The itinerary that combines beach, nature, adventure and nightlife on the Costa Verde
Everyone who works in travel has a pet itinerary: the one they would recommend to their best friend with a free week and an appetite for everything at once, beach, forest, adventure and nightlife. This is ours. We designed it over ten years of hosting travelers in Ilhabela and sailing the Costa Verde, and it has one trait we do not hide: it is the itinerary our own ecosystem delivers whole, from the first bed to the last nautical mile.
Seven days, two states, a forest island, a 17th century historic center and three nights sleeping on a boat. No car after day 4, no repacking every night, no day trips. Let us take it in parts.
The overall shape
The spine of the itinerary is simple: three days based in Ilhabela, an overland crossing to Paraty, and three nights of expedition through the bay of Ilha Grande aboard the Albatroz, our group’s 23 meter schooner. It is the openly partial version of our 7 day Costa Verde itinerary: instead of hopping from guesthouse to guesthouse, you use two bases, one on land and one afloat, and let the scenery move around you. Anyone who wants the logic of the three destinations together can start with the guide to Ilhabela, Paraty and Ilha Grande on one trip.
Days 1 to 3: the base in Ilhabela
The trip begins by crossing the São Sebastião channel on the ferry, twenty minutes that work as an arrival ritual: the mainland falling behind, the island’s mountains growing ahead. The base for these three days is our house, Hostel da Vila, in the historic center, on the channel side: 8,000 m² of forested property, accommodations that run from geodesic dome to treehouse, a pool heated to 32°C and the night starting on the Floresta Bar deck, no car required.
Day 1 is arrival and calibration. Drop the bags, take a first walk around the historic center, with the Igreja Matriz and the colonial houses, and end the day at the channel’s edge for the sunset, which here goes down behind the mainland mountains and sets the water on fire. At night, the Floresta: live music or a party, depending on the day of the week. The house schedule changes with the season, so it is worth checking what your week holds.
Day 2 is sea and waterfall. The morning goes to the beaches on the channel side, calm water and kiosks with fresh fish. In the afternoon, one of the island’s waterfalls, with pools of cold water in the middle of the Atlantic Forest. The order matters: sea in the morning, when the wind is lower, and forest in the afternoon, when the sun bears down.
Day 3 is mountain day. Pico do Baepi is Ilhabela’s classic climb: a demanding trail, a little over a thousand meters of altitude, that repays the effort with a panoramic view of the channel and the ocean. Leave early, carry more water than you think you need plus repellent, and come back in time for the reward that makes this itinerary ours: the 32°C pool waiting for your legs at the end of the afternoon. Anyone who prefers a smaller effort finds alternatives in the guide to the best hikes in Ilhabela.
Day 4: the crossing to Paraty
In the morning, the itinerary takes a deliberate breath: unhurried coffee, one last swim, the bag closed without rushing. The trip to Paraty is the week’s only road leg: the ferry back to São Sebastião (free for pedestrians) and about three hours on the Rio-Santos, one of the country’s most beautiful roads, with the sea appearing between the mountain curves.
Boarding the Albatroz starts at 6 pm, at Marina Píer 46 in Paraty. And here the itinerary plays its most elegant move: the first night is spent with the boat docked and the evening free in Paraty’s historic center, a twenty minute walk away. Dinner among the colonial houses, stone streets lit by lanterns, and the walk back to sleep in your cabin, rocked by the marina. All of Paraty becomes the expedition’s anteroom.
Days 5 to 7: the expedition through the bay of Ilha Grande
At dawn on day 5, the Albatroz casts off and breakfast happens with the boat already underway. The destination is the bay of Ilha Grande, and the first stop is a snorkel in transparent water, at Praia do Dentista or the Lagoa Azul, depending on the day’s conditions. Lunch by the chef on board (full board runs from here on) and an afternoon in Vila do Abraão, Ilha Grande’s car-free settlement, to walk, drink a sugarcane juice and watch village life. Dinner and the night at anchor.
The Albatroz at anchor in the bay of Ilha Grande. Photo: Hostel da Vila Group archive
Day 6 holds the moment that justifies the expedition. An early start to Praia do Pouso and the twenty minute trail to Lopes Mendes, the beach that lives on the lists of Brazil’s most beautiful. The difference is the hour: whoever sleeps aboard arrives before the day-trip schooners, and finds the three kilometers of white sand practically empty. It is the same beach everyone photographs, in a state almost nobody sees. Lunch on board, an afternoon at the Lagoa Verde with the fish schools in the clear water, sunset on deck and the last night at anchor.
Day 7 is the return in slow motion: the boat wakes up sailing toward the bay of Paraty, breakfast is served at a beach stop along the way and arrival at the marina comes mid-morning. A week after the Ilhabela ferry, you step off with the rare feeling of having taken three trips in one.
Why this itinerary only exists whole here
Let us be transparent, because that is our way: every piece of this itinerary can be done independently. There are guesthouses in Ilhabela, buses to Paraty, scheduled boats to Ilha Grande. What does not exist outside our ecosystem is the whole, stitched version: the land base with a living night and a warm pool, the expedition with a chef, cabins, a transparent kayak and nights spent in the places day trips only pass through, and a single team looking after both ends. The three expedition nights start at R$ 1,491 per person in 2026, meals and activities included; the details and next departures are at albatroz.hosteldavila.com.br/pacotes.
The itinerary’s variations
With whales, in winter. Between May 16 and August 16, humpbacks cross the São Sebastião channel, and day 2 or 3 in Ilhabela can include one of our whale watching departures: 3h30 at sea from the Pier da Vila, R$ 320 per person in 2026, with sightings treated with the honesty the sea demands (they are not guaranteed, but likely at the June and July peak). Winter also adds dry trails, clear water and the 32°C pool at its best.
With a holiday. On long weekends, the Ilhabela base becomes a package with parties every night at the Floresta, DJs and bands included; dates and conditions are at feriados.hosteldavila.com.br. The Albatroz also runs special holiday departures, which tend to sell out first.
Stretched, with the fjord. Anyone with ten days can swap the three night expedition for the five night combined route, which adds the Saco do Mamanguá, the tropical fjord south of Paraty, complete with a bonfire gathering on the beach at the foot of the Sugarloaf peak and the night at anchor inside the fjord.
The Mamanguá seen from the Sugarloaf trail, on the stretched version of the itinerary. Photo: Hostel da Vila Group archive
Tips from people who have gone before you
Four practical warnings, learned from those who went first. First: bring a soft backpack, not a hard suitcase; in the boat’s cabins, a backpack stows away and a suitcase fights for space. Second: repellent from day one, because Ilhabela’s borrachudo is the toll of clean water and does not forgive an unprotected ankle. Third: the expedition takes travelers from age 7, so the itinerary also works as a family trip, and the kids are usually the last ones willing to disembark. Fourth: on holidays and in July, the boat’s departures and the house’s most sought-after accommodations sell out weeks ahead; this itinerary improves a lot when booked early, because the two ends can be matched calmly.
One week, four trips
Beach with empty sand at eight in the morning. Nature of closed forest, waterfalls and a thousand meters of mountain. The adventure of sleeping on a boat and waking up in a fjord. And real nightlife, on the deck of a bar in the forest and on the stone streets of Paraty. The itinerary exists because the Costa Verde delivers all four within 300 kilometers, and we spent a decade building the pieces to cross it without hurry and without friction.
When you want to turn a free week into this week, start with the base: build your stay in Ilhabela and design the rest from there. The Costa Verde’s sea takes care of the remainder.