Angra dos Reis Travel Video Guide

Angra dos Reis Travel Itinerary

• Maps and flag of Brazil
• Angra dos Reis travel photos
• Angra dos Reis travel forum
• Flights to Angra dos Reis
• Hotels in Angra dos Reis
• Hostels in Angra dos Reis
• Buy the guide book!

From Mangaratiba, the road hugs the coast as it wends its way westwards, rising and falling between towering green-clad mountains and the ocean. Roughly 60km west of Mangaratiba lies the shabby and rather unprepossessing little town of ANGRA DOS REIS . The lands around here were "discovered" by the navigator Andre Goncalves in 1502, though it wasn't until 1556 that a colonial settlement was established. The port first developed as an entrepot for the exportation of agricultural produce from Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais in the seventeeth century. Fifteen slave-worked sugar refineries dominated the local economy which, with the abolition of slavery at the end of the nineteenth century, suffered a dramatic collapse. The 1930s saw the economy regenerated, with the construction of a new port, and shipbuilding remains an important local trade - although the latest venture is Brazil's first nuclear power station, located nearby.

The main reason to come here is to get out to the thirty or so local islands in the bay. Numerous leisurely boat and fishing trips are on offer, and most yachts have a bar at which you can fill the time between stops for swimming at beaches penned in between clear waters and tropical forest. Visiting Gipoia by boat, for instance, allows you a couple of hours to splash about and get something to eat in the Luiz Rosa bar - all very relaxing. Various companies run trips, so it's best to ask at the tourist information office (daily 8am-6pm; tel 024/365-1280) in Largo do Lapa, right across from the bus station and next to the Cais de Santa Luzia , from where the boats depart. Trips can also be arranged on the quay with independent operators, but check on the noticeboard for those boat owners who have been authorized to carry tourists. Most trips leave around 10am and return

in the late afternoon; on average you'll pay around $10 a head.

Beaches in the town are nothing special. Better ones are found by following the Estrada do Contorno (by car), or catching a bus from the bus terminal (hourly) to the beaches of Bonfim, Gordas, Grande, Tangua, Tanguazinho, Ribeira or Retiro. There are other beaches within reach, too: along the main BR-101 highway, in the direction of Rio, good spots for bathing and free camping are Garatucaia and Monsuaba.

Your Tips For Angra dos Reis

• Espirito Santo Brazil Travel Videos
  Brazil Travel Itinerary
  Espirito Santo , a compact combination of mountains and beaches, is one of the smallest states in Brazil (with a population of only 2. - Brazil
  

• Northeast Brazil Travel Videos
  Brazil Travel Itinerary
  The Northeast ( nordeste) of Brazil covers an immense area and features a variety of climates and scenery, from the dense equatorial forests of western Maranhao, only 200km from the mouth of the Amazon, to the parched interior of Bahia, some 2000km to the south. - Brazil
  

• Minas Gerais Brazil Travel Videos
  Brazil Travel Itinerary
  The French geologist Gorceix summed up Minas Gerais 150 years ago, when he wrote that the state had "a breast of iron and a heart of gold". - Brazil
  

• Rio Brazil Travel Videos
  Brazil Travel Itinerary
  The citizens of the ten-million-strong city of Rio de Janeiro call it the Cidade Marvilhosa - and there can't be much argument about that. - Brazil
  

• Amazon Brazil Travel Videos
  Brazil Travel Itinerary
  The Amazon is a vast forest - the largest on the planet - and a giant river system. - Brazil
  

• Goias and Tocantins Brazil Travel Videos
  Brazil Travel Itinerary
  Almost 1000km from Rio and located in the barren sertao of the Goias highlands - very much in rural, peasant Brazil - Brasilia is the largest and most interesting of the world's "planned cities". - Brazil
  

• Sao Paulo Brazil Travel Videos
  Brazil Travel Itinerary
  The citizens of the Sao Paulo state , Paulistas, never tire of saying that their state is Brazil's economic powerhouse, and they produce a mountain of statistics to sustain the boast. - Brazil
  

• Mato Grosso region Brazil Travel Videos
  Brazil Travel Itinerary
  Very Brazilian, in both its vastness and its frontier culture, the Mato Grosso region is essentially an enormous plain rippled by a handful of small mountain ranges. - Brazil
  

• South Brazil Travel Videos
  Brazil Travel Itinerary
  The states forming the South of Brazil - Parana , Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul - are generally considered to be the most developed part of the country. - Brazil