Northeast Brazil: Salvador, Chapada Diamantina and Jericoacoara

1. Day 1: Arrive in Salvador

   Salvador airport (SSA) to your hotel in the old town

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Dinner
   • Stay in Salvador
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Salvador's international airport (SSA), about 30 km north-east of the centre, where a driver meets you for the 40 to 60 minute drive into the city, depending on traffic. Salvador was Brazil's first capital, founded by the Portuguese in 1549 on a cliff above the Bay of All Saints, and the city is still split between the Upper City on the ridge and the Lower City along the water. Your hotel is in or a short walk from the Pelourinho, the historic centre. Settle in and rest after the flight. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the trip, what the long road day to the Chapada is like, what to pack for the caves and lagoons, then we walk a few minutes to a welcome dinner of Bahian food at a local restaurant.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Salvador airport (SSA)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   Activity: Arrive by about 4 pm to join the briefing; later arrivals are met at the airport and join the group at dinner or breakfast.

2. Day 2: The Pelourinho and a capoeira class

   Salvador's Upper City and Lower City on foot, with the Lacerda Elevator between them

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Salvador
   Day 2 details

   We start at 8:30, before the heat and the day visitors, on a walk through the Pelourinho, the historic centre listed by UNESCO in 1985: sloping squares of colonial houses painted in bright colours, cobbled lanes and baroque churches. Your guide tells the story of the city as one of the main ports of the Atlantic slave trade into Brazil, and of the Afro-Brazilian faith, food and music that grew from it. Inside the church and convent of São Francisco the walls are covered in gilded carved wood and the cloister in blue and white tiles. We ride the Lacerda Elevator, opened in 1873, down to the Lower City and the Mercado Modelo, then sit down to a moqueca lunch. The afternoon is free. In the early evening we go to a capoeira academy in the old town for a beginners' class: the music, the basic ginga step and a roda at the end, at whatever pace suits you.

   Included

   • Pelourinho walking tour with your guide
   • Church and convent of São Francisco
   • The Lacerda Elevator and the Mercado Modelo
   • Moqueca lunch
   • Beginners' capoeira class at an academy in the old town

   Easier option: Watch the capoeira class and roda from the side instead of joining in.

   Free time: Afternoon free

   Activity: About 4 km on steep cobbled streets and steps. Carry little in the old town and leave valuables at the hotel, as in any big city.

   

3. Day 3: Bonfim, a free afternoon and a Bahian cooking evening

   Salvador: the Itapagipe peninsula, then the old town

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Salvador
   Day 3 details

   In the morning we drive about 20 minutes along the bay to the Itapagipe peninsula and the church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim, Salvador's best-loved church, whose railings are tied with thousands of coloured ribbons, each knotted around a wrist or a gate with a wish. Inside, the room of miracles is hung with wax limbs, photographs and letters of thanks. From there it is a short walk to the little fort and chapel of Monte Serrat on the point, with a view back across the bay to the old town, and an ice cream at the Ribeira waterfront. The afternoon is free: the Barra lighthouse and its beach, the Museu Afro-Brasileiro, or a rest. In the evening we join a local cook for a Bahian cooking class, making acarajé, the black-eyed pea fritter fried in dendê oil, and a moqueca with coconut milk, then sit down together to eat it.

   Included

   • Church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim with your guide
   • Monte Serrat point and the Ribeira waterfront
   • Bahian cooking class with dinner

   Free time: Afternoon free

   Activity: Cover shoulders and knees for the church.

4. Day 4: Inland to Lençóis and the Chapada Diamantina

   Salvador to Lençóis on the BR-324 and BR-242

   • Drive about 6 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Lençóis
   Day 4 details

   Today is the longest drive of the trip, about 410 km and six hours on the road, and we say so plainly: Lençóis airport has only a few flights a week from Salvador, not on the days we need, and the public bus takes longer. Where a flight fits your dates, we quote it as an upgrade. We leave at 8 am in our own air-conditioned vehicle, stop for coffee near Feira de Santana and for a sit-down lunch of regional food around Itaberaba, roughly halfway, so no stretch runs much over two hours. The coast gives way to dry sertão scrub, then the long table-top ridges of the Chapada Diamantina rise ahead. We reach Lençóis by mid-afternoon. The town grew in the 19th-century diamond rush and its cobbled centre of painted houses is a listed heritage site. Before dinner your guide walks you up the river to the Serrano, where the Lençóis river runs over smooth pink rock in pools and small cascades, a gentle first look at the park.

