Brazil
Paraty
A colonial port where the ocean floods the cobblestones at high tide and jungle presses close.
The tide rises, and the Atlantic slides across the cobblestones of the centro histórico until the streets become shallow canals reflecting the whitewashed facades. By morning, the water has retreated and left the stones gleaming. Behind the town, the Serra da Bocaina drops steeply through Atlantic Forest to the coast.
Paraty is a colonial port town on the coast of Rio de Janeiro state, built in the 17th century as the terminus of the Caminho do Ouro — the gold trail connecting the Minas Gerais mines to the sea. Its centro histórico, closed to vehicles, preserves the low colonial architecture and uneven cobblestones that deliberately flood at high tide to clean the streets — a drainage system designed by the original builders. Paraty's distilleries produce some of Brazil's finest artisanal cachaça, and the annual FLIP literary festival draws international authors to this improbable setting. The surrounding coastline — accessible by boat — hides dozens of beaches and islands within the Baía de Ilha Grande. UNESCO recognised both the town and its surrounding landscape as a mixed World Heritage Site in 2019.
Couple
Candlelit dinners on flooded cobblestones, cachaça tastings in forested hills, and deserted island beaches reached by schooner — Paraty layers romance into every corner.
Family
The car-free centro histórico is safe for children on foot, and boat trips to sheltered island beaches offer calm, clear water for swimming. The town is compact and manageable.
Solo
Paraty's literary culture, distillery trails, and kayaking coastline give solo travellers a rich mix of cerebral and physical pursuits. The town is small enough to feel intimate, large enough to offer variety.
- At full moon high tides, the entire historic centre floods to knee depth — residents laid the cobblestones at an angle so the water drains in forty minutes.
- The Baía de Paraty holds two hundred forested islands — schooner day-trips stop at transparent coves for snorkelling.
- The FLIP literary festival in July fills every restaurant — Brazilian and international writers hold public events in the streets and churches.
- Cachaça distilleries surround the town — the local alambique cachaça is never sold outside the municipality.
Banana da terra flambada com cachaça — plantains flambéed in the local spirit — a Paraty signature.
Fresh-caught fish with palm heart at candlelit cobblestoned restaurants flooded by the evening tide.
Artisanal cachaça tastings at the dozens of distilleries dotting the forested hills behind the town.
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Maroon-robed monks chanting beneath the descendant of the fig tree where Buddhism itself began.
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Two millennia of water engineering, from Hadrian's pools to Renaissance fountains powered by gravity.
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A cloud-forest oasis above the sertão where cold springs flow and colonial mansions survive the heat.
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Sand dunes that swallowed an entire village, now a forró-dancing outpost on a wild coast.
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Southern right whales surfacing so close to the beach you can hear them breathe.
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An island the size of Switzerland where water buffalo roam free and the roads are rivers.