Praia de Bombinhas

Sheltered between rocky headlands, Praia de Bombinhas has water that is unusually calm and clear — the kind where you can see your own feet while standing in it. It runs for 1,227 metres right in the middle of town, with the busiest waterfront and the highest concentration of restaurants, guesthouses, shops and beach kiosks just steps from the sand.

The name comes from the ground. The sand is white and made of quartz crystals that give off a distinctive sound when you walk on them, like tiny pops — little firecrackers, which is what “bombinhas” means in Portuguese. That's the explanation the town council itself gives, and if you walk barefoot on the dry part of the beach you can still hear it today.

Because it's flat, shielded from the southerly wind and mostly free of strong currents, it's the natural pick if you're travelling with children or putting on a dive mask for the first time. The waves are small: this isn't a surf beach, it's a beach for inflatables, kayaks and spending hours waist-deep in the water. In summer there are kiosks on the sand and chairs, kayaks and boards for hire.

It's also the gateway to diving in a town that calls itself the capital of ecological diving. The main scuba schools and dive operators are based in Bombinhas, with daily trips to the rocky shores of the peninsula and to the south side of Arvoredo Island, next to the Arvoredo Marine Biological Reserve. If you'd rather skip the tank, a mask and snorkel on the rocks at either end of the beach will do — the fish show up without you having to go far.

The beach still carries the traditions of a fishing village. Every March, around the town's anniversary, it hosts the Corrida de Canoas de um Pau Só, a race of dugout canoes carved from a single trunk that draws fishermen from all over the state. At either end the shoreline links up with its neighbours: from the left-hand corner the Passarela do Ribeiro walkway leads to the small Praia do Ribeiro, with calm water and native forest all around; on the right, Rua das Garoupas ends at the short trail down to Praia da Sepultura.

Around the beach is Centro, the most complete neighbourhood on the peninsula. This is where a large share of the town's shops and services are, and almost everything is within walking distance. If you're thinking about property, it's the mix that depends least on a car: a calm beach for the kids on your doorstep, town amenities round the corner and the other beaches a few minutes away.