Mateiros (Jalapão)

Mateiros needs 3 days: floating in a «fervedouro», an underground spring that pushes swimmers upward and makes it impossible to sink, on one, and touring the orange-sand Jalapão dunes and the Cachoeira da Velha waterfall by 4x4, on the other two. May-September is the only season with passable dirt roads. It's expensive given how remote it is to reach, with nearly all tourism organized as tours from Palmas. Most of its attractions have no paved roads, which kept one of the country's last major Cerrado remnants intact, and local artisans weave «capim dourado», a golden fiber unique to the region, into pieces exported as a symbol of Tocantins.