   Included

   • Drive from Salvador to Lençóis with your guide
   • Sit-down lunch on the way
   • Short guided walk to the Serrano river pools

   Easier option: Skip the Serrano walk and rest at the hotel.

   Free time: Evening free in Lençóis

   Activity: About six hours of driving over the day, broken by two stops; the Serrano walk is about 2 km on rock.

5. Day 5: The Fumaça trail

   Lençóis to the Vale do Capão, the Fumaça trail and back

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Lençóis
   Day 5 details

   After an early breakfast we drive about an hour and a half to the Vale do Capão, a green valley village under the plateau, and meet our local Chapada guide. The trail to the top of the Fumaça falls starts steeply, climbing about 300 m up a rocky path in the first hour, so we leave Lençóis at about 6:45 and start walking by 8:30 while it is cool; a later start means the climb in full sun. Then it levels out across the open plateau of rock and low scrub, about 6 km each way. At the end you lie on your stomach on the cliff edge and look down a drop of about 340 m, one of the highest falls in Brazil. Its name means smoke: late in the dry season the water is often a thin ribbon that blows away as spray before it lands, and we tell you that before you go. We walk back down for a late sit-down lunch in the valley, then drive back to Lençóis for a free evening.

   Included

   • The Fumaça trail to the top of the falls with a local Chapada guide
   • Late lunch in the Vale do Capão

   Easier option: Stay in Lençóis and walk with a local guide to the Ribeirão do Meio, a natural rock slide into a river pool, about 4 km each way on an easier path.

   Free time: Evening free in Lençóis

   Activity: The hardest day: about 12 km return and 5 to 6 hours on foot, with a steep, rocky first hour. Bring good shoes, a hat and 2 litres of water.

6. Day 6: Caves, a cave swim and Pai Inácio at sunset

   Lençóis to Lapa Doce and Pratinha near Iraquara, then Morro do Pai Inácio

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Lençóis
   Day 6 details

   A slower start, then about an hour and a quarter west to the limestone country around Iraquara. With a local guide and torches we walk through the Lapa Doce cave, a large dry chamber of stalactites and stalagmites reached down a sinkhole, about an hour underground on uneven ground. Next door at Pratinha, a river runs out of a flooded cave into a clear blue pool: you put on a mask, snorkel and life vest and float in through the cave mouth along a guide rope, with the light turning the water blue. Lunch is at a restaurant nearby. In the late afternoon we drive back east and climb Morro do Pai Inácio, a flat-topped mesa about 1,100 m high, on a 20 to 30 minute path of rock steps. From the top you see the plateau roll away in tiers of table mountains, and we stay for sunset before the half-hour drive home.

   Included

   • Gruta Lapa Doce with a local guide
   • Snorkel swim into the Pratinha cave, with mask, snorkel and life vest
   • Lunch near Iraquara
   • Sunset on Morro do Pai Inácio

   Easier option: Stay on the Pratinha beach rather than swimming into the cave, and wait at the foot of Pai Inácio, where the view is also wide.

   Activity: You need to be comfortable in water with a life vest for the cave swim. The Pai Inácio path is short but steep and rocky; we come down with torches after sunset.

7. Day 7: Back to the coast and a flight to Fortaleza

   Lençóis to Salvador airport by road, then Salvador to Fortaleza by air

   • Drive about 6 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Fortaleza
   Day 7 details

   This is the second long day, and the reason is the same as on day 4: the few weekly Lençóis flights do not fit our dates, so we drive back to Salvador airport, about 400 km and five and a half hours, then fly up the coast instead of spending two more days on the road. We leave Lençóis at 7 am, early so the afternoon flight is not at risk, stop for coffee on the way and for a sit-down lunch near Feira de Santana, about an hour short of the airport, and reach Salvador in time for an afternoon flight to Fortaleza, about two hours direct. Fortaleza, the capital of Ceará, is on the same clock as Salvador. A driver meets us for the short run to a hotel on or near the Beira Mar, the long seafront avenue. Dinner tonight is your choice; the evening craft market and the seafront walk are a few minutes away, and your guide points out places to eat grilled fish.

   Included

   • Drive from Lençóis to Salvador airport with your guide
   • Sit-down lunch on the way
   • Flight from Salvador (SSA) to Fortaleza (FOR) in economy
   • Transfer to your hotel in Fortaleza

   Free time: Evening free in Fortaleza

   Activity: A long travel day: about five and a half hours of driving and a two-hour flight. Flight times are confirmed with your final itinerary.

