The Hippy Seaside Town Of Praia Do Rosa

Relatively undiscovered by international tourism, the beautiful beach of “Praia do Rosa” is located in the State of Santa Catarina on the Southern Brazilian coastline, only about 1 hour 30 min drive from the State Capital of Florianopolis. The white sandy bay is surrounded by green hills covered in tropical foliage. It has an easygoing, hippy vibe with a good mix of peaceful surroundings that attracts people looking for nature and solitude – although the main central hub has many lively cool bars and restaurants, with live music which can be enjoyed in the warm evenings by families and/or group of friends of all ages. The town is known for its excellent seafood, growing surfing community and relaxed pace of life. Apparently, the surfers discovered Praia do Rosa in the 1970’s attracted by the allure of catching the perfect wave. Praia do Rosa has a good infrastructure, although it remains quite rustic with mostly unmade roads still covered by sand, it remains a hidden gem, off the beaten path.

Surfers at Praia do Rosa

But before I tell you more about our stay at Praia do Rosa let’s rewind a bit to the start of our trip …..

My daughter Chloe and I left England soon after Christmas. We were both looking forward to another mother/daughter trip and to escaping the dreary British winter. Flying from the UK to Brazil is usually expensive at all times, but even more so during the Christmas/New Year period when costs escalate to another level. Therefore, to keep costs down we flew from London via another European city (Amsterdam); it is a long and exhausting trip which took us more than 24 hours to arrive at our final destination: my hometown of Canela in the deep South of Brazil.

After a connecting flight in Amsterdam, we flew to Sao Paulo, Brazil and the gateway to our next destination. Ahead of us there was another two-hour internal flight to get to Porto Alegre in the State of Rio Grande Do Sul, where my sister Angelita and her husband Juliano would be waiting for us. On arrival at Sao Paulo airport, we had to collect our bags and check them in again for the domestic flight. Unfortunately, our luggage did not arrive – it was stuck in Amsterdam! We were then told our luggage would take at least another 3 days to get to us.

We wasted no time getting upset over our missing luggage since our connecting flight southbound was about to leave very soon and we had to run fast to the other side of the huge Guarulhos Airport to catch it.

We spent the next two days in Canela getting ready for our trip to the seaside, unsure about when we would be reunited with our missing luggage, and with nothing to wear for the next few days we had no choice but to endure the arduous job of clothes shopping…. there is always a silver lining!

New Year Celebrations

We left Canela on December the 30th for the seaside town of Torres, where my father has a beach-house in the nearby resort of Lagoa do Jardim. There was a big group of us travelling together by car including my father, sisters, brother, nephews, nieces etc. The road trip is very picturesque via the “Rota do Mar” road descending from the highlands of the “Serra Gaucha” to sea level.

With my daughter Chloe on the “Rota Do Mar” road

Celebrating New Year with the Brasilian family was great and very different from my usual cold New Year celebration in the UK. My father and brother cooked a barbecue and just before midnight we all sat around a large table to eat together. Midnight arrived with the popping of champagne corks and a warm welcome to 2018. We celebrated until the wee small hours, chatting, eating, drinking, looking at the fireworks going off at a neighbour’s house and we even ventured for a quick walk to the beach, although we all felt the water was a little too cold for a night swim.

Although Praia do Rosa (PdR) is just across the border from Torres. It took us about four hours by to get to our destination. Although the long car journey was mostly because we did get a bit lost and missed the turning to PdR which is not clearly marked. We also spent a lot of time going in circles around PdR looking for our elusive accommodation. Signposting in Brazil is notoriously bad.

Praia Do Rosa

We rented a house for a three-day stay at Praia do Rosa. Our group had shrunk a bit for this leg of our trip since my father, his partner Dete, my brother J. Remy, sister-in-law Janea and niece Kalinka returned to Canela due to other commitments. But there were still quite a few of us and so we travelled in a convoy of two cars. In the boy’s car was my brother-in-lawJuliano with my nephews Pabblo and Lucas. The girl’s car was driven by my sister Angelita with me as a co-driver, in the back seat there was my sister Virginia with her daughter Lauren and my daughter Chloe. The journey took us about four hours with a stop for lunch and some missing turns due to poor road signing coupled with difficulties of finding our accommodation.

