Trancoso is built around a rectangle of grass. The Quadrado is about 200 metres long, lined on both sides with low fishermen's houses painted in flat colours, with a sixteenth-century whitewashed church at the seaward end and a drop to the beach behind it. Cars are kept off it. At night the grass is lit by the light coming out of the doorways.
The village was founded by Jesuits in 1586, was reached only by dirt track until relatively recently, and was rediscovered in the 1970s by people who wanted somewhere that was not Rio. The houses around the Quadrado are now restaurants, shops and a handful of hotels, and the whole place has about 12,000 residents.
Why the square is the address
Everything in Trancoso happens on it or immediately behind it. The restaurants are on it. The evening is on it. The beaches — Nativos, Coqueiros, Itapororoca — are down a path below it, reached by a walk of five to fifteen minutes through vegetation.
That arrangement is unusual. This is a beach destination where the centre of gravity is not the beach, and hotels on the Quadrado or a street behind it are in the village rather than on the sand.
The trade-off is real: beachfront properties here are quieter and more isolated, and the village is a walk or a buggy ride away.
Bahia's coast runs for 1,100 kilometres and the other places worth knowing are further north: Itacaré for surf and Atlantic forest, Caraíva for a village with no cars or streetlights at all.
The eight below are grouped by that.
On and around the Quadrado
In the village, where the evenings are.
UXUA Casa Hotel & Spa occupies a set of restored fishermen's houses directly on the Quadrado, each different, built with reclaimed material and local craft, with a beach club below and a pool cut from a single piece of quartz. It is the hotel that made Trancoso internationally known and it remains the best in Bahia.
UXUA Casa Hotel & Spa
The Quadrado, Trancoso · 5★ · $$$$
Restored fishermen's houses and a pool cut from quartz
Check availabilityEtnia Casa Hotel sits on the Quadrado in a converted house with a courtyard, a pool and a small room count. It is the quieter alternative on the square itself.
Etnia Casa Hotel
Trancoso village · 4★ · $$$
Courtyard house on the square with few rooms
Check availabilityVillas de Trancoso occupies a position a short walk behind the Quadrado with gardens, a pool and villa-style rooms, and it is the best value in the village.
Villas de Trancoso
Behind the Quadrado · 5★ · $$$
Garden villas a short walk from the square
Check availabilityThe beach and the coast around Trancoso
Below and along from the village, quieter and more isolated.
Hotel Fasano Trancoso sits on the cliff above Nativos beach with bungalows in gardens, a pool over the sea and a buggy service into the village. It is the most comfortable beachfront property here.
Hotel Fasano Trancoso
Above Nativos beach · 5★ · $$$$
Bungalows and a pool over the sea with a buggy to the village
Check availabilityPousada Estrela D' Água occupies a stretch of beach south of Trancoso with a low-rise layout, a spa and a long private stretch of sand.
Pousada Estrela D' Água
Nativos beach · 4★ · $$$
Low-rise with a long private stretch of sand
Check availabilitySanto André and Arraial d'Ajuda
North of Trancoso across the river mouth, quieter again.
Toca do Marlin occupies a large estate at Santo André with a private beach, horses and a fishing programme. It is the most secluded property on this coast.
Campo Bahia Hotel Villas Spa sits at Santo André with a garden, a pool and a beach at the end of it, at a considerably lower rate than Trancoso.
Campo Bahia Hotel Villas Spa
Santo Andre · 4★ · $$
Garden and pool with a beach at the end of it
Check availabilityItacaré
Five hours north, where the Atlantic forest meets surf beaches.
Txai Resort Itacaré occupies a large forest and beach property with bungalows among the trees, a spa and a beach reached through the reserve. It is the best hotel on the northern Bahian coast.
Txai Resort Itacaré
Itacare · 5★ · $$$$
Bungalows in Atlantic forest above a surf beach
Check availabilityWhat we have left off
The pousadas across Trancoso and Arraial d'Ajuda are excluded. In Bahia the pousada is the standard form of accommodation, many are lovely and family-run, and they are guest houses rather than hotels.
What to do
Be on the Quadrado in the evening. That is the whole point of Trancoso and it does not require a plan.
Walk down to Nativos and along the beach to the river mouth at Itapororoca, which takes about an hour and passes almost nobody.
Go to Caraíva, an hour and a half south down a sand road and across a river by canoe. There are no cars and no streetlights and it is the most atmospheric village on the coast.
See Espelho beach, which is a half-hour drive and is the most photographed beach in Bahia, with natural rock pools at low tide.
Eat moqueca, drink caipirinhas made with local cachaça, and understand that Bahian food is African-influenced and unlike the rest of Brazil.
Practical notes
Porto Seguro is the airport, about 70 kilometres and an hour and a quarter north, with connections through São Paulo, Rio and Belo Horizonte. A ferry crossing at Arraial d'Ajuda is part of the route.
December to March is the Brazilian summer and the peak, with Christmas and New Year at extreme rates and requiring long minimum stays. April, May, September and October are warm, quiet and much better value. June and July are the wettest.
A buggy or a driver is useful. The roads to the beaches are sand.
Explore 4 & 5 Star Trancoso and Bahia Hotels
Questions people actually ask
Is Trancoso on the beach?
The village sits on a bluff and the beaches are a five to fifteen minute walk below it. Beachfront hotels are outside the village.
When should you avoid it?
Christmas and New Year, when rates multiply and minimum stays of a week or more are common.
Trancoso or Itacaré?
Trancoso for the village and the scene, Itacaré for surf and rainforest. They are five hours apart.
How many nights?
Six. Four in Trancoso and two on the coast around it.