How much does a Costa Verde trip cost?
The Costa Verde looks expensive from a distance. The photos show schooners, speedboats, colonial townhouses and beaches from international lists, and many travelers write the bill before doing any research: “this is not for me”. The real math says otherwise. We live in the region and spend the year hearing the same question from both ends of the front desk: the backpacker wants to know if they can survive on little, the vacationing couple wants to know where the catch is.
Both answers are encouraging: you can travel the whole region in the range of R$ 150 to 250 per day, and you can travel in real comfort without coming close to the prices of Brazil’s trendy northeastern destinations. What changes everything is the date you pick and a few logistics decisions. This article opens the books: the figures are from 2026, collected by people who live here, and where a price range exists we show the range instead of faking precision. For general context on the destinations, the starting point is the definitive guide to the Costa Verde.
The four bills that make up the budget
Every trip through the region comes down to four expenses: transport, bed, food and tours. It is worth understanding how each one behaves.
Transport is cheap and predictable. The bus legs between towns cost from R$ 5 (Paraty to Trindade) to R$ 27.50 (Angra to Paraty), the long-distance buses from the capitals run between R$ 53 and R$ 142, and the ferry to Ilhabela is free for pedestrians. The only transport expense that stings is the speedboat to Ilha Grande in high season, which can reach R$ 150 each way when the R$ 20.50 ferry does not fit your schedule. All the leg by leg figures are in the guide to the Costa Verde without a car.
The bed is the most elastic expense. A hostel bed on Ilha Grande goes from R$ 46 to R$ 165 a night depending on the season, and the pattern repeats in Paraty and Ilhabela. Mid-range guesthouses start around R$ 200 for a couple. Above that there is no ceiling. Here is our declaration of interest: the people writing this run Hostel da Vila, an eco lodge in Ilhabela’s historic center where hostel beds share the grounds with out-of-the-ordinary accommodations, from a dome to a treehouse in the forest, and that is why we prefer publishing the market ranges to promising a rate.
Food depends on your style more than on the destination. A set lunch (prato feito) at a simple restaurant runs between R$ 15 and R$ 40 (in Paraty you can still find a generous one around R$ 20), while the restaurants of the historic center charge historic center prices. A hostel with a kitchen cuts that bill in half.
Tours have prices set by competition: schooner in Angra from R$ 49 to 109, schooner in Paraty around R$ 60, the little boat to Ilha das Couves in Ubatuba around R$ 30. At the other end there is the expedition format, which bundles boat, bed and meals into a single price: that is the case of the Albatroz, our group’s 23 meter schooner that leaves Paraty on two to five night routes, with a chef cooking on board and the night spent with the boat anchored in places like Saco do Mamanguá. In 2026, the entry rate starts around R$ 990 for the two nights, with the chef’s meals and activities like kayaking and snorkeling already inside the price, in 10 interest-free installments. And here comes the reading of people who do the math on both sides of the counter: add up two guesthouse nights, two standalone schooners and six restaurant meals and the separate total comes close or goes over, only sliced into lines, timetables and transfers. For what you spend assembling the pieces, the all-inclusive expedition is, in our openly stated view, the smartest way to do the Rio stretch; the standalone pieces remain in the table just below for anyone who prefers to build it themselves. And a huge share of the best the region offers is free, which is what holds up the lean budgets further down.
Table of typical costs (2026)
| Item | Price range |
|---|---|
| Hostel bed (dorm) | R$ 46 to 165/night |
| Mid-range guesthouse (couple) | from R$ 200/night |
| Set lunch (prato feito) | R$ 15 to 40 |
| Schooner in Angra | R$ 49 to 109 |
| Schooner in Paraty | ~R$ 60 |
| Boat to Ilha das Couves (Ubatuba) | ~R$ 30 |
| Flex boat to Ilha Grande | R$ 45 to 150/leg |
| Ferry Mangaratiba/Angra → Ilha Grande | R$ 20.50 |
| Bus Angra → Paraty | R$ 27.50 |
| Bus Rio → Angra | R$ 53 to 117 |
| Ferry to Ilhabela (pedestrian) | free |
| Rental car daily rate (economy) | ~R$ 60 to 130 + fuel |
Profile 1: backpacker (R$ 150 to 250 per day)
The dignified survival budget works like this on a typical Ilha Grande day: a dorm bed outside high season for R$ 60 to 90, breakfast included (standard at most hostels in the region), a set lunch or a packed meal from the hostel kitchen, dinner cooked with your dorm mates, and the day spent on a trail, which costs nothing. Total: under R$ 150 on a day without transfers.
