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Brazil
Santa Catarina & Ilha do Papagaio
Vast, diverse and breathtakingly
beautiful, Brazil is the largest country
in South America and has loads to offer
honeymooners. There’s a huge range of
places, people and sights to experience
and enjoy. From the flooded plains of the
Pantanal to the dense Amazon rainforest and
crashing Iguazu falls, Brazil is the perfect
combination of adventure and romance.
However it’s the islands of Brazil that
really get the honeymoon pulse racing.
Beautiful, secluded beaches, sexy beach
bars from which to watch fiery sunsets
and boutique hideaways surrounded by
exotic flowers – what’s not to love?
Santa Catarina Island is home to the
city of Florianópolis, reached by three
grand bridges attached to the mainland.
It’s full of fashionable bars, restaurants and
shops, but the island’s main attractions,
for Brazilians and tourists alike, are its
beaches. Steer clear of the northern resorts
in the summer, such as Jurerê and Daniela,
as they tend to get very busy. For peace
and quiet and excellent stretches of sand,
head east to Morro das Pedras, or south
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to Lagoinha do Leste and Naufragados,
which can only be reached on foot.
Set on a peninsula between two sleepy,
brightly coloured fishing villages, and
around an hour’s drive from fashionable
Florianópolis, is our favourite Brazilian
honeymoon hotel, Ponta Dos Ganchos.
Everything about this oh-so-chic Relais
& Chateaux hideaway is geared towards
romance and relaxation. There’s no time
limit on breakfast, a gorgeous Christian
Dior spa consisting of just three oceanview white tents and a private cinema.
Even the beds are a treat: the resort’s
young general manager Nicolas Peluffo
joined forces with A-list favourite Cia
do Sono mattresses to guarantee you
the best night’s sleep of your life due to
an infrared ray (whatever – it works).
It’s hard to imagine how large and
sprawling the resort is when you sweep
up the driveway, so well-hidden are the
25 ochre-coloured, bougainvillea-clad
bungalows nestled into a hillside. Stay in
a Da Vila bungalow and you’ll discover a
vast, modern, wood and neutrals-filled space
Opposite: The infinity
pool of a hillside
bungalow at Ponta
Dos Ganchos
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Brazil
Top left: Aerial view
of the private island at
Ponta Dos Ganchos
Top right: Bathroom
with a view at Ponta
Dos Ganchos
Bottom left: Sun deck
in a hillside bungalow
at Ponta Dos Ganchos
Bottom right: The
wooden bridge linking
Ponta Dos Ganchos
island to the resort
with exciting extras like a swivel flat-screen
TV, log fire, sauna, double hammocks,
a plunge pool, Nespresso coffee machine
and an outdoor shower. Each bungalow is
so far from the next that you really don’t
have to mingle and with a maximum of 40
guests at any time, it always feels peaceful.
At the bottom of a winding hillside path,
there’s a rustic restaurant serving gourmet
food and a strip of white-sand beach lapped
by emerald-green water. When it’s time
for an afternoon snooze, head to the giant
day beds on the terrace above the beach.
Top tip: take your after-dinner drinks up
there at night, too, when it’s candlelit –
no one else thought to do this when we
were there so we had it to ourselves.
Technically, Ponta isn’t on an island,
so you might be wondering how it made
it into our book? Well, a honeymoon
highlight is dining on the resort’s tiny
private island, which is attached to the
mainland by a wooden bridge. Tucking
into delicious dishes like octopus rice and
basil (a local speciality), at a petal-strewn
table beneath the stars, with not a soul to
break the peace, makes it one of the most
exclusive dining spots in the world.
However, the reason Ponta is head and
shoulders above other honeymoon hideaways
is the staff, who second-guess your every
move. Favourite drinks are remembered
and served without asking, candles lit
when you return to your room at night
and your initials drawn inside chocolate
hearts on top of your coffee at breakfast.
Surrounded by more than 328,084
square feet of naturally preserved vegetation,
Ilha do Papagaio, or Parrot Island, is
perfect for nature lovers dreaming of a
luxury eco-resort experience. Around
20 miles from Florianópolis, it’s less fivestar luxury than Ponta dos Ganchos, but
what it lacks in pampering it makes up
for in incredible scenery and wildlife.
You can reach the island by helicopter
if you’re feeling flash, but it’s more
enjoyable to rock up in a boat, as the
40-minute journey across the glistening
bay from Florianópolis is fabulous.
The family-run resort is the only hotel
on the island, providing honeymooners with
a great contrast to the buzzy cities they fly
into, such as Rio, Sãu Paulo or Florianópolis.
The 21 lodges, colourful and individually
decorated, are spread around the island so
you really can get away from it all and not
converse with a soul, if that’s your bag.
We love blue-and-white-checked Lodge
5, with its four-poster bed and oceanview balcony with a hammock, and
pretty Lodge 4, set on stilts above rocks
right on the beach-edge, so it’s possible to
gaze at the waves and sunset behind the
mountains from your white canopied bed.
There’s a thatched bar where you can
sip cocktails to your hearts’ content and a
delightful restaurant, where as much of the
menu as possible is sourced locally: think
homemade breads and croissants in the
morning and oysters and shellfish for supper,
caught daily from the resort’s marine farm.
As you’d expect living somewhere this
naturally beautiful, the owners are into
ecotourism. The environmentally protected
coastline is a breeding area for Right Whales
that pass by between July and November.
As well as whale spotting, explore the
eight hiking trails which criss-cross the
island for a chance to bird-watch and see
rare, delicate orchids. Another fun day out
is a boat excursion around neighbouring
Region Islands, including Moleques do
Sul Island, with its Indian-head-shaped
natural totem, great colony of marine birds
and the endemic guinea pig (wild cavy).
When to go
The islands have a sub-tropical climate,
with temperatures averaging between
15-26°C. November to March has the
highest rainfall, and the best months
to visit are April and May before the
weather turns colder June to September.
Contacts
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pontadosganchos.com.br | papagaio.com.br
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