Estrela D'Agua

Estrela D’Agua is near the tiny village of Trancoso, 50 minutes by car from Porto Seguro airport, including a 5 minute ferry crossing. You can also arrive in style by private helicopter.

You’ll feel more like you’re staying at someone’s summer holiday home – which is exactly what Estrela D’Agua used to be. There are just 20 suites, painted in bright colours like the buildings in Trancoso, with a really laid-back and intimate feel. Slope back from the beach, and flop into the hammock on your private balcony, or head inside for a rest in the cool white-washed rooms. These are spacious but rustic with voile-canopied beds, sloped tongue-and-groove ceilings, and quirky artefacts. For views of the jewel-green sea, stay in the Master Suites: two-floored thatched hideaways with Jacuzzis, huge private decking areas, and generous day-beds under the shade of haciendas.

Brazilians are big on breakfast and it’s no different at Estrela D’Agua. Kick of the day with deliciously sweet local delicacies, sip Caipirinhas by the pool in the afternoon, and enjoy lantern-lit dinners in the evenings, lovingly cooked by a famous Brazilian chef.

For those of a youthful disposition, the beaches of Trancoso are famed for their full-moon parties, and at the beginning of January the locals hold a festival for ‘The Queen of the Sea.’ Up on the grassy bluff is the wonderfully mellow village, where you’ll find the odd horse grazing, lads playing football under the trees, and a magical candle-lit ambience by night. Back at Estrela D’Agua, blissful spa treatments and rounds of golf on the nearby 18-hole course will help you get acclimatised to the chilled out way of life. But if you’re looking for more adventure, you can encounter a riot of Brazilian wildlife as you kayak through the mangroves, and between July and November there are once-in-a-lifetime whale-watching trips.