Porto Seguro: Activities & Excursions
porto seguro (January 16, 2010)
Trips up and down the coast leave from the various piers at the southern tip of Porto Seguro. Here you’ll find excursions that visit all of the popular outlying areas from Santo Antônio in the north to Caraíva and even the distant Caravelas in the south. There are tour agencies all over town, including several right around the pier area, that can arrange tickets and passage for you. A few possibilities are Cia do Mar (Praça dos Pataxós 15, www.ciadomar.tur.br), which has Schooners or small speedboats. Passeios (Av. 22 de Abril 286, 73/288-5898) has a variety of trips both by van and boat (not their own boats). Prices given in this section are mostly based on this company’s price list. Finally, you can try Yes Tours (Rua Rui Barbosa 15, 73/288-3363, www.yestours.tur.br) located at the southern tip of the city near the boats. They offer every tour you can imagine, but their prices are a bit higher than the others. The group Luanda (Av. 22 de Abril 172, 73/268-3723) has boat excursions to all the major locations, plus an extended trip to Abrolhos (see The Extreme South of Bahia article for details).
Local Trips
Several agencies offer city tours that take you up to the historical village for a look at the monuments and indigenous arts and crafts. The trip usually continues up the coast to give you a quick look at the principal beaches of the area, all the way to Coroa Vermelha, where Cabral and his crew had their first mass on the newly discovered continent. The trip takes a half day and costs around R$30. Another local tour is a trip out to the Ilha dos Aquários, also known as Ilha do Pirata. Most of these are not guided, since you can usually just show up at the pier and head on over to the island to look at the fish.
Excursions to the North
A day trip to Santo Antônio, drops you off at the extensive beach, where you can spend the day kicking back at the beach kiosks and swimming in the ocean. For only R$20 per person (lunch not included), it’s a great way to see this northern beach and the town of Santo Antônio. An alternative version of this trip is made by boat, 45 minutes up the coast to Coroa Alta for a swim. Here the water is shallow due to a huge sand bar in the ocean. You also get a chance to sit at the beach cabanas on Praia de Santo André and have lunch, plus stop at the small island Ilha Paraíso to look at the local culture, crafts, and foods. This trip is around R$25 not including lunch. It lasts pretty much all day. For one of the best snorkeling excursions in the region, you’ll want to take the trip to Recife de Fora, a large area of tide pools and underwater reefs that present a huge diversity of fish and sea life. Trips from Porto Seguro by Schooner cost about R$25 per person, not including equipment. The trip lasts about five hours. There are also trips that drive up the coast and then embark on a boat out to the reefs. This version costs about R$20 per person and lasts only four hours. Times vary on these trips depending on the tide (low tide is required).
You can also take excursions up to the Parque Ecológico do Santuário and the Fazenda Mãe Tereza where you can hike along trails and enjoy great boat trips along the river. The Fazenda charges around R$30 per person to spend the day and a packaged tour with transportation will cost around R$60.
Finally, you can visit the indigenous groups in the Jaqueira Reservation in a van with a tour guide for about R$25. The trip lasts about three hours. Snacks at the reservation are extra.
Excurions to the South
Day trips from Porto Seguro go by van to Arraial d’Ajuda and/or Trancoso just 20 minutes to the south. These trips are designed for folks staying in Porto Seguro on vacation packages, since by far, the preferred method for visiting these two locations is to stay a couple of nights in Arraial and rent a car or buggy and drive to Trancoso for a day. On this packaged excursion, you visit the old, historic centers of both Trancoso and Arraial, with enough time to walk the beaches of Trancoso. It costs about R$20 per person. Lunch in Trancoso is extra. A more interesting excursion is the visit to Praia do Espelho and Curuípe. Some versions of this trip pay a visit to the town of Caraíva as well. The beach at Praia do Espelho is one of the prettiest in the area and some say in all of Brazil. It is lined by shady trees and the water is clear and blue with offshore reefs that make for great snorkeling and diving. During low tide, you can walk right from the beach to the reefs. There are palm trees and sandy cliffs all around. This is a beach you might want to visit more than once. The price of this excursion is about R$35 per person and there are versions that go by van or by boat. Snorkeling equipment is not included but available for an extra R$5-10.
You can take long trip out to the Abrolhos Islands from Porto Seguro. You should plan well ahead for this as it takes a couple of days and requires some equipment. The trip usually has a tour and overnight stay in Caraíva, then heads out to the islands early the following morning. There are tourist versions and scuba diver versions of this trip. Of course, the diver versions are a bit more intense and should be booked through one of the dive schools in Porto Seguro or Arraial d’Ajuda.