We loved our accommodation and particularly it’s location in the centre of the action and just a short, albeit hilly, walk to a lovely beach. The main downside of our apartment was that it only had one shower room to share between the eight of us. We did manage it ok though by taking turns to return home from the beach and shower at different schedules, only for 3 days it was certainly not perfect but doable.

We were delighted that our dear friend Sinara, who had lived with us in London many years ago was also in town, although luckily for her not sharing our one bathroom. She now lives in Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul and she travelled to PdR especially to meet up with us. She was staying at a nearby hotel. If you follow this blog you will know her from our one week trip together to Rome, Vesuvius and Herculaneum.

Hiking from Praia do Rosa do Praia Vermelha

The hills around PdR make for some fantastic hikes to lovely secluded beaches and coves, and we chose to hike from Rosa do Praia Vermelha; although our kids opted out of this hike for a more relaxing time at the beach and surfing.

The trail is well marked and not too demanding, although there were some steeper and also rocky parts that made it a little harder on our feet and knees. The trail starts at the sandy beach until you reach an opening into a wooded area with tropical foliage all around.

Sinara, Virginia, Angelita and Juliano all relaxed at the start of the trail

Angelita at the start of the trek…lots of shade here

There is a wooden walkway at the start of the trail as you emerge from the tree-shaded area. From here onwards there is not a lot of shade, so make sure to bring a hat and lots of sun protection lotion.

Wooden walkway

The views are amazing all around, with lush green hills in the distance, sheer cliff rocks down below and a beautiful blue sea. We stopped regularly to catch our breath, drink copious amounts of water, and enjoy the views

Juliano, Angelita, Virginia and Sinara enjoying the panoramic views

Praia Vermelha is only accessible by trails from Praia do Rosa or Ouvidor Beach. The secluded cove has no facilities or vendors so bring everything you need food and drink wise with you. The walk there and back took us about 3 hours including our stop for a refreshing swim at Praia Vermelha.

Secluded cove of Praia Vermelha is only accessible by trail…we loved our swim here

It is possible to see Southern Right Whales “Baleias Francas” here from July to November. They migrate here to mate, breed and feed their youngsters. It is also possible to spot dolphins frolicking in the clear water. Sadly for us, we spotted neither during our stay.

There are many other great trails to do in this area, in fact, our daily walk to the beach felt like a hard trek since it was quite hilly getting from our accommodation to our favourite beach. The saving grace was that the hike was very picturesque via lush vegetation, wildflowers and a beautiful salt lake called “Lago do Meio” (middle lake) used for kitesurfing, windsurfing and stand up paddleboarding.

Salty  lake ” Lago do Meio”

In the evening we usually walked into town for a meal and/or hang out at a lovely live music bar. The small town is very walkable with rustic charm and a hippy vibe. It was great that our teenagers were able to hang out with us every night and be allowed into the very family orientated bars, enjoy the atmosphere with a drink (alcohol-free off course, since only Chloe was old enough to drink alcohol), listening to live music, chatting and people watching.

Sorry, not a great night photo…it was taken with my mobile phone.

Cousins Lauren, Lucas, Chloe and Pabblo

It was particularly nice to see the lovely relationship between the four cousins; Pabbo and Lucas ( my sister Angelita’s boys), my daughter Chloe and my sister Virginia’s daughter Lauren. The girls who were both born in the UK are able to speak and understand a good amount of Portuguese. They all live miles away from each other in different countries, meeting up only every two to three years so they don’t fluently speak each other’s language, yet their bond is so strong, there is an underlying understanding,  an easiness in each others company that goes beyond language skills.

After our foray in Praia do Rosa we said a sad goodbye to our friend Sinara and we drove back to Canela since Virginia, Lauren and Chloe had a plane to catch and a long journey back to the UK. I stayed behind for another two weeks in my hometown and had a chance of catching up with friends and family for a while longer.

If you are visiting Santa Catarina in the very South of Brazil I would definitely recommend few days at Praia do Rosa to enjoy nature, good food and amazing local hospitality at a place that feels very authentic and not yet ruined by mass tourism.