The charming Brazilian beach town beloved by the A-list

With a soundtrack of Samba music and a caipirinha cocktail in hand, I watch life on Brazil’s Trancoso coastline stroll by: fishermen selling fresh-off-the-boat platters of oysters, moonlighting gauchos offering canters through the surf on sleepy steeds, and vendors doing the rounds with handmade palm woven sun hats, wooden beads, and braided bracelets. A flight of tame budgerigars accompanies a young maker selling feathered headdresses.

There are plenty of direct flights from the UK to Brazil, and yet, surprisingly, it’s not nearly as popular a destination as Mexico, and most that do come head to the chic hotels and beaches of well-known Paraty, south of Rio. Instead, I’ve flown north to the Discovery Coast in the province of Bahia, named for the arrival of Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral on April 22, 1500 (every village and town claims to be the exact landing point).

If you’ve not heard of Trancoso, you may be familiar with Porto Seguro, the biggest beachside settlement of the region with an airport and party reputation, as seen recently on the BBC’s Celebrity Race Across the World.

Trancoso, which sits on a bluff of Atlantic rainforest above the ocean, is a favourite with wealthy Brazilians (and a small number of international A-Listers, among them Beyoncé and Leonardo DiCaprio), with a decidedly bohemian atmosphere, a legacy of the hippies who put the place on the map in the 1970s.

Its remote location has saved Trancoso from mass tourism. The town is 540 miles from Rio de Janeiro, so requires a 90-minute flight to Porto Seguro, with three departures daily, followed by a local taxi for the last leg, a further 22 miles.

But it’s worth the journey. Former fishermen’s houses turned pousadas (inns) painted in cobalt blue, turquoise, and fuchsia pink are now protected by Unesco. Artists’ studios, artisan markets and stylish, low-key boutiques, restaurants and bars, cluster around the misnamed Quadrado main square – it is in fact a rectangle. The 16th-century white-washed Catholic church of Sao Joao Batista is a focal point with a turquoise-painted altar as surprising as its original construction using whale bone and oil.

The coastline is dotted with beautiful bays such as Itapororoca, where Pousada Tutabel (rooms from £293), a luxurious eco-lodge and my base for exploring, sits among cashew trees where sloths hang languidly. I lingered over a breakfast of coconut chia, banana tapioca pancakes, and smoothies of the local superfruit, jucara berries, then set off to explore.

I hopped from the beach at Rio Verde, close to the river of the same name, bordered by lush vegetation, to the deserted stretch of sand known as Patimirim. Another day, with a picnic, we travelled 11 miles by quad bike along sandy tracks to remote Espelho, also known as mirror beach, with water so clear and calm that it reflects the horizon.

From the private Rio do Brasil Reserve, an environmental conservation area that preserves 975 hectares of Atlantic Rainforest managed by Pousada Tutabel, it was a lazy four-mile kayak along the river to the ocean. Home to kingfishers, and families of tree hopping coati, a type of crab-eating raccoon, we paddled through water lush with water reeds that looked like mermaid’s hair. Patches of tiny white waterlilies clasped their petals shut as we splashed passed them.

We passed carnivorous plants with gaping pods primed to ensnare passing insects, and gargantuan Bromeliads trespassing on slender palms. In the mangrove, harmless water snakes rippled through the water, and Fiddler crabs waved with one giant claw.

The other must-do wildlife experience, from July to October, is a cruise to watch the humpback whale ballet. “Whale at 10 o’clock,” the captain called and we all reached for our cameras, hoping to capture the money shot with tail splayed skywards. “Take your mental pictures first,” the captain urged.

“Where are all the hippies now?” I asked Andrea, my guide, as we strolled through the Quadrado. “They live in mansions or on ranches,” was her half-joking reply, because most did cash in, profiting on the houses they bought for peanuts from fishermen when the first millionaires from São Paulo began to show interest in the 90s.

We passed the low-rise primary school which sits at the top of the Quadrado shaded by Monkeypod trees and heard the children reciting times tables. Daily physical education lessons take place on the village green in the centre of the square, and once school is out, a football game is played at 4pm. The boutiques nearby may be fancy (don’t miss Trancoseando, which champions Brazilian artisans and emerging designers, or the trinket-packed shelves of Divinos), but they don’t interrupt local life.

“The town has become popular, of course, but it hasn’t lost its soul. Casa Gloria, although a restaurant now, is still a favourite with locals, where stories are shared in her memory,” Andrea told me.

The former home of the town’s beloved midwife is where I later dined on shrimp bobo (stew) with coconut rice, under swinging lamps woven from palm fronds, which cast atmospheric shadows over the Quadrado’s Frangipani trees and giant fan-like Traveler’s Palms.

There are high-end restaurants in town, among them El Gordo, owned by celebrity Portuguese chef Nuno Almeida, but you don’t have to splurge to dine well. Ali na Janete, run by two sisters, is where musicians sing the songs of Bob Marley and popular Samba classics, while diners feast on recipes evolved from Africa and Portugal.

Of new openings, the rustic-chic Almar beach club and restaurant is the hottest driftwood seat in town, tucked away in the rainforest off Praia dos Nativos. Here, I enjoyed a long, lazy lunch of grilled octopus in brioche bread with organic basil and tomatoes, while watching Great Frigate Birds circle on warm thermals above the palm trees.

Word is that Trancoso is fast becoming the hippest beach destination in Brazil, but during the season’s shoulder months from June until October, the town is as sleepy as it’s ever been (if you stroll through the Quadrado before 3pm, you’ll wonder where everyone has gone. To the beach is the answer).

Switching to Trancoso time was easily my best decision, a sense of wonderful well-being soon achieved by letting just the sunrise and sunset dictate the agenda.

Kate was a guest of Rainbow Tours. An eight-night itinerary staying in Rio and Pousada Tutabel in Trancoso costs from £3,195 per person sharing, including all flights, accommodation and transfers.