One moment
Islands
Ilha do Mel
An island worth the crossing · Paranaguá, Brazil
Photo: Deyvid Setti · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
4.8★Rating
2,291Reviews
$$Price level
Oct–AprBest time
The experience
A car-free island state park at the mouth of Paranaguá Bay — 95% Atlantic Forest and sandbank — where sandy paths link the fishing villages of Nova Brasília and Encantadas beneath the 1872 Farol das Conchas lighthouse. Fishermen's boats, small pousadas and empty surf beaches, nothing more.
Reachable only by boat with no roads or cars once ashore, it stays a Paraná locals' escape while foreign itineraries rush past to Florianópolis.
car-freelaid-backunspoiledcoastalrustic
It's only worth the detour Oct–Apr. Turn up outside that window and you're looking at a different place; we'd rather say so than sell you the photo.
What a membership adds.
Everything above is free: the name, the photo, the rating, the exact spot. What members get is the part you can't Google: the sourced insider tip for this place (what to order, when to go, what to skip), every day of your trips unlocked in full with the insider tip on every researched stop, and the concierge at full strength, answering with your own insider tips, no daily meter.
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