Ubatuba Brazil
Frequently Asked Questions
The ship anchors in a bay framed by rainforest-covered hills, and tenders land passengers either at the town pier or at the Saco da Ribeira marina, depending on the line.
Over a hundred, spread along 90 kilometres of coast between Rio de Janeiro and Santos. The Serra do Mar drops straight into the Atlantic, which multiplies the bays and coves.
The Projeto Tamar visitor centre and the municipal aquarium, both in the seafront Itaguá district, combine well with a swim and a stroll along the waterfront. The Ilha Anchieta trip takes most of the day.
The national organization that has protected Brazil's sea turtles since the 1980s. In the outdoor tanks at its visitor centre, green, loggerhead and hawksbill turtles swim at eye level while biologists explain the rescue work along the coast.
Yes. From Saco da Ribeira, wooden schooners sail each morning to this island state park, which holds the ruins of a penitentiary closed in the mid-twentieth century. You land on clear-water beaches and swim above parrotfish. The trip takes most of the day.
Yes, people from São Paulo call it the surf capital. Competitions run one after another on the swell-exposed beaches such as Itamambuca. Cautious swimmers should choose the sheltered coves instead, since the ocean side can get rough.
Caiçara cooking: grilled fish, shrimp, slow-cooked moquecas and azul-marinho, a fish stew with green banana typical of this coast. Beach restaurants serve it with your feet in the sand, and the fish market near the promenade shows what the boats brought in at dawn.
The coastal culture born of Portuguese fishermen, Indigenous peoples and people of African descent mixing along this shore. You read it in the cooking, in the fishing techniques and in the local vocabulary; Ubatuba is one of its strongholds.
Yes, particularly so. Projeto Tamar and the municipal aquarium are easy to reach and appeal to children and nature-minded visitors alike, and the sheltered coves allow calm swimming.
Less so. The town itself stays modest: a landscaped seafront, shopping streets, juice kiosks. Ubatuba's strength is its Atlantic forest setting and its beaches, not its urban heritage.
