Pretty relaxed beaches - northeast Brazil

Probably the best beach we have visited in this area was Playa Engenhoca south of Itacaré.

Trancoso is nice.

Just out of Salvador, about 40 minutes north is Guarajuba, which ticks all the boxes, endless run of palm fringed sand and usually deserted during the week. Should be OK in March, unless much has changed in the past year.

Trancoso is nice.

Just out of Salvador, about 40 minutes north is Guarajuba, which ticks all the boxes, endless run of palm fringed sand and usually deserted during the week. Should be OK in March, unless much has changed in the past year.

Almost any beach in brazil get crowded from January untill Carnaval (summer/students vacations).
In Bahia I would recommend Barra Grande, Boipeba or Caraiva/Ponta do Camamu over Trancoso and Itacaré.
If you could go to Fernando de Noronha (Recife) then you would probably (I've never been tehre in person) see some prettier beaches to compare to Southeast Asia. If Fernando de Noronha is not on your plans, it won't be much different from bahia.

Good luck and have a good trip!

thanks!

Boibepa looks nice! is it possible to go with rented car on the ferry? I was thinking also about Marau Peninsula (Barra Grande), is Ponta do Camamu also there?
And.. Where exactly is Caraiva? Google maps points far south...

cheers,

Caraiva is fairly near Porto Seguro (13km), which is in the south of Bahia. Across the river by car ferry (balsa) from PS is Arraial D'Ajuda. Further down the coast is Trancoso, and past that is Caraiva (reachable by a back road or walking down the beach). Porto Seguro is about 8 hours by road from Salvador, around the Bay, and the turnoff from the main highway toward the coast is in Eunapolis. Buses often do this route in caravans of 2 or 3 for safety.

To get to Boipeba or Morro do São Paulo, you can drive to Valenca. From there, you take a boat. It's not a ferry. One option is a speedboat. The other is an only slightly larger passenger boat.
To get to Barra Grande, you can drive to Camamu, and take a boat (same size as above)from there. The BA 030 goes out the peninsula from much further south.
If you are driving from the north, from Salvador, you can drive around the Bay of all Saints, or you can take the car ferry across the Bay to Bom Despacho on Itaparica island, cross the island and take the bridge to the mainland, and on to Valenca and Camamu. There is also a catamaran to Morro do São Paulo from Salvador, and speedboats from Morro to Boipeba.

You could also go north up the coast from Salvador on the Linha Verde, past Jacuipe and the lovely Guarajuba beach, and many others, and over the border into Sergipe state, to leave the car in Pontal and cross the river back into Bahia by motorized canoe or speedboat to the spectacular dunes of Mangue Seco, where the Sonia Braga movie Tieta was filmed.

Many Thanks everyone. I am inclining for Boibepa and/or Marau Peninsula-Barra Grande. As I would like to see the whole Marau Peninsula I am actually thinking about going south and take BA30 road.

We will have about a week for beaches. Thing is, my girlfriend would like to settle down and not spend this week moving between places. If we only could go to one place, which one would you recommend - Boibepa or somewhere on the Marau peninsula to settle down?

Also, how to get around Boibepa? Is it possible to rent a bike or a scooter over there? Is it also possible in the Marau Peninsula if we decided to go without a car there?

Wagner, what do you mean by buses going in convoys for safety? are there some kind of ambush cases happening?

Thanks again,
chris & caroline