I love Paraty, RJ
Just came back from a 5-day long trip to Paraty (RJ) and I loved everything about it. The city offers a very unique perspective on the colonial history of Brazil. Paraty was founded in 1500 by Portuguese colonialists. The town was an essential harbor for gold and later for the slave trade (mainly for the coffee fields of Brazil), which also explains the very rich old city center. Paraty is a city full of historical sights and old colonial architecture which was also influenced by the Masons.
During very high tide and rainfall seasons, the streets get flooded in the city, which is why the city is also called Brazilian Venice. The buildings in the old city center are very well maintained (there are no telephone poles in the city), and the city hosts a variety of fine dining experiences and shops for local products and goods. You find a lot of indigenous art and a variety of nice and unique clothing pieces from locally sourced brands. Another very prominent good of the region is the famous Cachaca Gabriela, a cinnamon-infused cachaca that is very smooth. The city is packed with tourists and feels safer than Rio de Janeiro. Most of the local people also speak English, and you find a lot of great offers for tourists.
We spend the days going to multiple restaurants and touring the cities, discovering the various stores and historical sights. A big highlight was a boat tour of the surrounding islands of Paraty, which are absolutely beautiful. You find many beautiful beaches, excellent bars, and restaurants only accessible via boat. Moreover, we did a tour of a local Cachaca brewery and a waterfall in the forest. The region around Paraty has a lot of mountains and is just absolutely beautiful, together with the beautiful beaches.
Paraty was one of my best tourist experiences in Brazil so far.
This was the view from our Pousada, we stayed close at the beach side, and next to the old city center.
The houses in Paraty are in general white but they have very colorful features.
Beautiful landscape of Paraty with Mountains in the background is really amazing.
Paraty has a bunch of neighbouring islands which are reachable with by boat only.
This is the view of the old city center from a boat.
Paraty is in the middle of beautiful nature and aside form the beaches there are many trails that allow to discover the nature of Brazil.
The old city center has a lot of tourists but also occasionally there are wedding so you will definitively be entertained by the nightlife/ bar scene.