The backpacker’s expensive days are crossing and tour days. The ferry to the island (R$ 20.50), a schooner in Paraty (R$ 60) or the taxi boat to Lopes Mendes push the day into the low R$ 200s. Averaged over a 7 to 10 day trip, the R$ 150 to 250 daily range holds, which comes to about R$ 1,400 to 2,200 for a week, not counting transport from your home city.
The smart backpacker takes advantage of the fact that the best of the Costa Verde is free: the hikes, the waterfalls and the vast majority of the beaches charge no entrance fee.
Cachadaço beach, in Trindade: the whole program costs a R$ 5 bus ticket. Photo: Eduardo Gabão, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Profile 2: mid-range budget (R$ 350 to 500 per day, for two)
The most common profile among our readers: a couple or a pair of friends, simple guesthouse, restaurant once a day, one paid tour in each destination. The math of a typical day in Paraty: a mid-range guesthouse at R$ 200 to 300 a night for the couple, lunch at a toes-in-the-sand restaurant, a simpler dinner, a R$ 60 per person schooner on one of the days. It lands between R$ 350 and 500 daily for the couple combined, meaning R$ 175 to 250 per person, curiously close to the solo backpacker’s ceiling, because sharing a room is the biggest saving lever there is.
Over a week, this profile closes around R$ 2,500 to 3,500 for the couple, internal transport included. What blows up that number is not the standard of the trip, it is the date: the same week in January or during FLIP can cost double on lodging alone.
Profile 3: comfortable (from R$ 700 per day, for two)
Here enter guesthouses with pools and views, restaurants chosen by the menu rather than the price, and the freedom to solve logistics with money: flex boat instead of ferry, a transfer on the Paraty-Ubatuba leg instead of the regional bus, a rental car (the daily rate for an economy model runs from about R$ 60 to 130 at the big-city agencies, plus fuel and parking). Private speedboat outings in Paraty or Angra multiply the cost of the day, but they divide by zero the number of people on your beach.
We do not publish precise numbers for this profile because the variation is enormous; from R$ 700 a day for the couple the trip is already comfortable, and the ceiling is your card’s. What is worth recording: even at this level, the Costa Verde delivers a lot per real spent, because the main settings (the sea of the bay, the historic center of Paraty, the beaches of Ilha Grande) are the same for those who spend a lot and those who spend little.
What makes the trip more expensive
Three factors move the price more than any hotel or restaurant choice of yours.
Summer. From December to March (New Year’s and Carnival at the extreme), lodging across the whole region climbs to the top of the ranges and some guesthouses only take minimum-stay packages. It is also the rainiest season, which makes the cost-benefit objectively worse.
Long holiday weekends. Even outside summer, any long weekend fills the region, doubles the driving time on the Rio-Santos and pulls lodging and boat prices up. Even the Ilhabela ferry charges cars more on weekends (R$ 28.50 against R$ 19 on weekdays), a reminder that here even the official price table acknowledges the Saturday surge.
FLIP and Sailing Week. In 2026, Paraty’s literary festival runs July 22 to 26, and the town’s lodging spikes that week, with rates that exist at no other time. Right on its heels, the 53rd International Sailing Week (July 24 to August 1) stirs up Ilhabela. If your goal is saving, those are the dates you cross off the calendar; the full picture of high and low season is in the article on the best time to visit the Costa Verde.
Honest ways to save
No magic, just the choices that demonstrably work around here.
Travel in April, May, September or October. It is the same sea at half the price and a tenth of the line. That single decision is worth more than all the other tricks combined.
Sleep at a hostel with a kitchen, even in a private room. Many hostels in the region have double rooms for less than guesthouses, with breakfast included and a kitchen that cuts the food bill in half.
Prefer the ferry to the speedboat on the way to Ilha Grande. It is R$ 20.50 against up to R$ 150. The price of the saving is fitting your itinerary to the ferry’s timetable, which our 7 day itinerary already does.
Book schooners and boats at the pier, the day before. Outside high season there are spots left over and sometimes a better deal than the internet’s.
Have the set lunch at noon and a good dinner (or the reverse). One good meal a day keeps the trip pleasant; two keep your card wide awake.
And carry cash. It is not a direct saving, but it avoids the classic first-trip cost: being hostage to the village’s only ATM or to a card machine with no signal in Trindade or Bonete. The other mistakes that cost money are listed in how to plan your first Costa Verde trip.
Waterfall in Ilhabela: the region’s best programs still cost zero. Photo: Iuri Bertolini, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
The bottom line
A week on the Costa Verde costs, per person and not counting transport from your home city: R$ 1,400 to 2,200 for the backpacker, R$ 1,250 to 1,750 for someone traveling as a pair on a mid-range budget, and from R$ 2,500 in the comfortable profile. Pick the right date and any of those numbers buys one of the most beautiful trips Brazil offers. Pick the wrong date and the same money buys half of it.