Itacaré in three days, inside a longer trip
If Itacaré is one stop
Almost everyone arrives in Itacaré as one stop on something bigger: Salvador, the Chapada, a stretch of coast. Three nights are enough for the village, the cocoa and the forest, with one walk a day and the afternoons free.
- How many nights
- 3 to 4 nights
- When it works
- September to November
- What it asks of you
- A transfer from Ilhéus, and one walk a day
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Photo: Matheus de Souza Silva, CC BY-SA 4.0. Day 1
Arriving from Ilhéus, the village and the coast
It is about 70 km on the BA-001, an hour and a half to two hours by car. The road is paved and in poor condition: allow for the longer time.
In the afternoon, the seafront path linking the town beaches in a row: Concha, a cove where the sea barely breaks, Ribeira, and then Resende, Tiririca and Costa, the surf beaches. Finish at Ponta do Xaréu, above Concha, with the sun going down over the line of beaches and the river bar.
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Photo: Lucrilhas, CC BY-SA 4.0. Day 2
The cabruca and the cocoa
Bahian cocoa grows in the cabruca: it is planted in the shade of the standing Atlantic Forest instead of on cleared land, which is why some of the largest blocks of preserved forest are in southern Bahia.
On the Taboquinhas road, half an hour away by car, farms take visitors and follow the fruit to the bar: the cocoa grove, the fermentation troughs, sun drying and a tasting. The visit takes a morning. Jorge Amado set his cocoa novels on this coast, and the farms and the port he wrote about are the geography you drive through.
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Photo: Paulo P. Paiva, CC BY-SA 4.0. Day 3
The forest, or the river
Serra do Conduru State Park covers 9,275 hectares and has one of the highest tree diversities ever recorded, with stretches for swimming in the Tijuípe and Água Vermelha rivers.
The other choice is the Contas river, by small motorboat or canoe up into the mangrove, the way the farms used to bring the harvest down to the village. At the mouth is Pontal beach, where the boats go to watch the sunset.
Before you go
Transfer
Arrange the one from Ilhéus before you fly: booked with your stay, the hotel transfer waits in the arrivals hall. The bus to Itacaré leaves from the bus station, not from the airport.
What the village does not have
A street of designer shops. The restaurants are good and informal, and the best are small. Apart from the town beaches, almost everything needs a car and then a walk.
The beaches, the seasons and how to get here are on What to do in Itacaré.