the Amazon and the Pantanal have a dry season from roughly May to September or October, the best months for wildlife. Explora Journeys' Winter 2027–2028 season, from November 2027 to March 2028, is timed to the coast's summer.
A Taste of Brazil
Brazilian cuisine is regional before it is national, and each port has its own plate. In Rio it is feijoada: black beans slow-cooked with pork, served with rice, farofa, greens and slices of orange. A caipirinha of cachaça, lime and sugar is the usual companion, best sipped slowly.
Further up the coast, Bahian cooking takes over. Moqueca is a stew of fish or shrimp simmered with coconut milk, tomato and coriander, often finished with dendê palm oil. Acarajé, a black-eyed pea fritter fried in the same oil and split open around shrimp and vatapá, is sold on street corners by baianas in traditional white dress.
Music follows the same regional lines. Samba de roda, a circle of song, clapping and dance from Bahia, is recognised by UNESCO, and forró fills festival nights across the Northeast.
Brazil's Natural Landmarks, From the Coast Inward
Brazil's natural landmarks divide into those near the sea and those far from it. Fernando de Noronha, a volcanic archipelago far off the northeast coast, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site where spinner dolphins gather in the bays. Lençóis Maranhenses, farther along the coast, is a national park of white dunes holding rain-fed lagoons that are fullest in the middle of the year.
Inland lie the larger names. Iguaçu Falls, on the border with Argentina, spreads across around 275 separate falls. The Pantanal, among the world's largest wetlands, is where jaguars are watched from boats along the rivers. The Amazon asks for its own time, and our travel guide explains how it unfolds from the water. These inland places suit extensions rather than detours, each given its due before or after a Journey.
Destination Experiences
Discover Brazil with Explora Journeys
EXPLORA I's Winter 2027–2028 season gathers this coastline into one continuous Journey. Across ten Journeys from November 2027 to March 2028, the ship travels from Brazil to Patagonia, where tropical coastlines give way to windswept wilderness. Each evening, Guests return to the same Oceanfront Suite and its private Terrace, whether the port is Rio, Paraty or Ilha Grande. Unpack once. The beaches, the music and the cuisine arrive in turn.
Guests ready to begin can book the Winter 2027–2028 collection, discover EXPLORA I or choose from the full range of South America Journeys.
South America Journeys
It depends on the region. On the coast, December to March is summer and the peak season for beaches, with Carnaval usually falling in February or March. Rio is milder and drier from June to August, while the Amazon and the Pantanal are best for wildlife in the dry season, roughly May to September or October.
Jericoacoara, Ilha Grande, Arraial do Cabo and Boipeba appear on most lists. Ilha Grande and Boipeba can only be reached by boat, while Arraial do Cabo and Jericoacoara are accessible by road. Ilha Grande is the one that lies on EXPLORA I's Winter 2027–2028 route.
Feijoada, a slow-cooked black bean and pork stew, is Rio's signature dish. Along the Northeast coast, moqueca (a coconut milk fish stew) and acarajé (a black-eyed pea fritter) reflect Afro-Brazilian cooking. Caipirinha, made with cachaça, lime and sugar, is the national cocktail.
Sugarloaf Mountain and Corcovado frame Rio, while Fernando de Noronha and Lençóis Maranhenses lie along the coast. Inland, Iguaçu Falls, the Pantanal and the Amazon are the best known. The coastal landmarks can be seen from the sea, and the inland ones suit extensions.
Samba, Carnaval and a rich Afro-Brazilian heritage, especially in Bahia, define much of Brazil's cultural identity. Its cuisine is equally regional, and architecture ranges from Paraty's colonial lanes to Oscar Niemeyer's modernist museum in Niterói. Rio's Carioca landscapes are a UNESCO-listed cultural landscape.
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