Pousada Maravilha
The island’s best known address, above Baía do Sueste, with an infinity pool turned toward the outer sea. View before anything else.
View
Pernambuco · Brazil
Fernando de Noronha
Twenty-one islands in the middle of the Atlantic, with a cap on people and a booked hour to enter the sea.
The read
Noronha is the only destination in Brazil that decides how many people it lets in.
The archipelago sits 545 kilometres off Recife and is a marine national park and an environmental protection area at the same time. The number of licensed guesthouses is fixed, and that is what caps how many people fit on the island. There is no new hotel, no resort, and no season in which the island grows to meet demand.
In practice, whoever decides late does not go. The good guesthouses close months ahead, the flights are few, and neither stretches. It is the opposite of almost every beach destination in Brazil.
And the island has two seas that do not work in the same months. Choosing the date is choosing which of the two you will see.
Flights
Recife or Natal, about an hour
When to go
September to November: calm sea, empty island
Maximum stay
Up to 30 days
Access
The park keeps hours, and Atalaia is booked
The inner sea
- Sancho, Porcos, Conceição, Boldró and Cacimba do Padre, facing the mainland
- Calm water and clear visibility from August to November
- This is the side for diving, for the photographs, and for almost every guesthouse
- From December to March the swell arrives and Cacimba do Padre becomes the surf beach
The outer sea
- Leão, Atalaia and Sueste, facing the open ocean
- Rougher all year, and almost empty because of it
- Turtles nest at Praia do Leão between January and June
- Atalaia is a natural pool with timed entry and a daily headcount
None of these beaches is visited on impulse. The park has an opening and a closing hour, and Atalaia is booked before you set foot on the island.
Where to stay
Few guesthouses, and no new ones.
The number of licensed addresses is fixed. What changes between them is the view, the quiet and the distance from Vila dos Remédios, which is why the choice matters more here than at any other beach destination.
Nannai Noronha
Bungalows with private pools and hotel service, the newest of the island’s high-end addresses.
Private poolPousada Teju-Açu
Timber and stone inside the forest, away from the village, with a kitchen of its own. Quiet before view.
ForestHouses on the high ground
Small houses of a few suites, run as houses rather than hotels. This is where people who have been before stay.
HouseA whole house, with staff
A handful of private houses rent by the season with staff. They solve a group or a family, and step outside the guesthouse logic.
GroupHow it is done
Three ways, depending on the date and the sea.
4 nights
The essentials
- Arrival and late afternoon at Conceição
- A full day in the park, with Sancho and Porcos
- A boat along the coast, stopping to snorkel
- Leão in the morning and Atalaia at the booked hour
For a short date, and the main things only.
6 to 7 nights
With diving
- Two days on tanks, on the wrecks and the rocks
- Sancho unhurried, going in early
- Ilha do Meio and Rata by boat
- One day with no plan, which on this island always pays off
For divers, or for learning where it is worth learning.
5 nights
In swell season
- Cacimba do Padre, December to March
- Bode and Boldró at the end of the day
- Diving on the inner side on the big days
- Sunset at Forte do Boldró
For anyone going for the surf, who accepts a moving sea.
The park
The side the island protects.
Images
Twenty-one islands, and a single runway.
Photographs from free-licence sources, credited on the credits page.
The only destination in Brazil that decides how many people it lets in.
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