Looking down the cobblestone street we saw a long row of white homes with colourful rounded door and window frames. This charming view continued throughout the entire historic port town of Paraty making it one of Brazil’s colonial gems.
Paraty’s position on the edge of Baia da Ilha Grande on Costa Verde led to its fascinating history as a port town. It began in the early 1600s as a fishing village, but when gold started to be taken from the mines in Ouro Preto, Paraty was found to be the perfect harbour to ship gold to Portugal. The precious mineral was brought down from Ouro Preto following trails that had already been made by the indigenous Guaianá. The trails earned the nickname ‘Rota do Ouro’ (Gold Route). The vast amount of gold brought pirates who lurked in neighbouring coves waiting for the ships to leave. Continuous pirate raids eventually led the Portuguese to find another port to transport their gold.
When gold exports stopped, Paraty’s port was used to ship sugarcane to Portugal. At that time the area also became known for its production of high quality Cachaça; a spirit made from sugarcane. This reputation continues today. When sugarcane became less profitable, the port was used to export coffee. Each iteration meant another growth spurt to this small community. Eventually a railroad was built from Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo and Paraty’s harbour was no longer ideal. By the late 1800s the town was abandoned and sat relatively empty and alone in the Atlantic Rainforest. In the 1970s a highway was built along Costa Verde that connected Paraty to the rest of the country. This resulted in the town being rediscovered and revitalized. This time however, its history is its gold.
Today that abandonment means that many of the heritage buildings remained untouched and unlike many heritage centres, no modern city was built up around them. Every street in Old Town is decorated with well preserved one and two-story white-washed buildings attached to each other in rows. Many have antique style address signs that add to their charm. Colourful door and window frames have distinctive rounded tops. The windows can open sliding up or down giving them even more character.
Horse drawn carriages match the surroundings as they take tourists up and down the old streets. The cobblestones are very picturesque but they were not made of typical stones. Instead these were made with large, rounded river stones that make it very difficult to walk. Most of the area is blocked off from cars so you can take your time navigating the stones without worrying about traffic.
Of the many colonial churches in the heritage centre, Nossa Senhora dos Remedios is often the first one you will see. The church was the first one in town and was built right in front of the harbour. We preferred the small Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosário which seemed to blend in with the neighbouring homes. Another pretty one is Igreja de Nossa Senhora das Dores which has a lovely setting on the water’s edge.
One very interesting design component to this low lying town is their unusual way to clean the streets. Open gutters on the seawalls allow the high tidal waters to flood the streets and wash away debris. Centuries ago it likely cleaned sewage off the streets but today it provides a light cleaning of the dust and dirt. When we were there the sea water didn’t go too far into the Old Town. At the highest tides though, sea water covers all of the streets in Old Town. Because of this all of the doors were built a little more off the ground than usual. The heritage centre in Paraty is worthy of its UNESCO World Heritage status.
Today some of these original homes are still lived in by families but many have been converted to tourist stores, ice-cream shops and restaurants. Outdoor cafes are created with tables and chairs put on the cobble stone roads making this area very lively at night.
In our Ilhabela post we mentioned our difficulties learning Portuguese. Paraty is a good example of how pronunciation isn’t as we expected. It is pronounced paa raa chee.
Today the boats in the harbour are mostly used for fishing and day tours. From the harbour we looked out to the beautiful Baia da Ilha Grande and were enticed to explore it by boat. As we pulled out of the harbour we looked back for a view of Paraty on the edge of the water. Behind it the jungle covered Serra do Mar Mountains were always covered by a layer of clouds by mid afternoon.
Our boat took us to many coves that can only be accessed by boat. Then we motored out to visit a few of the small islands in the bay. We stopped to swim at a few beaches and others were admired from the boat. It is such a beautiful area and a great way to spend the day.
Getting to Paraty
The drive from Rio to Paraty follows a beautiful coastal highway. One option is to take a Costa Verde Bus between Rodoviária Novo Rio and Paraty. If you have stopped to visit Ilha Grande, you have your choice between public and tourist buses that travel between Angra dos Reis and Paraty. Buses also travel between Paratay and Rodoviário Tietê in São Paulo and to many towns on the southern end of Costa Verde. There are also many tour agencies that provide private transfers.
Where to stay in Paraty
Even though Paraty is not a large city, it’s probably best to stay at one of the many hotels in or near the historic centre. There are also a lot of excellent restaurants in the Old City, many with outdoor seating.
