Trancoso

Trancoso needs 2 days: touring the Quadrado, the grassy square lined with colorful houses that ends at a clifftop lookout over the sea, on one, and heading down to Praia dos Nativos or Praia do Espelho, on the other. September-March brings the driest weather. It's expensive, one of Brazil's most exclusive beach destinations. Discovered by hippies in the 1970s, it's now a hideaway for celebrities and designers who deliberately kept the Quadrado unpaved and free of neon signs, preserving its fishing-village feel.