The best beaches around Paraty
Paraty has more than sixty beaches if you count every cove on the bay, and they split neatly into three kinds: town beaches you can walk to, road beaches a short drive away, and the boat-or-trail beaches that are the real prize. Here's the honest ranking, and how to get to each.
Town beaches: Pontal and Jabaquara
Cross the footbridge over the Perequê-Açu river from the historic center and you're on Pontal, the town beach — a strip of sand with kiosks, fishing boats and a perfect view back at the colonial skyline. The water is calm but it's a working harbor; swim further along, eat and drink here. Fifteen minutes further on foot is Jabaquara, a wide, shallow horseshoe of sand where the water stays knee-deep for a long way out. It's the easiest swim near town and good with small kids; at low tide the flats seem to go on forever.
By road: Paraty-Mirim
About half an hour south of town, down a partly unpaved road, Paraty-Mirim is a quiet bay beach with calm green water, a handful of barracas serving fried fish, and an 18th-century chapel standing improbably at the sand's edge. Local buses run from Paraty's terminal if you don't want to drive. It's also one of the launch points for boats into the Saco do Mamanguá.
The trail beaches: Praia do Sono and Antigos
Praia do Sono is the one people tattoo on their memory: a long arc of pale sand backed by forest and a small caiçara fishing village, with no road in. You either hike about an hour and a half on a forest trail from Vila Oratório (near Laranjeiras), or take a boat from Paraty or Trindade. The village has simple restaurants and campsites; the beach itself is wild, with real surf — strong swimmers only when the swell is up.
Keep walking twenty minutes past Sono's far end and you reach Antigos, smaller and emptier, and beyond it Antiguinhos. No services at all — carry water. These two are as close to a private beach as the Costa Verde offers without a yacht.
The boat-only coves
The bay's schooner circuit stops at coves you can't reach any other way — Praia da Lula, Praia Vermelha, the snorkeling water off Ilha Comprida. The sand is coarse and golden, the water glassy and green, and the only way in is a hull. Any schooner or private launch from the pier will string three or four of them into a day.
And Trindade
The surf-village beaches of Trindade — Cepilho, do Meio, Cachadaço and the famous natural pool — deserve their own page: see the Trindade guide.
Picking your beach day
- With kids: Jabaquara or Paraty-Mirim — shallow, calm, with food nearby.
- For the postcard: Praia do Sono, by boat out and trail back (or vice versa).
- Least effort, most variety: a schooner day from the pier.
- Clear-water swimming: the natural pool at Cachadaço in Trindade.
Every beach here is pinned on the satellite map, with notes on access. Check when to visit too — water clarity changes with the season.