Best time to visit Paraty
The ideal weather is between April and September. It will be cooler, but there is less rain. Between December and March it is much hotter, but also much rainier.
Trindade
On the other side of the peninsula from Paraty is the popular beach town, Trindade. In the heyday of gold exports in Paraty, pirates used this small cove to hide out. It was close enough to Paraty to catch ships laden with gold, but also kept pirates tucked away so as to not be seen. It still is a bit of a rustic, backwoods town with one main street covered in wooden buildings that are now almost exclusively tourist nicknack shops and pubs.
Trindade’s stunning beaches that are walking distance from town, is what draws the crowds. We visited three of its beaches on a cloudy day. The clouds and the crowds put a damper on our love for Trindade but on a sunny mid-week day, I bet it’s awesome. Praia dos Ranchos is a long beach directly in front of town. There are a few umbrellas and kiosks but despite its easy access, it is not too busy. It can have high waves that draws surfers but deters most families. At the far end it becomes Praia do Cepilho and then Praia de Fora. Large boulders in the sand on Cephilho are very picturesque and made it our favourite spot in Trindade.
If you walk the other way you’ll soon reach Praia Meio. A large rocky outcrop in the middle of the cove splits it into two. The water is calm so most people prefer this beach. When we were there both sides were very busy, spoiling the natural setting. The third beach, Praia do Cachadaço, requires a bit of hiking on a trail that climbs up and over a small hill. On the other side of the hill you reach a a quiet, long sandy beach backsided by a thick jungle. At the far end a trail leaves the beach and travels through the forest to a natural pool. On the weekend this pool is very busy.
Getting to Trindade
A local bus leaves Paraty bus station every hour. It takes two buses to reach Trindade. The first one takes you on the highway toward Trindade. After 30 min you have to change to a smaller bus that goes up and down the hills between the highway and the beach town. The buses can be very busy on weekends especially at the beginning and end of the day. It was standing room only for our return trip. The cost is R$ 5. You pay the first bus you get on and the fee is covered for both.
Coming Next – Hiking on Florianopolis
For pictures from other blogs go to Gallery at monkeystale.ca
To read about more of our adventures go to Destinations.
If you like what you read, please comment or share (with credit) using the links below.
Monkey's Tale 
The large, eroded, round rocks on the beaches are strangely soothing to look at.
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They were soothing; not many people, the sound of the waves and the smooth rocks. it was our favourite spot 🙂 Maggie
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This looks and sounds like a wonderful place! It’s somewhere I had not previously heard of, so, thank you for the introduction!!
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You’re welcome! It is a great little historical site, You can’t see the new city at all so it almost feels like a museum.
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You must have spent a fair time planning your trip as you have really hit on some lesser known (to me, at least) gems!
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Yes and also because we had quite a bit of time to explore a lot more.
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💙
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Merci!
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Both are beautiful spots I do love nice beaches but Paraty has a charm that is very appealing in its own.
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The homes are so charming, that is so interesting how the tide cleans the streets like that. All your pictures are so beautiful!
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I know, it’s actually funny that more seaside towns didn’t do that! Maggie
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Amazing how bright colours can bring a white building to life. I love towns and cities with interesting doors and windows. The bright coloured boats in the opening shot also add to the feel. An interesting street cleaning method for sure. Thanks for sharing Maggie. Allan
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There are so many little things that add together to make this a cute town. Thanks for your comments Allan! Maggie
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The natural street cleaning method is pretty unique, but it must interfere with business.
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I imagine it makes some of the streets difficult to access but another thing to add to its charm 😊 Maggie
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What a beautiful old town!
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It is! We loved Paraty!!
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Another fascinating article: thanks a lot for sharing it, dear maggie!
The photos are outstanding 💗💗💗
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Thank you so much Luisa!! Maggie
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You’re highly welcome, dear Maggie 🌹
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Oh my gosh Maggie, I simply love the storytelling properties of your recap about Paraty. Thanks so much for sharing this part of your world with us. Paraty is a beautiful place I never knew existed. 🤗📸😍💖😊
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It is a little known, but great historic town. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Kym! Maggie
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Oh my dear Maggie, you are so very welcome. I love towns like that which give off a certain charm a big city cannot touch. 🤗📸😎
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Your pictures bring me right to the middle of the Historic Centre of Paraty where I would love to stroll on the cobblestone road.
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Just do it!
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It is a great historic site to just take a stroll and enjoy the charming town. Thanks fornsharing your thoughts Nancy, Maggie
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Another fabulous tour of another amazing city. It’s so clean and looks well-kept. Thanks for sharing!
