6 Costa Verde Hotels on the Colonial Coast

The streets of Paraty flood on purpose. The historic centre was laid out in the eighteenth century with openings in the seafront wall that let spring tides run up the streets, wash through them and drain back out. The paving — large irregular stones set with deliberate camber and gaps — was designed to channel it.

It happens at the full and new moons, and the locals call it the tide sweeping the streets. Tourists photograph the churches reflected in water sitting where a road was an hour earlier. The system is roughly 250 years old and still works.

Cars cannot enter the centre, partly because of this and partly because the paving would destroy them. It is called pé de moleque — urchin's foot — and walking it in bad shoes is a mistake people make once.

Why the town was built at all

Paraty was the port for the gold of Minas Gerais. From the late 1600s bullion came down a mule trail over the Serra do Mar — the Caminho do Ouro, paved in stone by enslaved labour, sections of which can still be walked — and was shipped from here to Portugal.

When a more direct route to Rio opened in the 1720s the traffic moved and Paraty stopped growing. Coffee gave it a second period and then that also moved on. The town was effectively isolated until a coastal road reached it in the 1970s, which is why an eighteenth-century port survives intact.

The Costa Verde

The coast between Rio and São Paulo is Atlantic forest running straight into the sea, with hundreds of islands offshore.

Paraty Bay has around sixty-five islands and a great many beaches reachable only by boat, which is what the schooner trips are for.

Trindade, twenty-five minutes south, is a surf village with a natural tidal pool between boulders.

Ilha Grande, north, has no cars at all and about 150 beaches, reached by ferry from Angra dos Reis.

Angra dos Reis is the yachting town and the ferry port.

The six below are grouped that way.

Paraty historic centre

Inside the walls, on foot.

Pousada Literária de Paraty occupies a colonial building in the centre with a library of several thousand volumes, a pool in the courtyard and a literary programme tied to the town's July festival.

Casa Turquesa sits on the waterfront in a restored house with a small room count, a pool and a deliberately unfussy interior.

Bromélias Paraty occupies a colonial property in the centre with a courtyard, a pool and the churches a few minutes away.

Sandi Hotel sits in a restored house with gardens, a pool and rooms around a courtyard.

Pousada do Ouro occupies a building near the historic quarter with a pool, a garden and the best value in town.

Angra dos Reis

North, toward the islands.

Vila Galé Eco Resort de Angra occupies a large coastal site near Angra with several pools, a spa and boats to the islands.

What we have left off

The pousadas of Paraty and Ilha Grande are excluded, and here more than almost anywhere they are the accommodation — colonial houses with six rooms, run by the owners. Several of the best places to stay in this town are pousadas.

What to do

Take a schooner into the bay for a day, stopping at islands and beaches you cannot otherwise reach. The boats leave from the pier in the morning.

Walk a section of the Caminho do Ouro, the stone gold trail up into the forest behind the town, with a guide.

Go to Trindade for the natural pool, and to the beaches south of it if you have a driver.

Drink cachaça. Paraty has distilled it since the gold era — the word paraty was once a synonym for the spirit in Brazil — and several alambiques outside town take visitors.

Come in July for FLIP if books interest you, which is one of the major literary festivals in the Americas and takes over the whole town.

Practical notes

Rio is about four hours by road and São Paulo five, on a coastal road that is slow and beautiful. There is no airport of consequence.

April to June and August to October are the best windows. Summer from December to March is hot, wet and busy with Brazilians. Winter is mild.

Check the tide tables if you want to see the streets flood, and take shoes with grip regardless.

Do the streets really flood?

By design, at spring tides. Openings in the seafront wall let the water run up the streets and drain back, and the paving channels it.

Why is the town so intact?

The gold traffic moved to a shorter route in the 1720s and Paraty stopped growing. A road only reached it in the 1970s.

Paraty or Ilha Grande?

Paraty for the town and the bay, Ilha Grande for beaches and no cars at all. Both by boat from the coast.

How many nights?

Four. Two for the town and two for the bay and Trindade.

If you only book one