Paraty is a preserved colonial port on the Costa Verde, about four hours from Rio de Janeiro and five from Sao Paulo, where the Serra do Mar drops straight into a bay full of islands. It was the Atlantic end of the Caminho do Ouro, the stone road down which Brazilian gold was carried from Minas Gerais to be shipped to Lisbon, and when the gold ran out and the railway went elsewhere the town was simply left alone for two centuries. In 2019 UNESCO listed it jointly as a cultural and natural site, one of the few places in the world to hold both.
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The single most quoted fact about Paraty is also the one that matters most for your feet. The historic centre's streets were laid below the spring tide line on purpose, so that at the highest tides the sea comes up through the stones and washes the town, then drains away. It is a functioning eighteenth century sanitation system and it still works, which means that for a few hours around a full or new moon the historic centre is ankle deep in seawater and everybody carries on regardless.
What Makes Paraty Different to Pack For
The streets flood, and the stones are the real hazard
Paraty's pe de moleque paving is large, rounded, irregular stone, deliberately uneven, frequently wet and periodically submerged. It is genuinely difficult to walk on, it turns ankles, and it defeats any shoe with a heel, a thin sole or a smooth one. Cars are banned from the historic centre, which helps, but the surface is the surface.
Hot, humid and wet in every month
Expect 20°C to 32°C year round with high humidity. The wet season runs December to March and is genuinely heavy, with afternoon downpours and landslide risk on the mountain roads; the drier and cooler months from June to September are the better window and the sea is still swimmable.
Nothing dries quickly here. A merino wool base layer for women works as a lightweight top in this climate rather than as insulation, because it moves moisture and does not develop the smell a synthetic develops after a humid day.
Half the destination is offshore
The standard Paraty day is a schooner or small boat out to the islands and beaches of the bay, which means sun on open water for six hours with limited shade.
The other half is rainforest and waterfalls
The Caminho do Ouro, the Trindade trails and the waterfalls of the Serra da Bocaina are wet Atlantic rainforest: mud, roots, river crossings and rock polished by water.
Cachaca is the local industry, and it is strong
Paraty has made cachaca since the seventeenth century and the small alembic distilleries run tastings. The town gave its name to the drink for a period, and the measures are not small.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Paraty Packing List
Footwear
This is the section that matters most here. Flat shoes with a thick, cushioned, high grip sole, and ideally two pairs so one can dry. Trainers are the honest best answer and everyone wears them. Nothing with a heel, including a small block heel, and nothing with a smooth leather sole.
Flip flops or sandals you do not mind soaking, for the tide days and for the beach. Water shoes are genuinely useful here, both for the flooded streets and for the rocky beach and waterfall entries.
For the Caminho do Ouro, Trindade and the waterfalls, waterproof hiking shoes: the gold trail is wet moss covered stone laid three hundred years ago and it is slippery in a way that surprises people.
Clothing
Light, loose, quick drying and more changes than you would pack for a drier climate. Two swimsuits. A sarong that doubles as a cover up and a towel. Long sleeved thin tops and long trousers for the evening and for the forest, which is insect protection rather than warmth.
A light packable rain jacket, which you will use in the wet season and on any boat. One light layer for a cool winter evening in July, when it can drop to 17°C or 18°C with a breeze off the water.
Paraty is relaxed and nothing smart is needed, though the town has good restaurants and a genuinely stylish crowd during the FLIP literary festival and the Bourbon jazz festival, when one better outfit is pleasant.
For sun
A wide brim hat with a chin strap for the boat, sunglasses, and high factor reef safe sunscreen. A schooner day burns people badly, because you are on water for hours with reflection from below and a breeze that hides the heat.
Practical
A dry bag for the boat trips and for the wet season. Insect repellent, which matters more than the pretty streets suggest: dengue is endemic in Rio de Janeiro state and the mosquito bites in daylight, and the forest has borrachudos, small biting blackflies whose bites itch for a week.
