Itacaré with children: what works and what does not

Itacaré is not marketed as a family destination and that is mostly a marketing accident. The things that make it good with children are the same things that make it good generally: it is small, it is walkable, the water is warm all year and nothing is far from anything else. What it asks of you is that you adjust the plan, because the beaches in the photographs are the ones at the end of a forest trail.

Start at Praia da Concha

Praia da Concha is the one beach here where the sea is reliably calm. The bay curls back on itself, which takes the ocean out of the water and leaves something closer to a lagoon at the near end. With small children it is not one option among several, it is the option. Every other town beach is open Atlantic.

It is also a neighbourhood rather than just sand, so there is somewhere to eat and shade to retreat to, and you are a short walk from your own door when the day ends abruptly, which it will.

The trail beaches, realistically

Engenhoca, Havaizinho, Camboinha and Itacarezinho are what people come for and each one means being dropped on the coast road and walking down through forest. The walks are short by hiking standards and long with a four year old and a bag of towels.

The honest version: with children under about six, plan one trail beach for the whole trip and treat it as the day out. With older children who can walk, the day linking several of them is genuinely brilliant and they will remember it. Details of which is which are in the beaches guide.

The two things that catch families out

The sun and the sea, in that order. You are fourteen degrees south of the equator and it burns through cloud. The most common way a family trip here goes wrong is a first day spent unprotected on an exposed beach.

The sea is the other. Outside Concha there are real currents and there are no lifeguards on the beaches south of town. That is covered properly in the safety guide, and it is the part of that page families should actually read.

Where to base yourself

With children the neighbourhood matters more than the room, because the walk home at the end of a long day is the part that breaks people. Concha and the centre are the two sensible bases and they give you different weeks: Concha for the calm beach and quiet evenings, the centre for being able to walk to everything and eat without a plan.

Both are worked through in where to stay and across the areas pages. Places with a kitchen are common here and worth more with children than they are without.

Eating with children

Brazil is easy with children and Itacaré is no exception. Nobody minds a small person in a restaurant at nine in the evening, portions are generous enough to share, and there is fruit everywhere. The town runs on a weekly rhythm rather than a daily one, which is set out in eating and drinking, and the quiet start to the week suits families rather well.

Which month to come

The Brazilian school holidays are when the town fills with Brazilian families, which is either the atmosphere you want or exactly what you were avoiding. The quieter shoulder months give you space on the beaches and a town that is not queuing for anything. When to come lays it out month by month.

Getting around with a buggy

The centre is flat and walkable but the surfaces are uneven in places and a buggy is more work here than it is at home. A sling or a carrier does better on anything involving sand or a trail. How the town moves generally is covered in getting around Itacaré.

What older children get out of it

More than younger ones, frankly. Surf lessons, a day walking beaches through forest, kayaks on the river, whales offshore in season. It is an unusually good place for children old enough to do things, and the surf schools take beginners of most ages. What is running sits under what there is to do.