Three days in Ubatuba, Brasil – a beach lover’s haven!

Note: I have a working phone, woohoo! The whole thing went kaput and I had to get a totally new handset – the folks at the Apple Store told me that everything on it was gone (which included all our Ubatuba pictures) but somehow they have showed up on my new device. I’m not asking questions and just going with it as *magic*!

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So, Ubatuba, what to say except for total awesomeness?? We actually didn’t have Ubatuba on our original itinerary but I’m so glad we stumbled upon it and decided to spend a few days there. Ubatuba is a beach town that is about halfway between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. We drove from Rio to Ubatuba and even though it is less than 200 miles away the drive takes more than five hours! That is because the roads can be windy (and beautiful) through the mountains and there are a number of places along the way where the speed limit is 40km an hour.

Before I get into how great Ubatuba was, on the way down we stopped in a supercute little town called Paraty – another beachtown with a colonial feel. The reason we stopped was because Lonely Planet Brazil recommended a great little lunch place and it did not disappoint. The place is is called Manue and is super simple – sandwiches, wraps, acai bowls, etc. The town itself is also very picturesque and would be a great place to spend a few days (or more!) in.

We got to Ubatuba around 9pm on a Monday night, and checked into the Hotel Porto di Mare, an awesome beachfront place that we found on the way on booking.com and booked about 20 minutes before arriving (note: we discovered booking.com on our trip through Greece last year and love it!).

The next morning we woke up and decided to take it easy and enjoy the beach right in front of our hotel; the beach is named Enseada. We sat on the beach, read, did crossword puzzles, ate and swam lots. We also walked from end to end (it was maybe 1.5km long) and climbed upon some rocks at the end farther from our hotel. The waves on this beach were very small / non-existent. the beach was also quite quiet, with only a few hotel-dwellers and locals playing around on it. It was a great day to get used being in beach mode (rough life I know) and it is stunning to see the beaches butting right up against mountains and forests (as I would come to learn is one of the classic (and most beautiful) views of Brasil!).

The next morning we woke up and decided to drive to another beach in the area, and man did we have a selection to choose from! There are over 90 beaches in Ubatuba and range from super populated with full facilities to super isolated, requiring hikes through rivers to get to. On this day we were interested in something more isolated and quiet, and asked the hotel staff to help us decide. The choices ended up being between Alto, a small private beach requiring a little hike and Puruba, an even private-r and quieter beach thay may or may not have required fording a river to get to, based on the tides and time of day.

After doing a bit of research online we decided to go ahead with Praia do Alto! Puruba was actually our original pick, as the waves sounded a little more intense and we were excited about the adventure to even get to the beach itself. However, some online research revealed that at times there can be lots of mosquitos there – and that combined with the fact that it was about a 30-40 minute further drive we decided Alto was a better fit for our mood that day. Alto is super small and there’s only a small sign on the road indicating its entrance. Once we got there we had to pay for parking (I can’t recall exactly but it was maybe R$25 – I think this beach may be on private property) and then it took a (quite pretty) hike down through the forest about 10 minutes to get to the beach. We had packed superlight, which was good, because eventually you have to hike up and out too!

Once we got down, wow, was this tiny beach stunning. It was only about 200 meters long and there were 6 people on it total, including us. There was a tiny shack with a local family selling drinks and food (Damian got a Guarana!), a small freshwater “shower” to wash off after the ocean (much appreciated) and a bunch of trees for us to sit under in the shade. We had the most relaxing time here, just listening to the water (the waves were also pretty small), admiring the beautiful scenery and having fun swimming. As long as you are ok with the hike down and up, I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a quiet piece of paradise. Note we did not see any bathroom facilities here and so if you have to go #2 (we are admitted in-ocean-pee-ers) make sure to go before!

Finally, the next day was our last in Ubatuba 🙁 We decided to stop at a beach on our drive back to Rio and picked out Praia Grande. We had seen Praia Grande on our drive down to Alto and were super curious because it was way more developed and hopping than the other beaches, and the waves looked HUGE. Just before we got there we stopped at a roadside viewpoint to see it and definitely knew we had made the right choice for our last beach in Ubatuba!

We don’t have a lot of pictures from our time at Praia Grande. Because it is a super public beach (and we wanted to swim together) we left our phones and everything valuable locked up in the car in the parking area and literally just brought our car keys, some cash and a turkish towel to sit on and dry off with. But man, as two adventures and relatively fit wave lovers, even we thought the waves on Praia Grande were totally nuts! It’s hard to tell from the pictures but I’d say they measured somewhere around 10-ish feet and the pull on the tide going out was super strong. Damian tried to body surf, but just got tumbled, and I had a blast diving and jumping and playing in the waves for a few hours. It is super tiring (and my watch said I finished my exercise goal in like 5 minutes!) but so so fun. I will say I am glad that they had lifeguards at this beach, you know, just in case!

It was also fun to be on a more crowded beach – to people watch, to eat pasteis and corn and other fun food from the beach vendors, to peruse the cangas and bathing suits and jewelry and other items for sale, etc. It felt a little bit like my favorite local-to-NYC beach in Belmar, NJ, except, you know, with beautiful Brasilian scenery!

And after our time at Praia Grande it was time to head back to Rio (I know, we were sad too). We paid one of the local beach kiosks R$4 (about $1.20 in US dollars) to use their freshwater outdoor “shower” (very much needed before a 5+ hour drive) and started on our journey. Of course we stopped in Paraty again to eat at Manue (I never claim to not be a creature of habit) and got into Rio quite late at night. We parked on the street, hit the sack in our AirBnB and rested up before we started our Rio adventures!

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Read more about our time in Brazil using the links below:

• Brazil Country Recap – What we loved (and didn’t love) in our six weeks there
• Iguazu Falls
• Exploring São Paulo
• Exploring Bonito
• Touring in Bonito (river snorkeling and waterfall hiking)
• Rio de Janeiro: Our first three days in Rio
• Rio de Janeiro: “Professor-ial” thoughts on attending a game at Maracana
• Rio de Janeiro: Volunteering with Project Favela
• Three days in the beach paradies of Ubatuba! (you are here!)
• Rio de Janeiro: Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf Mountain
• The amazing landscape of Lençóis Maranhenses
• Three days in the hippie beach town of Jericoacoara
• Why we had to skip Canoa Quebrada and go to Natal instead
• Six days in Praia da Pipa (my favorite beach town)
• 24 hours in Olinda