Nights out in Itacaré, and the week they follow

People arrive expecting either nothing or a full moon party, and it is neither. Itacaré's nightlife is one street, and that street runs on a weekly rhythm you can plan around once you know it. Turn up on a Monday in low season and you will think the town is asleep. Turn up on a Saturday and you will not get to bed.

Rua Pedro Longo

Everything is on or just off one pedestrian street. Restaurants set tables outside, bars open onto it, music comes out of several doors at once and the street itself is where the evening actually happens. You do not need to know where you are going. You walk down it and stop where it sounds right.

It is also short, which is the charm. In a night you will pass the same people three times and by the third night you will know them.

The week, in order

• Monday: the quietest night of the week. Kitchens close early out of season.
• Tuesday: quiet. Good for the places that get too full later in the week.
• Wednesday: the town starts to wake up. First live music of the week in high season.
• Thursday: busy on Pedro Longo. Tables outside fill from about eight.
• Friday: full. Live music in several places at once, and it runs late.
• Saturday: the big night. Forró, samba and pagode, and the street stays awake.
• Sunday: long lunches on the beach, then an early and gentle evening.

The same week is kept up to date, with whatever is actually booked, on what is on.

What the music is

Bahian rather than international. Forró is the one to understand: accordion led, danced in pairs, and considerably easier to join than it looks from the edge. Samba and pagode fill the rest, and there is live music in some form most nights once the week gets going. If you came for house music in a beach club, you have the wrong town.

Capoeira, and the things that are not nightlife exactly

Rodas de capoeira happen in the open here and are worth catching. So are the street festivals that take over the whole town on the right weekend, which are a different scale of thing entirely from a normal Saturday. Those are seasonal and they are listed on what is on as they are confirmed.

How the season changes it

Enormously. Over the Brazilian holidays the street is shoulder to shoulder and there is live music somewhere every night of the week. In the quiet months several places close early and Monday genuinely is nothing. Neither is better, but arriving in May expecting December is a common disappointment. The month by month picture is in when to come.

Eating first

Dinner here starts late by northern European standards and the same street does both jobs, so there is no travel between the meal and the night. What is worth knowing about the food side is in eating and drinking.

Where to sleep if you want the night, or want to avoid it

This is the one decision that changes your trip most, and people make it by accident. Staying just off Pedro Longo means the night is thirty seconds from your door and also thirty seconds from your pillow. Staying at Praia da Concha or further out means a walk home and a quiet night's sleep. Both are right, for different people. The trade is set out in where to stay.

Getting home

The centre is busy and lit late, so walking back through it is unremarkable. Beyond that the streets get dark and a taxi is the sensible call rather than a long unlit walk. The rest of the practical picture is in the safety guide and in getting around.