Discovering Brazil's Florianópolis
© Cedric Angeles
In Southern Brazil, a gem of an island and its surroundings are making waves in more ways than one.
Off the coast of southern Brazil’s Santa Catarina region sits the 33-mile-long island of Florianópolis, more commonly known in these parts as Floripa. From the mainland, one can get there by boat (a 30-minute ride past tiny, deserted atolls), by car (an hour’s drive across bridges), or by helicopter (a five-minute flight that costs about $800). Regardless of the route, making the trip to this subtropical paradise—Brazil’s answer to St.-Tropez, Ibiza, and Punta del Este all in one—is worth the effort, if only to experience one of its 42 unspoiled beaches, its big-wave surfing, or its pulsating nightlife. On Floripa’s north end is the yacht-filled harbor of Jurerê Internacional, which was developed in the mid-eighties. Popular with Brazilian jet-setters, many of whom own million-dollar homes in its exclusive subdivisions, Jurerê is the place for nonstop partying at beachfront clubs. The area is packed during South America’s summer months, from December through March.
The west coast is home to the island’s oldest settlements, where daily life goes on as it has for centuries. Here, down cobblestone streets in the neighboring fishing villages of Santo Antônio de Lisboa and Sambaqui, are elegant examples of Azorean architecture, especially the colonial-style church, Igreja da Nossa Senhora da Necessidade, Floripa’s oldest, dating from 1750. The surfer set can be found in Praia Mole, a long strip of soft, powder-like sand and world-class waves on the island’s east coast. Inland, the boho-chic town of Lagoa da Conceição, located within a large lagoon of the same name, has become the area of choice for Brazil’s artists and intellectuals.
“Floripa is like Rio twenty years ago,” says Brazilian fashion designer Carlos Miele, who bought an island hideaway here in 2003. And according to Jeffrey Jah, the club impresario behind the popular Praia Café, “it’s one fifth the price of St. Barths.”
Yet for all the island has to offer, tourism here is perhaps best described as adolescent. Florianópolis, the capital city of the state of Santa Catarina and named for Brazil’s second president, Floriano Peixoto, has beckoned vacationing Cariocas from Rio and Paulistas from São Paulo for more than two decades, but North Americans have been slow to catch on—which may explain why Floripa has yet to have a hotel truly worthy of itself. Yes, there’s the new Il Campanario Villaggio Resort, an ersatz Italian villa with 288 rooms, and the two-and-a-half-year-old, 15-story Sofitel Florianópolis downtown, but neither rates high in charm or authenticity. We found that the place to stay is actually back on the Santa Catarina mainland, in the very private beach resort called Ponta dos Ganchos. Gancho is Portuguese for “hook,” and while the resort may be an ideal base for exploring the region, 99 percent of its guests never even leave the property, offering an inkling as to why it’s considered the best hotel in the area—and, some say, in all of Latin America.
The 50-minute drive north from Floripa, over a bridge and through a cluster of fishing villages known as Governador Celso Ramos, ends at an electric gate with the only clue of what’s behind it being a small Relais & Châteaux plaque partially hidden by passion-fruit vines. Beyond the gate are 20 acres of verdant hills sloping down to a white-sand beach abutting the Atlantic. Man has tread lightly here: Less than 8 percent of the grounds have been built upon. Tucked into the landscape are 25 bungalows ranging in size from 860 to 3,200 square feet and constructed from glass, stone, and garapeira, a Brazilian hardwood. Five new units were completed last year, each featuring an indoor Jacuzzi, a sauna, and a spacious outdoor sundeck with a plunge pool. From almost anywhere in the suite, 180-degree views bring in the bay below and the ocean beyond. Clay tennis courts, a fitness center with an indoor pool, and massage tents overlooking the water round out Ponta dos Ganchos.
The on-site restaurant features locally sourced food and leans heavily on the region’s shellfish. Meats come from Uruguay and Argentina; vegetables, from the resort’s organic garden. The best spot to dine is on the restaurant’s second-floor porch, which at night is transformed with romantic candelabras and bossa nova music. But the dinner to end all dinners is served on a small island across from the beach, reachable by a boardwalk and a rope bridge. Here, one couple per night is treated to an elaborate five-course tasting menu and wine pairing that features regional dishes like carpaccio made from pupunha, an indigenous palm, with oysters and grilled shrimp flambéed in locally brewed cachaca, a liquor made from fermented sugarcane.