Rehydration sachets. A refillable bottle and filtered or bottled water, since tap water is not reliably drinkable. Cash in reais for the boats, the market and the smaller restaurants, though cards and Pix work widely. A torch for the historic centre at night, which is deliberately lit only by lamps and is beautiful and very dark.
Check the tide table for your dates, which your accommodation will have, because a full or new moon means the centre floods and it is worth knowing before you plan a dinner. Book well ahead for FLIP in late November and for Carnival, when the town fills completely.
What to Wear at Key Sites
The historic centre
A grid of whitewashed colonial houses with brightly painted doors and window frames, four churches, and no cars.
Practically: grippy flats, and slow down. The stones are the attraction and the hazard in the same breath, and falls are the commonest injury here by a wide margin. If the tide is in, either wade in water shoes with everyone else, which is genuinely enjoyable, or wait two hours. Cover shoulders and knees for the churches.
A schooner trip round the bay
The standard day out: a wooden boat to three or four island beaches with swimming stops, usually with lunch.
Practically: swimwear under your clothes, a hat with a strap, sunscreen reapplied at every stop, a dry bag and a light layer for the wind. Shade on a schooner is limited to a small canopy and it fills early, so board early if you burn. Agree what is included before you pay, since drinks and lunch often are not.
Trindade
A former fishing village turned surf and backpacker beach about 25 minutes south, with a natural tidal pool at Piscina Natural reached by a coastal path.
Practically: closed shoes for the path, which is root, rock and sand and takes about 40 minutes each way. Swimwear, water shoes for the pool rocks, and everything in a dry bag. The open beaches at Trindade have a heavy shore break and rip currents and are not casual swimming beaches; the tidal pool is the safe water.
The Caminho do Ouro
A surviving stretch of the eighteenth century stone gold road climbing into the Serra do Mar, walked with a guide.
Practically: waterproof hiking shoes with serious grip, because the original paving is moss covered stone at an angle and it is slick even in dry weather. Long trousers, repellent, water and a rain layer. Guided access only in the protected stretch, and it is worth it for the history.
The waterfalls and the cachaca trail
Cachoeira do Tobogã, a natural rock slide, plus several distilleries on the same road inland.
Practically: the Tobogã is a smooth wet rock chute that people slide down, and it is exactly as risky as that sounds; people are injured there every season, so watch someone local do it first and do not attempt it in high water. Water shoes, swimwear, a dry bag. If you are combining with a cachaca tasting, do the slide first.
Praia do Sono and the walk in beaches
A beach with no road access, reached by a 50 minute coastal walk from Laranjeiras or by boat.
Practically: closed shoes with grip for the trail, which is steep, rooted and muddy, plus water, sun protection and cash, because there is limited infrastructure. Start early and allow for the return.
What Not to Bring
Leave every heel and every smooth soled shoe, which the pe de moleque will defeat inside an hour.
Leave a wheeled suitcase if you can, because dragging one over these stones from a taxi drop is miserable and small wheels break. Leave heavy cotton, which will not dry. Leave the assumption that a preserved colonial centre means an easy walking surface, because the opposite is true by design. Leave valuables on a schooner day. Leave the wet season if you have flexibility, both for the rain and for the landslide closures on the Rio road. And leave the plan to slide down the Tobogã without watching how it is done.
Essential Resources for Women in Paraty
Emergency numbers in Brazil: 190 reaches the Policia Militar, 192 the SAMU ambulance service and 193 the fire service, which also handles water rescue and trail rescue. 191 reaches the federal highway police, relevant on the BR-101 coast road. On the walk in beaches and the Caminho do Ouro there is little or no phone signal, so tell your accommodation your plan before a long walk.
Tourist support: Rio de Janeiro state operates a tourist police unit and Paraty has a municipal tourist information office by the bus station and in the centre. A theft is reported at the Delegacia for the boletim de ocorrencia your insurer needs, and it can often be started online. Schooner and trail operators should be registered with the Ministry of Tourism, and the licensed guides for the Caminho do Ouro are the only legal way into the protected stretch.
