The finest time to go to Lençóis Maranheses…
As the lagoons are made up of rainfall water, the most effective time to go to Lençóis Maranheses is when they’re at their fullest, which is correct after the rain stops, making July, August and the beginning of September the most effective time to go to Lençóis Maranheses. Even although it’s technically Winter within the Southern Hemisphere, it is best to count on scorching and dry circumstances within the North East (round 28C-34C levels!).
How to get to Lençóis Maranheses…
Getting to Lençóis Maranheses is a little bit of a mission, but it surely’s not troublesome in any respect. As tourism has developed, it’s made it extra accessible and simpler to journey to. What are a couple of tough roads relating to visiting top-of-the-line locations in Brazil, ey?
If you might be frightened about methods to get to Lençóis Maranheses, learn on, as I’ve offered numerous element on this weblog publish!
The closest airport to Lençóis Maranheses is São Luis Airport, within the state of Maranhão. But from the airport, you’re nonetheless a minimum of 3.5 hour’s drive from the cities that encompass the park. You can both drive your self by renting a automotive or reserving a switch.
If you need to hire a automotive, there are two firms I’d advocate: Localiza or Movida. Both are dependable and environment friendly and provide a great vary of vehicles to select from. Top tip: undoubtedly spend money on hiring a 4×4 automotive for this journey!
If you’re flying from Europe, there aren’t any direct flights to São Luis Airport. The closest airport you will get to is Fortaleza Airport in Ceará, and that is on a TAP flight from Lisbon. From there, you possibly can both embark on a little bit of a street journey driving up the coast of Fortaleza, Piaui and Maranhao to get to Lençóis Maranheses or get an inner flight to São Luis Airport. Your different possibility is to fly to both São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro and get on an inner flight.
I’ll be straight with you, flights to Brazil are costly. Before the pandemic, you possibly can discover a couple of actually good offers to fly to São Paulo or Rio, however now, the typical worth for a direct flight is between £850-£1200 return with both BA or LATAM. One-stop flights are round £700-£900.
Internal flights to São Luis vary from £150-£250. To get the most effective deal, ebook nicely upfront as this can be a widespread vacation spot for native travellers, particularly if reserving in July, because it’s the varsity holidays.
Where to remain in Lençóis Maranheses…
As Lençóis Maranheses is a National Park, it’s a protected space, so you may’t really keep within the sand dunes, however there are three major cities that encompass the park the place you may base your self: Barreirinhas, Atins and Santo Amaro.
Barreirinhas is probably the most developed city and the place you’ll discover the most effective choice of lodging, eating places and bars. It is among the finest locations to remain in Lençois is you’re searching for comfort and accessibility. It’s additionally the place you’ll have the ability to ebook any excursions or excursions into the park because it’s the principle jumping-off level.
Atins is a smaller city however has a extra laid-back vibe. There’s an important choice of pousadas (guesthouses), and it’s the most effective place to remain if you wish to discover the dunes by foot or quad bikes because it’s closest to them. It’s additionally an enormous kite browsing level, so if you wish to study or already know how-to, this can be a good place to decide on on your keep.
*Atins is just accessible by boat, so when you’ve rented a automotive, you’ll want to go away it in a parking lot in Barreirinhas. As it’s such a small city, it’s essential to ebook lodging nicely upfront as it’s going to promote out (belief me).
Santo Amaro is on the opposite aspect of the park and takes round 45 minutes to drive to from Barreirinhas. Santo Amaro is the least developed out of all three because it’s probably the most troublesome to entry (solely accessible by 4×4 accredited excursions and transfers). Still, it’s additionally the park half that’s much less “touristy” and feels extra genuine. Well value a go to if you wish to keep away from the crowds and entry the extra untouched elements of the park.
The best choice, in my view, is to remain in all three! It’s a little bit extra effort and shifting round, however value it and doable! This is a once-in-a-lifetime journey, so that you’ll need to do it proper and luxuriate in it to the max.
If you had to decide on to be based mostly someplace although, then Barrieirinhas is your only option as it’s the largest city and the place most tour firms are based mostly. They even provide day journeys or in a single day journeys to Atins and Santo Amaro so that you could expertise them to some extent.