Balneario Camboriu is a city of towers on a beach in southern Brazil, and the comparison everybody reaches for is Dubai. The first image is the honest version of it: a seven kilometre crescent of sand with a continuous wall of residential skyscrapers behind it, some of them among the tallest buildings in Latin America, in a municipality of about 150,000 permanent residents that takes many times that in January. Whether you find it thrilling or appalling is a matter of taste. What is not a matter of taste is the thing the towers did to the beach.
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What Is Here
THE CITY REBUILT ITS OWN BEACH BECAUSE ITS SKYLINE HAD SHADED IT. This is the fact that explains the place. The towers are tall enough and close enough to the sand that they threw Praia Central into shadow through the afternoon, which is a problem when the beach is the entire economy. So in 2021 the city completed one of the largest beach-nourishment projects in Brazil, with dredgers pumping sand ashore to widen the strand from roughly 25 metres to about 70. The beach you walk on is engineered, recent, and considerably wider than the one in older photographs. It also means the afternoon sun arrives later at the back of the beach than you would expect, so the good light is in the morning and the far end.
THE CABLE CAR IS THE BEST THING HERE AND IT GOES SOMEWHERE USEFUL. Parque Unipraias runs gondolas from Barra Sul at the southern end of the main beach, over a forested hill, down to LARANJEIRAS BEACH on the other side, which has no road access worth using. So it is a scenic ride that is also the transport to a quieter beach, with a middle station in Atlantic forest and a zip line if you want one.
THE INTERPRAIAS ROAD IS WHERE THE CITY STOPS, AND IT IS TWENTY MINUTES AWAY. The second image is that coast: a winding coastal road south from Barra Sul past a string of small coves backed by forest rather than towers, Taquaras, Taquarinhas, Estaleiro and Estaleirinho among them. If the main beach is not what you came for, this is the answer and it is very close. ONE OF THESE COVES, PRAIA DO PINHO, IS BRAZIL'S FIRST AND BEST KNOWN OFFICIAL NATURIST BEACH, which is worth knowing before you arrive rather than after: it is signed, it is entirely normal, and it is not somewhere to wander on to unprepared with family in tow.
THE FERRIS WHEEL AND THE CHRIST. The third image is the FG Big Wheel at twilight, a very large observation wheel on the hill above the city with the whole bay beneath it, and the Cristo Luz monument nearby is the other elevated viewpoint, a lit statue with a terrace. Both are unashamedly attractions rather than sights, and both give you the skyline from outside itself, which is the view that makes sense of the city.
AND THE CROWD IS SOUTH AMERICAN RATHER THAN EUROPEAN. In January this city fills with Argentines, Uruguayans and Paraguayans as much as Brazilians, which changes the food, the hours and the languages on the beach. It is one of the most interesting things about it and it is invisible in English-language coverage.
When to Go
This is SOUTHERN Brazil and it has real seasons, which catches people out.
December to February is high summer and the peak: hot, water in the mid twenties, and genuinely packed, with January the most extreme month of the year in both price and density.
March, April and November are the best value by a wide margin, with warm sea, open restaurants and room to move.
June to August is the southern winter and it is cool, often in the low to mid teens with cold rain and wind off the Atlantic, and much of the beach economy closes down. The city empties. That is lovely if you want an empty promenade and useless if you want to swim.
Getting There
Navegantes airport is about half an hour north and is the convenient arrival, with Florianopolis about an hour and a half south offering far more flights. Curitiba is around two and a half hours and Sao Paulo roughly seven by road.
There is no passenger rail. Long-distance coaches are the normal Brazilian alternative and the bus station is well connected.
The main beach and the promenade are entirely walkable, and a car is useful only for the Interpraias coves, which can also be reached by local bus. In January, driving in the central grid is slow enough that walking is usually faster.
The Balneario Camboriu Packing List
Strong summer sun, a cool and wet winter, sea breeze on an exposed bay and a lot of promenade walking.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women earns its place here in a way it would not on a tropical beach, because this city has a real winter: in July the evening on that promenade is in single figures with wind off the water, and in summer the same layer handles coming out of the sea into air conditioning. Wool manages both ends of that range, which is the whole argument for it on a trip to southern Brazil.