US Consulate: the Consulate General in Rio de Janeiro is about four hours away by road and is the nearest, with the Embassy in Brasilia, both at br.usembassy.gov. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: the Hospital Municipal Hugo Miranda in Paraty handles routine problems and stabilisation. Anything serious means Angra dos Reis, about an hour and a half east, or Rio de Janeiro at four hours, and the coast road is slow and closes in landslides during heavy rain. Travel insurance with medical evacuation cover is worth having for that reason alone.
Official health authority: the Ministerio da Saude at gov.br/saude. Yellow fever vaccination is recommended for Rio de Janeiro state, including the Costa Verde, and should be given at least ten days before arrival. Dengue is endemic with chikungunya and Zika also present, and the Aedes mosquito bites during the day, so repellent is a day item. There is no malaria on this coast. Tap water is treated but most people drink filtered; bottled is easy. Do not swim in still fresh water inland. Sun and dehydration on a boat day are the commonest complaints.
US State Department travel advisory for Brazil: current advisory level and detail. The advisory is national and driven by urban crime in the large cities, and Paraty is a small heavily touristed town well below that profile. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for Brazil: entry requirements, safety and health guidance, including the crime, beach safety, road travel and yellow fever sections.
Official tourism authority: Embratur's visitor site at visitbrasil.com, with the Paraty municipal tourism office for the tide tables, the schooner operator list, the Caminho do Ouro guide bookings and the FLIP dates.
Solo women safety assessment: Paraty is one of the easier places in Brazil for a woman travelling alone. It is a small, prosperous, heavily visited town whose historic centre is pedestrianised, well populated in the evening and watched over by a tourism economy that depends on visitors feeling safe. Violent crime against visitors is uncommon and far below the Brazilian cities. Walking alone in the historic centre in the evening is entirely normal, eating alone is unremarkable, and joining a schooner trip alone is one of the most sociable things you can do here. Street harassment exists at a low level and is mostly verbal and unpersistent. The crime that does occur is opportunistic: theft from the beach while you swim, which is the commonest incident by a wide margin, theft from a parked car at the Trindade and waterfall car parks, and occasional bag snatching in the crowds at Carnival and during FLIP. Take nothing to the sand you cannot lose, leave nothing visible in a car, and keep a bag zipped in a festival crowd. The bairros away from the centre have higher opportunistic crime and no tourist reason to enter. Use a registered taxi or a ride app after dark if you are going beyond the centre, and note the historic streets are deliberately very dimly lit, so a torch is genuinely useful and not a precaution against crime so much as against the paving. The things most likely to hurt you here are physical rather than criminal, and the first is the ground: falls on wet, uneven, sometimes submerged pe de moleque are what fills the local clinic, and the answer is proper shoes and a slower pace. The second is water. Trindade's open beaches have a heavy shore break and rips, several bay beaches have currents, and the Cachoeira do Tobogã natural slide injures people every season, so swim where locals swim, ask about conditions, and do not attempt the slide in high water. The third is the road: the BR-101 along the Costa Verde is a beautiful, narrow, winding coastal highway with heavy truck traffic, landslides in the wet season and a poor accident record, so travel it in daylight and do not drive it tired. The fourth is insect borne disease, which is a genuine probability rather than a theoretical risk. And the fifth is cachaca, which is stronger than it tastes and is served generously.
Reading On
Paraty is four hours from Rio de Janeiro and five from Sao Paulo along the Costa Verde, and it is the best preserved colonial town on the Brazilian coast. The Brazil travel guide for women is the parent for the country and the Brazil packing list for women covers a trip across it. Along the coast, the Rio de Janeiro packing list for women covers the city at one end and the Sao Paulo packing list for women the city at the other. North, the Salvador packing list for women and the Recife packing list for women cover the northeast. Inland and south, the Ouro Preto packing list for women covers the baroque highlands the gold road led to, the Florianopolis packing list for women the southern island, the Iguazu packing list for women the falls, the Pantanal packing list for women the wetland and the Manaus packing list for women the Amazon. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why wool works in humidity, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, the merino wool in warm weather guide covers the hot end of the range, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
