In November 2024 we travelled for 2 weeks along the North Coast of Brazil from Sao Luis to Fortaleza with several stops in between. Following our route, hotels, impressions and overall costs. I would highly recommend to travel at this time of the year! We had 2 weeks warm weather, sun and windy conditions so that it never felt too warm and you can go kiting or surfing.
1. Stop - Barreirinhas (1 night)
As it took in total 3 flights (HAM - FRA - GRU - SLZ) and a bus ride of more than 5 hours to arrive at our first destination, we spend one night in Barreirinhas before taking the boat to Atins as it only departs once per day and we arrived too late to still hop on the boat in time.
After arrival at the airport in Sao Luis we took an Uber to the bus terminal (Rodoviária de São Luís) for around 1,50€ and waited for the bus to Barreirinhas. Bus company was "Cisne Branco" and we booked it via https://deonibus.com as it was the only website where you were able to book the bus without having a CPF. The CPF number is the Brazilian individual taxpayer registry number and usually needed whenever you buy tickets online. DeÔnibus also has got an app where you can maintain and show your tickets without printing them. Price for the ticket was around 24€ for both of us and the bus took around 5,5 hours to get from Sao Luis to Barreirinhas.
The city itself is not that pretty and not worth it to stay there longer than needed. Only reason for us was really only that we couldn't take the boat to Atins anymore on the day of arrival so we had to spend one night in Barreirinhas. We stayed in the hotel "Pousada Do Port" which was in walking distance to the bus station and the boat dock. The hotel itself was ok but the room was very noisy and dark. Price was around 87€/night.
2. Stop - Atins (3 nights)
The main reason why we started in Sao Luis was that we wanted to visit Lençóis Maranhenses. Several tours start in Barreirinhas but as the city is not that pretty, we preferred to stay in Atins instead, which is just 1h speed boat ride away from Berreirinhas. We booked the ticket via Civitatis and paid around 100€ for two return tickets including pick-up and drop-off in Atins (which is needed as you can't walk long distances there due to the sand). The speedboat transfer between Atins and Barreirinhas operates daily at the following times:
Departures from Barreirinhas: 12:30 pm
Departure from Atins: at 6 am and 1 pm
So after breakfast we slowly walked to the harbor and took the 12:30 pm boat and got picked-up and brought to the hotel. Atins is a super cute little town without real streets. A few small supermarkets, super nice boutique hotels, some restaurants and a beautiful beach. We stayed at Sky Atins Rooftop and absolutely loved it! Andressa, the receptionist, is sooo lovely and helpful!! The breakfast was super delicious and served on our own rooftop terrace with own pool. Everything was so clean, modern and comfortable! Can really highly recommend this hotel :) To get around you can walk short distances and for longer distances to order a quad which costs around 3€/person/ride, which is quite expensive but unfortunately also the only option if you don't want to walk. The hotel can provide you some numbers of local drivers.
The first day we spent at the beach. I enjoyed some me-time in the Charme Beach Bar while André went kiting.
The next day we booked the Lençóis Maranhenses tour. It was a private 3,5h sunset tour and the price was around 35€/person. Usually the best season to visit Lençóis Maranhenses is in the rainy season so that all waterholes are filled with water and you have the famous view as shown on all Google photos, but we were still lucky to see one huge filled waterhole where we were able to go swimming. Afterwards we drove to the beach and then to a huge dune to watch the sunset. The tour was really beautiful and the driver super friendly :)
3. Stop - Parnaiba (2 nights)
After Atins we first took the boat back to Barreirinhas at 6am and then got picked up by a private driver to bring us to Parnaiba. We couldn't find any public transportation between Barreirinhas and Parnaiba, so a private driver was our only option. Price was 103€ and the driver was really nice. It took around 3,5h until we arrived. We stayed at Vila Parnaiba which was a little oasis in the middle of the city. Definitely a good choice for your visit to Parnaiba.