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It is very well kept, they did a great job restoring the old buildings. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Maggie
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What a beautiful little place Paraty is! Love the street flooding scenario, but you’d have to be very careful where to park 🤗💟
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Yes you would or you’d be trapped!
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Loved the blue and white architecture in Paraty – reminded me of the tiles in Lisbon. I like the street cleaning technique…
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It’s an intersection technique, better than not cleaning them I guess 😊
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I bet it smells nice.
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Oh, I loved Paraty and this really took me back! It seems to have got busier with tourists than when we were there (2001) – there were no horse drawn carriages then, for instance. But it still looks just as pretty 💙
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It didn’t seem too busy, not like other sites but the horse drawn carriages were quite popular. Glad we brought back good memories 😊
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Paraty has an incredibly beautiful old town full of charm. Even better that, at least in part, it’s free of cars. I do love how you mention that some of the historic houses are still family residences. What an ingenious way to keep the city clean! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.
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It is a really great Old Town with no cars and no modern buildings. The street washing technique is pretty unique I think. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Leighton!
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What charming brightly coloured buildings Maggie. How interesting to learn how they clean their streets, never come across this method before.
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We haven’t either. It seems quite clever hut also quite inconvenient for everyone! Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Maggie
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I’d only recently read about Paraty on another blog site and it sounded fantastic, even more so now with your descriptions. Love the idea of the high tide doing the hard work. I think we would definitely love this area. It’s absolutely the region we will head for on our first Brazil trip.
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You would love Paraty. It’s the perfect little historic town on the edge of a beautiful bay. What’s not to love! And the caipirinhas are good too 😊
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Michaela’s cocktail of choice!
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Maggie, you’ve done a great job of introducing me to this city. Paratay is lovely and historic. The architecture and the way the buildings are painted are very appealing. John
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Thanks John, Paraty is a true gem for history enthusiasts. It’s a perfect, pretty Old Town on a beautiful bay. Glad to have you back. Maggie
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How long was your South American trip?? From everything you have seen, it must have been about 6 months long! 🙂 Simply stunning. Mel
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What an ingenious concept to allow nature to take its course…result clean streets…brilliant.
I never heard of Paraty, thank you for the introduction. Love, love the historic center houses with brightly colored doors.
From the photos, the weather looks idyllic!
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We thought the street cleaning was pretty clever too. I’m sure there were many times when the odours were quite obnoxious, especially in that heat. I thought you’d like those colourful, rounded doors. 😊
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Yes, the smell…probably would be disconcerting. Cleaning is a dirty job.
Thank you for the doors!
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I really love your shot of the skyline of Paraty with old buildings set against a lush and hilly backdrop. It’s amazing to think that they only rediscovered this place in the 1970s, thanks to the highway. I agree with you about Praia dos Ranchos. It must look really nice on a clear, sunny day! After reading Latitude Adjustment’s blog post about Florianópolis, I’m really looking forward to reading your take on this city!
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Part of the charm of Paraty is the lush mountains behind it. That view as we pulled away from the port was a nice surprise. I’ll warn you we didn’t have the same love for Florianópolis as Latitude did. It poured rain for much of our time which prevented us from seeing a lot, so that’s part of it. But we did get to go on an few hikes to beautiful coastal view points. You won’t have to wait long, I’m having to post twice a week to get Brazil done before we leave on our next trip!!
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Oh no. Weather does change things. You will have to go back.
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Thanks for the warning! Where are you going next?
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A week in Poland to see Richard’s family, then Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Turkey.
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What an epic journey you’ll have!!! Safe travels!
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Thanks!
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Thanks Bama!
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Both are beautiful locations. The boat tour to hidden coves sounds lovely.
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It is a beautiful place to be on the water. 😊
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It’s neat to hear how this abandoned city came back to life and that its historic buildings remained untouched and preserved. It makes you wonder what other cities would have looked like if we kept the historic feel without the need to tear down the old and put up the new (and often uglier). I’m a huge fan of places that are designed for walking and block entry for cars. It definitely makes for a more enjoyable experience for wandering around.
