Bahia

Salvador's Pelourinho, UNESCO-listed since 1985, is a hillside quarter of pastel-coloured colonial buildings — churches, merchant houses and squares dating to Bahia's 16th-18th century boom as Brazil's colonial capital and main port. Unlike many restored colonial quarters that function mainly as backdrops, Pelourinho stays genuinely lived-in: capoeira — the martial art disguised as dance, developed by enslaved Africans and their descendants — is practised openly in its squares, both informally and in scheduled demonstrations by established schools, and the neighbourhood's candomblé terreiros (Afro-Brazilian religious temples) continue as active places of worship rather than museum pieces. Acarajé — black-eyed pea fritters deep-fried in dendê palm oil, traditionally sold by Bahiana women in white dress — is sold from stalls throughout the quarter and is as much a cultural marker as a snack.

Salvador's Carnival runs on a fundamentally different mechanic from Rio's: rather than choreographed samba-school parades inside a purpose-built stadium, Salvador's Carnival moves through the streets on trio elétrico sound trucks — enormous mobile stages blasting live music, followed by crowds of revellers, some paying for a cordoned “bloco” following a specific truck and band, many simply joining the street around it. The result is widely considered the most vibrant, participatory version of Carnival anywhere in Brazil, genuinely more accessible to a visitor without advance planning than Rio's ticketed Sambadrome seats, though the scale and crowds require the same preparation as any major festival — book accommodation far ahead and expect the whole city centre to be given over to it.

North of Salvador, Praia do Forte combines a genuine beach-town atmosphere with Project Tamar, Brazil's pioneering sea turtle conservation programme founded here in 1980 — its visitor centre and hatchery let travellers see the conservation work directly rather than just the beach it protects. South of Salvador, Trancoso began as a small fishing village and has become one of Brazil's most fashionable low-key beach destinations, its Quadrado — a grass square lined with colourful colonial-era houses, now cafés and boutiques — giving it a character distinct from any purpose-built resort. Both towns work as standalone bases or as extensions of a Salvador stay, reached by a combination of road and, for Trancoso specifically, a short flight or a longer coastal drive.