The best boat tours on the Costa Verde
The Costa Verde explains itself by boat. The best beaches on the corridor between Rio and São Paulo have no road, the islands have no bridge, and the scenery that earned the region its name only appears whole to whoever looks from the sea toward the mountains. The question is never whether you will get on a boat, it is which one. And a disclosure right at the start: this ranking has an owner. The people writing it operate a 23 meter schooner that leaves Paraty every week, plus boat departures in Ilhabela. We know every format on this list from the inside, including the ones that are not ours, and we will say plainly who each one serves and where each one disappoints.
The criterion: what every real and every hour invested gives back in experience. From first to sixth.
1. The multi-day expedition, sleeping on board
The schooner at anchor in a cove of Ilha Grande bay, seen from the trail. Photo: Hostel da Vila Group collection
First place is not a tour: it is an entire trip that happens inside the boat. The Albatroz expedition, our group’s schooner, leaves Paraty in formats of 2 to 5 nights (from R$ 990 in 2026, payable in 10 installments), with air-conditioned cabins, an onboard chef, transparent kayak and snorkel gear included. The 3 night route crosses to Ilha Grande bay and sleeps in it: morning at Lagoa Azul before the mainland schooners, afternoon in Vila do Abraão, and sunrise at the trailhead to Lopes Mendes with the beach still empty. The 2 night route goes the other way: barbecue at Cajaíba, snorkeling at Ilha dos Meros and the night at anchor inside Saco do Mamanguá, with a beach bonfire at the foot of the Sugarloaf peak.
The bonfire night on the Mamanguá beach, with the boat anchored just offshore. Photo: Hostel da Vila Group collection
The structural difference from everything else on this list fits in one sentence: the other boats visit the places, the expedition wakes up in them. Against it, said without hedging: it costs more than any day trip and asks for at least two and a half days of your schedule. Who it is for: people with time, who want the sea in depth and understand that the best hour of any cove is the one the day boats never see. The onboard videos are on the Albatroz Instagram.
2. The Paraty day-trip schooner
The corridor’s democratic classic: it leaves the historic center pier, costs around R$ 60 per person in 2026 and runs a circuit of about five hours around the bay, with three or four swimming and snorkeling stops. For the price of a lunch, a full day at sea. It is the best value boat ride on the Costa Verde and the reason it sits ahead of far more expensive options.
Against it: it is an assembly line. Timed stops, sites shared with other schooners (several with the sound system on) and the engine calling you back right when the swim gets good. Who it is for: anyone with a single day in Paraty, a tight budget or a child who needs a guaranteed program. Pick the morning departures, which catch the bay at its emptiest; the rest of the town’s menu is in the ranking of the best tours in Paraty.
3. The Angra schooners
Angra dos Reis launches the best selling tours in Rio de Janeiro state: schooner and speedboat circuits between R$ 49 and R$ 109 per person, with Ilha Grande’s Lagoa Azul and the Botinas islands as the stars. The price-to-scenery ratio is honest, boarding is easy and the operation runs all year.
Against it: these boats are exactly the midday crowd the other items on this list are trying to escape. Lagoa Azul at noon on a summer Saturday, with dozens of hulls anchored side by side, is the portrait of volume tourism. Who it is for: anyone based in Angra who wants to see the bay in a day and accepts sharing it. Choose the earliest departure at the counter and check the order of the stops before paying. If the island itself is your goal, the guide to things to do in Ilha Grande shows the ways to sleep on it instead of visiting it.
4. The whale watching departure (May to August only)
The seasonal item on the list, and the only one where the destination is not a place: between May 16 and August 16, humpback whales move up the coast toward the nurseries of Brazil’s Northeast and pass Ilhabela, peaking in June and July. During the season we run our own whale watching departures: R$ 320 per person, 3h30 on a rigid inflatable leaving from the Pier da Vila, in the island’s historic center, operating under the Whale Friendly Seal and taking children from age 6. The mandatory honesty: sightings are not guaranteed, whales do not follow scripts. But when the blow appears on the horizon, the whole boat forgets the cold, and we have watched grown adults cry in a beanie and windbreaker.
Who it is for: anyone traveling in season. It is the most reliable memory this winter produces, and the full context of the season is in Ilhabela in winter.
5. The private speedboat
Anywhere on the corridor you can hire a speedboat with a skipper for the day: your route, your schedule, your music. It is the format that solves groups (the cost split eight ways can approach schooner prices with a different level of comfort) and the only one that lets you design the day around each place’s clock: Lagoa Verde at 4 pm, for example, when the excursions have already headed back.
Against it: alone or as a couple, the price does not work; the quality of the day depends entirely on the skipper; and rough seas cancel with no easy refund in informal operations. Who it is for: groups of 6 to 10 people with a clear route in mind. Book ahead at an established marina, confirm what is included (fuel, ice, snorkel gear) and be wary of prices far below the pier average.
6. Ilhabela’s working boats: Bonete and Castelhanos
The last item rarely makes the pamphlets, and it is among the most authentic: in Ilhabela, the boat is the road on the wild side. The launches and support boats serving Bonete beach and Castelhanos bay exist first of all to move residents and supplies, and they take travelers along. Expect no route and no narration: it is pure marine transport, arranged that day or the day before, at the mercy of the day’s sea without ceremony.
Who it is for: whoever hikes the 16 km crossing to Bonete and returns by boat the next day (the classic design), or whoever prefers reaching Castelhanos by sea instead of by jeep on the dirt road. Against it: the open sea on the ocean coast rolls for real, and on a rough day no boat goes out at all. Build slack into your plan.
How to choose by your time
- One day and little money: the Paraty or Angra schooner, on the earliest departure.
- One day and a big group: a private speedboat with a route drawn against the clock of the spots.
- Traveling between May and August: the whale departure jumps ahead of everything, on the first calm-sea morning of the stay.
- Two days or more and an appetite for real sea: the overnight expedition, no hesitation in the answer.
- No car: every item works; the full design of the corridor by bus, ferry and boat is in the guide to the Costa Verde without a car.
The numbers for each format, inside the trip’s overall budget, are in the article on Costa Verde travel costs.
The final measure
After years operating on this sea, we have reduced the choice to one question: do you want to see the places, or do you want to be in them when nobody else is? The schooners answer the first with efficiency and a fair price. The second has only two answers: the private speedboat at the right hour, for those who can pay for the day, and the boat that sleeps in the place, for those who can pay with time. The Costa Verde rewards whoever picks the second question out of all proportion, because the best hours of this coast, sunrise in the cove and the night without engines, were never for sale on a day-trip ticket.