Ceará

Fortaleza's beaches sit directly against the city rather than requiring a trip out of town — Praia de Iracema, the historic beach neighbourhood with its own nightlife strip, and the longer Praia do Futuro further along the coast, lined with barracas (beach clubs) serving food and drinks through the day. Forró, the accordion-driven partner dance native to Brazil's northeast, has genuine roots in Fortaleza's nightlife, and dedicated forró clubs run through the week rather than concentrating only around festivals. The Mercado Central, a multi-storey craft and souvenir market, and the Dragão do Mar cultural centre round out a city that works well as an entry point rather than purely a stopover before Jericoacoara.

Jericoacoara, protected as a national park since 2002, combines towering sand dunes, freshwater lagoons and Atlantic coastline in a landscape genuinely distinct from anywhere else in Brazil — the Duna do Pôr do Sol (Sunset Dune) is the traditional evening gathering spot, where visitors climb to watch the sun set over the village and ocean, often with impromptu capoeira or drumming below. The village itself has no paved roads and deliberately low-rise buildings, a restriction that keeps the development scale modest despite the town's global reputation. Beyond the village, the Lagoa do Paraíso and Lagoa Azul lagoons offer calm, warm water for swimming distinct from the ocean's surf, and the dunes themselves support sandboarding and buggy tours across the wider protected area.