Cabo Frio travel guide

This busy tourist town, 168 km from Rio, is a popular middle-class Brazilian seaside resort, which overflows at the weekend with Cariocas. Although the town itself is very touristy, there are some attractive white-sand beaches, some with dunes and good surf and windsurfing, and accommodation nearby. Bring mosquito repellent.

Cabo Frio vies with Porto Seguro for the title of Brazil’s first city. The navigator Amerigo Vespucci landed here in 1503 and returned to Portugal with a boatload of pau brasil. Since the wood in these parts was of better quality than that further north, the area subsequently became the target for loggers from France, the Netherlands and England. The Portuguese failed to capitalize on their colony here and it was the French who established the first defended settlement. Eventually the Portuguese took it by force but it was not until the second decade of the 17th century that they planned their own fortification, the Forte São Mateus (daily 0800-1800) which was started in 1618 on the foundations of the French fort. It is now a ruin at the mouth of the Canal de Itajuru, with rusting cannons propped up against its whitewashed ramparts. The canal connects Lagoa Araruama with the ocean.

The town beach, Praia do Forte, is highly developed and stretches south for about 7.5 km to Arraial do Cabo, its name changing to Praia das Dunas (after the dunes) and Praia do Foguete. These waters are much more suited to surfing. North of the canal entrance and town is the small under-developed beach of Praia Brava (popular with surfers and naturists) and the wine-glass bay of Praia das Conchas, which has a few shack restaurants. Next is Praia do Peró, 7 km of surf and sand on the open sea with a small town behind it and cheap accommodation. The best dunes are at Peró, Dama Branca (on road to Arraial) and the Pontal dunes at Praia do Forte.