Bombas Beach Porto Belo, Brazil

Porto Belo, Brazil Shore Excursion and Port Information
Contributed by
Tom Ogg

Language and Currency
What is Porto Belo Like?
What is the Weather Like?
Where Does the Ship Dock?
Where is the Shopping?
What is There to Buy?
What is There To Do?
Is There Anything of a “Don’t Miss Quality?
Are There Any Great Restaurants or Bars?

Porto Belo, Brazil Port Reviews

Language and Currency

The official language of Brazil is Portuguese and the currency is the Brazilian Real. However, U.S. dollars are widely accepted. Be sure to have an ample supply of small bills to make exact change.

What is Porto Belo, Brazil  like?

Bombinhas Beach Panoramic View

Porto Belo was a small fishing village until just a few decades ago when its fabulous beaches became the focal point for Brazilians on holiday. The town of Porto Belo itself is quaint, but the surrounding beach communities are really the focus of a visit to Porto Belo.

What is the weather like?

Porto Belo enjoys tropical weather year around with temperatures between 75 and 90 degrees. It can be hot and sunny. Be sure to take lots of sunscreen and wear a hat and limit your time in the direct sun based on the amount of exposure that you have had prior to arriving in Porto Belo. Porto Belo averages 4 to 5 inches of rain per month during their summer months (November through April).

Where does the ship dock?

Celebrity Millennium Anchored in Porto Belo

Porto Belo is a tender port. Your ship will anchor outside of Porto Belo and tender into Porto Belo's yacht harbor.

Porto Belo's Tender Wharf

Where is the shopping?

Shopping in Porto Belo

There is limited shopping right by the tender wharf and there is a free shuttle that will take you into downtown Porto Belo for more shops and stores. The bus will drop you at the main square in Porto Belo, which is full of small shops and vendors selling various crafts and other items. HINT: If Buzios is also on your itinerary and you have not visited it yet, save your shopping time until then.

Just One of the Shops in Porto Belo's Main Square

Also, the main beach communities of Bombas and Bombinas offer abundant shopping opportunities. However, Porto Belo's shopping is not the focus of a visit here.

What is there to buy?

Local Crafts in the Town Square

Porto Belo offers shops and boutiques selling local crafts, wood carvings, paintings, unique items of art, beach clothes and equipment, locally crafted costume jewelry. The stores lining the beach communities sell everything one could possibly want for beach activities,

What is there to do?

While there is some shopping in downtown Porto Belo, I would suggest heading straight to the beach. Here are the main beaches near Porto Belo.

Bombas Beach

Bombas Beach is the closest beach to town and is very crowded. It is the beach that the cruise lines use for their beach break shore excursion and while a very nice beach, is noisy and crowded. There are complete beach services here including restaurants, bars and beach activities.

Bombinhas Beach, Porto Belo, Brazil

Bombinhas Beach is located past Bombas Beach and offers a little more solitude, but us still quite crowded. Bombinhas Beach is lined with restaurants, bars, shops and boutiques and the main street (1 block inland) offers even more shopping opportunities.

Quatro Ilhas (4 Ilhas) Beach

Within walking distance of Bombinhas Beach is Quatro Ilhas Beach. This is the best beach in my opinion. There are few tourists and a light crowd. It is exposed to mild surf making the water much cleaner and there is lots of sand to enjoy. HINT: If you want to experience a great beach day with lunch, just have a taxi take you straight to Quatro Ilhas Beach and dine at Casa Do Camarao on the extreme left side of the beach while facing the ocean. I highly recommend this combination as the best in Porto Berlo.

Fabulous Mariscal Beach

If you want to get even more remote and away from the tourist hubbub, take a taxi all the way out to Mariscal Beach. This 8-kilometer beach offers seclusion and waves good enough for body boarding (some surfing)

Mariscal Beach

Note that there are limited facilities here, but one can rent Boogie Boards and such for fun in the water. WARNING: We had heard that there is a "ocean walk" between Quatro Ilhas Beach and Mariscal Beach implying a nice ocean front pathway between the two. This is not the case at all. If you choose to walk between the two, you will be walking on an inland graded dirt road that is steep, hot and rocky. To make matters worse, cars and trucks will pass you putting up great clouds of dust. Unless you want better quality waves that found at 4 Ilhas, forget visiting Mariscal Beach and simply spend the day at Quatro Ilhas Beach.

The Porto Belo Tour Bus

If the beach is out of the question for you, then you might enjoy the Porto Belo Tour Bus that departs the marina where the tender wharf is located. The tour takes about an hour and you will see everything that there is to see in Porto Belo including its local beaches, stores, sights and such. Those that took it found it enjoyable.

Is there anything of “Don’t Miss” quality?

I would have to give this rating to a day at Quatro Ilhas Beach with lunch at Casa Do Camaroa. This is a very memorable combination.

Are there any great restaurants or bars?

Just One of the Fabulous Dishes at Casa de Camarao

Yes, we stumbled upon the Casa do Camarao (Portugese for House of Shrimp) Restaurant on Quatro Ilhas (4 Ilhas) Beach. We enjoyed Chilean Wine, a Seafood Platter (shown above) and the restaurant's shrimp specialty dish. It was priced reasonably and absolutely superb! I would highly recommend this restaurant and beach if you want a great beach day and lunch. They also had meet dishes, but don't miss out on the shrimp!

Casa do Camaroa's Staff and Nancy Norris

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