We only spent two nights in Parnaiba as the city is not that nice but the tour was AMAZING! So we used the full day we had for the tour and you have to put it on your to-do list when visiting the north of Brazil! The tour took 4h including pick-up and drop-off from and to your hotel in Parnaiba and price was around 32€/person. With a speed boat we drove through the Parnaiba delta to a nice dune at the river where we had a little rest and on the way back we stopped at an island which was full of Guarás. It was stunning to witness hundreds of these ibises coming from all directions to this island to meet there for sunset. This tour was my personal highlight of the whole trip :)
4. Stop - Jericoacoara (3 nights)
From Parnaiba we took a bus to Jijoca de Jericoacoara via Camocim (no direct connection available) with the bus operator "Guanabara". Important to know:
- Unfortunately you need a CPF when booking tickets for Guanabara busses online, so you have to buy the tickets directly at their office at the bus station or you need a local to book it for you
- We can highly recommend the bus operator "Guanabara"! Their busses are super comfortable, modern, all of them have a toilet on board and they were always right in time and very safe
- When you have the stop in Camocim you can spent the time in the little cute cafe next to the bus station
- Jijoca de Jericoacoara IS NOT Jericoacoara. To get from Jijoca de Jericoacoara to Jericoacoara you first have to fill a document and pay a tourist tax (online or in the office at the bus station in Jijoca de Jericoacoara) which is around 14€ for 2 people and then you have to take a 4x4 taxi to bring you to Jericoacoara. They usually only depart when they have 6 people in the car, so it might happen that you have to wait a bit until the car is full. Price for the taxi was around 5€ per person and it takes around 45 minutes. The 2nd half of the drive goes through the dunes which remind you of the dunes in Lençóis Maranhenses.
Jeri is one of the cutest towns I've ever visited!! Same as Atins it is full of sand but it's much easier to walk around and the town is full of cute cafes, restaurants, boutiques and hotels. It's a very touristic place but still definitely worth it to visit! Perfect place for water sports and relaxing. We stayed at the awesome Villa Mango Jeri - super nice rooms, public area, delicious breakfast, English speaking stuff and much more made the stay unforgettable. As we didn't planned any tour in Jeri I didn't took much pictures, but trust me - it's beautiful :)
5. Stop - Itarema (3 nights)
After Jeri we took again a Guanabara bus from Jijoca de Jericoacoara bus station to Itarema. As we had to leave the hotel in Jericoacoara early in the morning we had a private transfer to the bus station which was around 30€. The bus from Jeri to Itarema costs around 6€ for two people and only takes 1,5h. Our hotel organised a driver who picked us up at Itarema bus station and drove us to the hotel (around 20 minutes for 10€).
We stayed at Pousada Kiriri which was one of our favourite hotels of our trip. Almost all hotels were beautiful but this one was located directly at the beach with a beautiful huge room with beach view, super friendly stuff and delicious food. As there is nothing around you usually have lunch and dinner at the hotel as well but as it was sooo good it was absolutely fine to only eat in the hotel. You can go kiting / surfing directly in front of the hotel or relax in the pool. Arnaldo is the hotel manager and he is super friendly and helpful! He made the stay even more beautiful! Definitely the most relaxing days of our trip :)
6. Stop - Cumbuco (2 nights)
Unfortunately there is also no direct connection from Itarema to Cumbuco, only via Fortaleza which would be a huge detour, so Arnaldo organised a private transfer for us for around 90€ / 2,5h. Cumbuco was our last stop and it was ok but definitely not a must-visit. Some nice restaurants and boutiques and hundreds of kiters. I've never seen so many kiters at one spot and actually most of them from Germany or the Netherlands. As it's only 40 minutes far away from Fortaleza the city is full of watersport tourists. From our point of view the other places we visited were way more beautiful, but of course Cumbuco is more convenient to reach. We stayed at 0031 Boutique hotels which is owned by a dutch couple. We didn't liked it that much but also couldn't find a better option, so my advice would be to just skip Cumbuco :D
Overall costs
Transfers: 210€/person
Hotels: 740€/person
Tours: 70€/person
Domestic Flights: 330€/person
International Flights: 340€/person
Food / Drinks: 280€/person (around 20€/day)
Local Tax in Jeri: 7€
-------------------------------------------
Total costs per person: Around 2.000€/person (excl. kite material)
Additional Information
First of all we always felt very safe, no matter where we have been in Brazil! Also in the evenings you were able to go outside without worrying about anything. People were all super friendly and helpful.
As almost nobody is able to speak English I highly recommend to download German, English and Portuguese in Google translator, so that you can also always translate something even if you don't have Internet (between the cities you usually never had any connection). Also you can then use the transcript functionality when a tour guide tries to tell you something.
Also always download the offline maps so that you can estimate when you arrive at your next location etc. when you don't have internet.
We bought our eSIM on etravelsim.com and were super happy with it.
You can pay by credit card almost everywhere but sometimes you have to pay a fee for it so we recommend to get some cash at the ATM at the airport as not all cities provide ATMs where the international credit card works. Also ATM have a fee so better get some more money once and use it for the whole trip instead of getting multiple times just a small amount. Especially for the private transfers it's better to have some cash.
Although we didn't faced many mosquitoes we always use Anti Brumm Ultra Tropical when travelling to exotic destinations - it's the best mosquito spray I ever had and the only one that really works fine!
Regarding electricity no adapter is needed - you can use the normal German plug.