A long sun hoodie for the summer months, because the bay is open to the south east, the reflected light off water and pale sand is strong, and shade on an engineered beach is whatever you brought with you.
A wide brim sun hat, and an insulated water bottle for the promenade, the wheel and the long walk to the quiet end.
A quick dry travel towel, and walking shoes with grip for the Interpraias coves, which are reached down steps and paths rather than off a car park, and for the forest trails at the cable car's middle station.
Insect repellent, used by DAY as well as at dusk for the reason in the health note below, and particularly on the forested coves.
Not linked and worth packing: A WARM LAYER AND A WIND SHELL IF YOU COME BETWEEN JUNE AND AUGUST, which is the single most common packing error for southern Brazil; SWIMWEAR YOU ARE COMFORTABLE IN, since Brazilian beach norms are briefer than European ones and nobody will mind either way; CASH IN REAIS for the beach kiosks and the local buses; AND SOMETHING WITH SLEEVES for the air conditioning.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Balneario Camboriu
Emergency numbers: 190 for police, 192 for ambulance and 193 for fire, all free from any phone, with 193 also reaching the fire service for a water rescue. Santa Catarina's military fire service runs the beach lifeguards, the GUARDA-VIDAS, and their flags and whistles are instructions rather than suggestions.
THE BAY LOOKS TAME AND HAS RIP CURRENTS, AND THE LIFEGUARD SERVICE IS THE THING TO USE. Praia Central is wide, busy and patrolled in season, and drownings on this coast happen where people swim outside the flagged and patrolled stretches, particularly at the rocky ends of the bay and on the unpatrolled Interpraias coves. Swim between the flags, and if you are caught in a current swim parallel to the beach until the pull releases rather than fighting straight back in. SANTA CATARINA GETS SERIOUS STORMS, including severe squalls and occasional downbursts off the Atlantic, which arrive quickly and close the beach; the lifeguards clear the water and that is not a precaution to argue with. WINTER SEA TEMPERATURES drop enough that cold water becomes a factor rather than a comfort, and the winter surf on the open coves is heavier than the summer bay. AND THE TRAFFIC IS A REAL HAZARD IN JANUARY: the central avenues carry very heavy volumes with pedestrians crossing between towers and beach, and scooters and delivery motorbikes weave through it.
Theft is the realistic risk in Brazil and the FCDO is specific enough to be useful. Robberies are common in many cities and particularly on buses, thieves target mobile phones and the FCDO names the window BETWEEN 4PM AND 9PM, and attackers may be armed. THE ADVICE IS NOT TO RESIST: hand over valuables rather than arguing with someone who may be armed and under the influence. Thefts are especially common on public beaches, including ARRASTOES, where a large group runs through a stretch of beach grabbing everything, so take nothing to the beach you would mind losing and DO NOT GO ON TO CITY BEACHES AFTER DARK. And the FCDO is unambiguous about FAVELAS: avoid all of them, including favela tours marketed to tourists and any accommodation, restaurant or bar advertised as being inside one, and check that a GPS route is not taking you through one, because tourists have been shot after entering by accident. On the geography, the FCDO's named city sections are RIO DE JANEIRO, SAO PAULO, BRASILIA and NORTH-EAST BRAZIL, and none of them is Santa Catarina, so nothing in this post imports a warning written about somewhere else. The national advice above is what applies, and its beach clauses are the operative half in a city whose entire front is beach.
UK FCDO: there are no advised-against areas in mainland Brazilian cities, and the one place the FCDO advises against all but essential travel is RIVER TRAVEL ON SPECIFIC AMAZON STRETCHES: along the Amazon west of Codajas and east of Belem do Solimoes in Amazonas State, along any part of the Itaquai or Japura rivers, and along the Rio Negro north or west of Barcelos, because of criminal activity in the border country Brazil shares with Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. NOTE THAT BELEM DO SOLIMOES IS A TOWN IN AMAZONAS AND NOT THE CITY OF BELEM IN PARA, which is 1,500km east and is not named. Four areas have their own sections covering ordinary crime rather than advice against travel: RIO DE JANEIRO, SAO PAULO, BRASILIA, where the FCDO names the central bus station area for theft, and NORTH-EAST BRAZIL, where it names theft from hotel and motel rooms and muggings, and advises using taxis after sunset rather than walking and avoiding quiet or deserted areas.
