Morro de São Paulo

Morro de São Paulo needs 2 days: walking the four numbered beaches (Primeira to Quarta) and the ruins of the 17th-century Portuguese fort on the cliff, on one, and a boat trip around the Boipeba archipelago, on the other. September-March brings the driest weather. It's mid-priced for Bahia. It sits on an island with no cars or motorbikes -everything moves on foot or electric carts-, reachable only by boat from Salvador or Valença, which made it a backpacker haven since the 1990s without losing its fishing-village pace.