While the towns of Maragogi, Tamandare and Porto de Galinhas are rather seldom heard of when you read about backpacking Brazil, a visit of these lesser frequented places is, in our opinion, so so worth it. Not only because you won’t experience mass tourism, but mainly because they are home to some of the best beaches we have ever seen.
Although we haven’t seen all of Brazil and we are sure there are many other beautiful beach spots, we can promise you that the beaches close to these towns are absolutely incredible.
Maragogi:
Maragogi is a small, but alive town, with a couple of small markets, 2-3 hostels and the beach of Maragogi right infront of it. We can recommend the Mandala Hostel, which was affordable (15€ for a private), had a well equipped kitchen and very welcoming owners. The Maragogi beach is already very beautiful, but the close by Praia Xareu and Praia de Antunes are the must-see beaches in that area. Crystal clear, calm waters, white beach, palms, coconuts….what more do you need?
Tamandare:
Roughly 1 hour public bus ride away is the even smaller town of Tamandare. The town itself is very sleepy and there is not really much to do, but if you walk 30-40mins along the beach you reach the reason for your visit: Praia dos Carneiros. A huge and stunning beach, with a colorful chapel build on the beach (for all romantics, this might be the place for your dream wedding).
If you want to stay directly at that beach, it is possible, as there is a good amount of resorts at dos Carneiros, but for the average backpacker this option will probably be a bit out of your price range. At least when we were there in March 2019, it was not affordable….that’s why we chose to stay in Tamandare, where we paid 20€ for a private room at a locals couples guest house.
Porto de Galinhas:
Porto de Galinhas is definitely the most visited town out of these three. In fact there are many hotel/hostels and streets full of shops and restaurants. Which means that it get’s a lot of visitors in certain periods, but in March it was not too busy. The main group of tourists are neither European nor American, it’s actually Brazilians and South Americans that come to Porto de Galinhas during their holidays. Don’t expect to find many backpackers here, as prices are a bit over the top, although we managed to get a private for 20€ a night at a hostel (but the hostel was far from clean or nice). The beach in Porto de Galinhas is beautiful, but in our opinion it doesn’t get close to the beaches at Maragogi and Praia dos Carneiros.