US State Department travel advisory: the Brazil advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/brazil, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital: Hospital Municipal Ruth Cardoso serves the city with an emergency department, and the larger referral hospitals are in Itajai and Blumenau, with Joinville and Florianopolis the regional centres for anything major. Dial 192 for an ambulance. Brazil has no reciprocal health agreement with the UK or the United States, so insurance with medical cover and repatriation is essential. Private hospitals in the big cities are genuinely good and expensive and will want payment or an insurance guarantee before treating you; the public SUS system will treat an emergency and is slower and more variable. A farmacia handles minor problems. TAP WATER IS TREATED AND GENERALLY SAFE IN THE MAJOR CITIES including Brasilia, Porto Alegre and Fortaleza, though most Brazilians drink filtered and bottled is universal. DENGUE IS THE REAL HEALTH RISK and Brazil has large annual epidemics, with chikungunya and Zika also present; the mosquito that carries all three bites BY DAY, so repellent is a daytime measure. YELLOW FEVER VACCINATION is recommended for much of the country and some onward countries require a certificate if you have been here, so check before you travel rather than at the border.
Official health authority: the Brazilian Ministry of Health. covers the national health service and the current dengue situation, which varies sharply by state and season
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Brasilia.
Official tourism authority: Visit Brasil, the national tourism board. covers Brazil nationally, and the municipal tourism office publishes the Unipraias cable car hours and the Interpraias bus timetable, both of which contract sharply outside the summer season
Takeaways
The towers shaded the beach, so the city pumped in a wider one in 2021.
Twenty minutes south on the Interpraias road, the towers stop entirely.
Praia do Pinho is a naturist beach. Worth knowing before you arrive.
This is southern Brazil. June to August is genuinely cold.
Solo women safety assessment: Balneario Camboriu is an easy solo destination by Brazilian standards, and the reason is density: the central grid and the promenade are busy, brightly lit and overlooked by thousands of apartments until late, which is the opposite of an isolated resort. Eating alone is unremarkable and the restaurant strip runs on long into the evening. Ordinary Brazilian care applies and the FCDO is specific about what that means: theft is the realistic risk, robberies are common and particularly on buses, the named window is between four and nine in the evening, attackers may be armed, and the advice is NOT TO RESIST. Beach theft including the arrastao is called out explicitly, so take nothing to the sand you would mind losing and do not use the beach after dark. None of the FCDO's named city sections covers Santa Catarina, which is worth saying as clearly as the clauses that do apply. THE PHYSICAL RISKS ARE WATER AND TRAFFIC. Swim between the flags on the patrolled stretch, because the deaths on this coast happen at the rocky ends of the bay and on the unpatrolled coves; if caught in a current, swim parallel to shore. Santa Catarina produces fast severe squalls that close the beach, and the lifeguards clearing the water are issuing an instruction. In January the central avenues are heavy with traffic and weaving motorbikes while pedestrians cross constantly between the towers and the sand. Dengue is carried by a day-biting mosquito, so repellent is a daytime habit. 190 REACHES POLICE, 192 AMBULANCE AND 193 FIRE AND WATER RESCUE.
Reading On
Balneario sits in the most European-feeling part of Brazil and this library covers its neighbours. The Florianopolis packing list covers the island capital of the same state an hour and a half south, which is the obvious pairing and a completely different kind of beach city, and the Curitiba packing list covers the planned city two and a half hours north. Further south, the Porto Alegre packing list covers the Rio Grande do Sul capital and the Gramado packing list the hill town that does the alpine theme in earnest. North, the Sao Paulo packing list covers the largest city in the Americas, the Paraty packing list the colonial port on the Costa Verde, and the Rio de Janeiro packing list the obvious one. For the country, the Brazil travel guide for women carries the regions, the transport and the seasons in full. For why wool suits a cold southern winter and a hot beach in the same trip, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