8. Day 8: Up the Ceará coast to Jericoacoara

   Fortaleza old centre, then the coast road to Jijoca and by 4x4 to Jericoacoara

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Jericoacoara
   Day 8 details

   Before leaving Fortaleza we spend about 45 minutes in the old centre: the Praça dos Leões with its bronze lions and the Mercado Central, four floors of hammocks, lace and cashew nuts. Then we head north-west, about 300 km and four hours of driving with a lunch stop, through coconut groves, wind farms and small towns. At Jijoca we change into 4x4s for the last half hour over sand into Jericoacoara, a former fishing village inside a national park, where the streets are sand and only authorised vehicles drive in. After settling into a pousada a short walk from the beach, we walk up the Duna do Pôr do Sol, the big dune at the west end of the beach, for sunset over the sea with half the village. If the tide is low the next morning, your guide may take an early group along the beach to Pedra Furada, the arch in the rocks.

   Included

   • Praça dos Leões and the Mercado Central in Fortaleza
   • Sit-down lunch on the way
   • 4x4 transfer from Jijoca into Jericoacoara
   • Sunset on the Duna do Pôr do Sol
   • Jericoacoara daily tourism fee

   Free time: Evening free in Jeri

   Activity: The dune climb is short but soft sand; go barefoot.

   

9. Day 9: A buggy day to Tatajuba

   Jericoacoara west by buggy to the Rio Guriú, Tatajuba and back

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Jericoacoara
   Day 9 details

   Today is the buggy day, three or four guests to a buggy with a local driver who knows the tracks. We head west out of the village along the beach and over the dunes to Mangue Seco, where a boardwalk runs into the mangroves, and a local boatman may show you seahorses in the shallows. At the Rio Guriú the buggies roll onto a small wooden raft that is poled across the river, and we carry on past the shifting dunes to Tatajuba, a fishing village that has moved inland more than once as the sand buried it. Lunch is a sit-down meal of grilled fish at the Lagoa Grande, where you can swim or lie in a hammock in the shallow water. We are back in Jeri by mid-afternoon for a free few hours on the beach, then meet for a farewell dinner together in the village.

   Included

   • Full-day buggy outing west with local drivers: Mangue Seco, the Rio Guriú raft crossing and Tatajuba
   • Seahorse boat in the mangroves, where it runs
   • Lunch at the Lagoa Grande in Tatajuba
   • Farewell dinner in Jericoacoara

   Optional experiences

   • Kitesurfing or windsurfing lesson, booked locally
   • Sandboarding on the dunes

   Easier option: Stay in the village and on the beach for the day, and join the group for dinner.

   More active option: Walk east along the beach at low tide to Pedra Furada before breakfast, about 3 km each way.

   Free time: Late afternoon free

   Activity: Buggy tracks are bumpy; tell us about any back or neck problems and we seat you in the front.

10. Day 10: Lagoa do Paraíso and home from Fortaleza

    Jericoacoara to Lagoa do Paraíso, then Fortaleza airport (FOR)

    • Drive about 4 h
    • Breakfast
    Day 10 details

    A last morning in Jeri: walk the beach or the sandy lanes at the edge of the village, where donkeys graze among the palms, have a coffee on the main street or swim before breakfast. We leave by 4x4 around 9:30 for Lagoa do Paraíso, a large freshwater lagoon near Jijoca, about half an hour away, with white sand, clear blue-green water and hammocks strung over the shallows. There is time to swim and rest for about an hour and a half before we change back to our own vehicle and drive about three and a half hours to Fortaleza airport (FOR), with a short stop for lunch on the way, which is your choice today. We aim to reach the airport around 4 pm, so book a flight leaving after about 7 pm. Your guide sees you to the terminal and checks your flight before saying goodbye. If you are flying out of Jericoacoara's own airport near Cruz instead, tell us and we drop you there.

    Included

    • Lagoa do Paraíso
    • Drop-off at Fortaleza airport (FOR)

    Free time: Early morning free in Jeri

    Activity: Book a flight from Fortaleza leaving after about 7 pm.

    

Wildlife and weather: August to December is the dry season in the Chapada, so trails and skies are clear, but the Fumaça falls are thin late in the season and can drift away as spray. The Ceará coast is windy in these months, good for kitesurfers and cooler evenings on the dunes, and some smaller lagoons around Jeri dry out by November.

• Salvador3 nights
• Lençóis3 nights
• Fortaleza1 night
• Jericoacoara2 nights