Pará Amazon
White-sand beaches on the Tapajós and a vast island at the mouth of the Amazon: a different side of the Amazon, far from the classic tours.
Destinations
Alter do Chão, Ilha de Marajó
Recommended stay
3 to 6 nights
Best time to go
August to December for the beaches
Airports
Santarém or Belém
The Amazon’s beach side
In the state of Pará, you discover the Amazon in a different way: along the Tapajós, the clear water reveals long beaches when the river drops, and you stay with local families in riverside communities.
Farther east, Marajó Island, at the mouth of the Amazon, offers landscapes of flooded grasslands, mangroves and water buffalo ranches.
Plan on three to four nights in Alter do Chão, followed, if you like, by two nights on Marajó by way of Belém, where you can explore the Ver-o-Peso market and a one-of-a-kind Amazonian cuisine.
Where and when to go
Map
When to go
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Months
The Tapajós
Around Santarém, where the Tapajós meets the Amazon.
Alter do Chão
A village on the shore of a lagoon and a clear-water river, with Ilha do Amor right across from the beach.
The blue-green water of the Tapajós stands in contrast to the darker or more sediment-laden water of the other great Amazonian rivers. From August on, as the water recedes, long white-sand beaches emerge. From the village, you head out by boat to the Tapajós National Forest, where you hike to enormous samaúma trees, and share the daily life of the riverside communities: fishing, handicrafts, making cassava flour. The Jari channel and its flooded forests round out the experience.
Ideal for: nature, meeting local people, swimming
Access: about a 45-minute drive from Santarém airport
The river mouth
To the east, around Belém.
Ilha de Marajó
The largest river-and-sea island in the world, a land of grasslands, mangroves and water buffalo.
About the size of Switzerland, Marajó lives to the rhythm of the tides and of buffalo ranching; you even come across the animals in the streets of Soure. Fazendas welcome travelers for horseback rides through the flooded grasslands, and you can discover Marajoara pottery, the legacy of a pre-Columbian culture. The beaches of Pesqueiro and Joanes, facing the estuary, offer beautiful sunsets.
Ideal for: getting off the beaten path
Access: about 3 hours by boat from Belém
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