Angra dos Reis

The number gets repeated so often it has become part of the town’s identity: 365 islands, one for every day of the year, scattered across the Bay of Angra dos Reis like something arranged rather than accumulated by geology. Whether the count is precisely accurate matters less than the effect of standing on the harbour looking out at dozens of forested humps rising from calm green water, each one a plausible destination for the day, with no obvious way to choose among them.

I solved that problem the way most visitors do: by booking a spot on one of the wooden schooners that leave Angra’s waterfront each morning, looping through the bay on a route that typically takes in four or five islands and coves over the course of a day. The boats themselves are half the experience — old-fashioned, brightly painted, with a crew that treats caipirinha service as a competitive sport and a sound system that ensures MPB and pagode play continuously from departure to return.

Ilha Grande, the largest island in the bay and technically its own destination rather than a quick stop, deserves special mention — a former prison colony turned car-free nature reserve, with jungle trails leading to beaches that regularly place on lists of Brazil’s best, including Lopes Mendes, a nearly two-kilometre stretch of pale sand with no road access at all. I spent a separate overnight there on a different trip, and the absence of cars changes the entire rhythm of a place in ways that are hard to appreciate until you’re walking a sandy forest path at dusk with nothing but footsteps and birdsong for company.

Back on the mainland side, the smaller islands closer to Angra itself are built for a lazier kind of day — anchoring in a cove, swimming off the boat, eating grilled fish and farofa prepared onboard, and doing very little else. Lia fell asleep on the bow of one boat for the better part of an hour, and when she woke up, insisted the nap alone had been worth the trip.

The town of Angra dos Reis itself is a working port with a compact colonial centre — a church, a few colonial-era buildings, a functional waterfront — worth a brief look but not the reason anyone comes here. The bay is the destination; the town is simply where the boats leave from.

When to go: December to March for the warmest water, though weekday trips year-round avoid the worst of the weekend crowds heading out from Rio, about two and a half hours away by car.