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Yes exactly, it so nice to not have to search for the historic homes between modern ones. The lack of cars makes another big difference. Thanks for you comments! Maggie
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Paraty looks like an amazing colonial town, Maggie 🙂 I love its cobblestone streets lined with colourful colonial houses, rich history, and island hopping, all of that with picturesque green mountains and Atlantic forest in the background. I would love to visit Paraty and walk around the Historical Center! Thanks for sharing and have a good day 🙂 Aiva xx
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Paraty is the perfect colonial town. It has just about everything you need 😊
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🥰🥰🥰
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The Historic Center in Paraty looks like a great place to walk … although those cobbled pathways seem a bit uneven for comfortable walking … and I understand why when you explained that they are acutely rounded river stones. But it still reminds me of our Camino in Portugal – a bittersweet memory. I really like “paa raa chee” 😁 – thanks for this introduction!
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We loved Paa raa chee!! We even figured out, mostly, how to navigate those awful river stones. Jackson for catching up on our Brazil posts!! Maggie
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What a lovely city- so effortlessly graceful and inviting. And that is a brilliant way to clean the streets too. 🙂
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Isn’t it a great way to clean the streets! As long as it’s only dirt and not garbage which it never seemed to be.
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In the future, that method of street cleaning might wash away more than street dust with global warming.
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Yes that’s true, it’s seemed ingenious, but I guess they didn’t know about the raising water levels at that time.
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We so loved Paraty, and it looks like we walked down the same beautiful streets and took the same photos. Did you see the views of the town from the cemetery at night? That was a spooky highlight for us!
Glad you experienced Trindade. We waited at the bus station in Paraty for over an hour, in plans to go to Trindade, and we were informed the bus had broken down and would be a 2-hour delay.
We wished we spent a week there instead of 4 nights. Your photos of Trindade (and of course of Paraty) are beautiful. It is such a wonderful place! We certainly were following in each other’s footsteps. Too bad our timing was not closer to yours to actually meet you both in person. Perhaps another time and another place!
Cheers, John and Susan
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Yes it’s too bad, it would have been fun! We started to go to the cemetery but it started to rain. Trindade was nice but it was quite busy so we didn’t enjoy as much.
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So pretty and such an interesting history. Fascinating about letting nature clean the streets. Not sure I’d like that as a resident – haha.
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No it would get a little tiresome to no walk down your street everytime the tide comes in, but quite neat to see as a tourist 😊
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So beautiful, Maggie ! Thank you for this great journey !
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Thank you Diana! Maggie
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Ah, what a gorgeous place! Thank you, Maggie and Richard, for sharing these beautiful photos and the fascinating history of the area! ❤
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Thanks Cherl, Paraty is a real gem in Brazil! Maggie
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The historic centre looks lovely, and those beaches – like all the ones you’ve shown me from your tour of Brazil so far – wow! 🙂
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Yep, Paraty is one of Brazil’s real gems. Lovely historic site on a beautiful bay. 😊
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Charming place. When I was in Rio I didn’t have enough time to make a day trip to Paraty as initially planned, I made up for it by buying a painting of the town at the “hippie” market in Ipanema.
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Haha, well now you have to see the real thing!! 😊
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Same story in Santiago where I bought a painting of Valparaiso before I could visit Valpo a few years later.
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Did Valparaiso live up to the painting ?
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indeed, it was the same bright colours as in the painting!
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Once again here….
Lovely place, Maggie! Your pictures are very inviting with good nature shots and perspective images of townships🙂
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Thank you Indira, we really appreciate your kind words.
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What a beautiful town! I am smitten. And those beaches! So much to enjoy here.
Alison
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There is so much to love about Paraty. The adorable historic town on a gorgeous bay. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Alison!! Maggie
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What a delightfully charming town! I love the way they clean the streets, it’s such a clever idea.
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We thought it was pretty clever too! It adds to the charming town.
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I visited Paraty in 1998. It hardly looks like it has changed at all. It’s quite off the beaten track for tourists, but seemed to have a regular following for Brazillians. Thanks for posting.
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It probably hasn’t changed much, that’s part of its charm. We didn’t see many non-Brazilian tourists anywhere except for the main areas like Rio, Manaus and Iguazu. Thanks for sharing your story:) Maggie
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It has a romantic feel with the colonial flavor of the buildings. Interesting approach to the flooding of the streets. Perhaps other sea level cities and towns could benefit from using the rising seas in that way.
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It does have a romantic feel to it with the quiet, clean streets and restored homes. It is a pretty ingenious street cleaning method for the time.
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That’s a place I’m looking forward to visit soon.
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Are you in Brazil now? We loved Paraty, also consider Ouro Preto! Maggie
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I was there a few days ago. I was going to Paraty, but it was raining a lot.
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