4 Best Sights in The Marau Peninsula, Salvador and the Bahia Coast

Make for one of the beach bars that line the sand to watch Barra Grande's legendary sunset. The calm waters also make this a good choice for families to spend the day. Amenities: food and drink; toilets. Best for:partiers; swimming; walking.

This breathtaking beach is said to earn its name from the cresting waves that look like balls of cotton—algodão means cotton in Portuguese. Aside from a handful of sophisticated beachfront restaurants, you'll find the long curved bay all but deserted. Amenities: food and drink; parking (free); toilets. Best for:surfing; swimming; walking.

One of the best ways to explore the peninsula is to join a boat trip or hire a private boat to explore the tropical islands, verdant coastline, and mangroves that line Camamu Bay down to the Tremembé Waterfall—one of the only freshwater waterfalls in Brazil that falls into saltwater, it's an impressive sight. Local kids act as guides to help the adventurous traverse it, and there are small pools for bathing at the top. Don’t miss lunch at Ilha de Venezia, a little restaurant set in the forest to the left-hand side of the waterfall, where you can feast on locally grown palmito (palm heart) roasted in butter, pitu (crayfish), pitu moqueca, and pitanga cherry caiprinhas. It's pricey but well worth it.

On a clear day, the natural swimming pools that form in the turquoise waters just off the coast of Taipu de Fora beach make for great snorkeling. They are best explored when the tide is halfway out and masks can be rented from coconut vendors that line the shores. Taipu de Fora is also considered one of the area's best spots for surfing, and one of the liveliest places to spend the day relaxing at one of the beach bars. Amenities: food and drink; parking (free); toilets. Best for:partiers; snorkeling; surfing.