Brazil
Itaúnas
Sand dunes that swallowed an entire village, now a forró-dancing outpost on a wild coast.
Sand shifts under bare feet as forró music spills from a bar with no walls, the bass notes vibrating through the warm night air. Beyond the village, dunes rise like frozen waves over the rooftops of a settlement that the sand swallowed decades ago. The Atlantic crashes somewhere beyond the restinga, out of sight but never out of earshot.
Itaúnas is a small coastal village in northern Espírito Santo that exists because its predecessor was buried by migrating dunes in the 1970s. The original village — its church tower occasionally visible when the sand shifts — lies beneath the dune field that now forms part of the Parque Estadual de Itaúnas. The relocated settlement reinvented itself as Brazil's forró capital, drawing dancers from across the country to its sand-street festivals, particularly the Festival Nacional de Forró in July. The surrounding landscape combines active dunes, restinga vegetation, mangrove estuaries, and a nesting beach for leatherback turtles. The village has no paved roads and no chain businesses — just pousadas, barracas, and a rhythm that peaks after dark.
Solo
Forró is a partner dance, but solo travellers find partners on the floor within minutes — it's how the culture works. Between sessions, the dunes and empty beaches offer the kind of solitude that recharges a body worn out from dancing until three in the morning.
Couple
Few things bond a couple like learning forró together on a sand floor under the stars. By day, the buried village, turtle beaches, and mangrove canoe trips provide the kind of shared exploration that stays in the memory long after the tan fades.
Friends
A group trip to Itaúnas during festival season is a rite of passage for Brazilians — and foreign friend groups who discover it get the same energy. Nights are long, the music is relentless, and the sand streets mean shoes are optional.
- The original town of Itaúnas was swallowed by dunes in the 1970s — the church bell tower disappeared last, and the town relocated rather than fight the sand.
- Forró nights happen every evening — the style here is forró pé-de-serra, the original accordion-and-triangle form, not the electronic version.
- Sea turtles nest on the beach between October and March — TAMAR researchers run torchless night-walks to observe nesting females.
- The state park permits guided walks to the approximate site of the original buried village — the dunes shift seasonally, sometimes exposing buried structures.
Moqueca capixaba and pirão at the beachside barracas between forró sessions.
Grilled fish and cold beer on the sand as forró bands start up at sundown.
Tapioca with queijo coalho and coconut from village stalls along the sand streets.
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