HOW TE GET THERE?

Trancoso is located in north-eastern Brazil in the state Bahia, 30 km under Porto Seguro, and can be reached by Porto Seguro International Airport. Porto Seguro International Airport is the closest airport at 40 km distance. It takes approximately 45 minutes by car, 1 hour by bus to travel to Trancoso.

It is possible to book a flight direct to Porto Seguro from Amsterdam, Lisbon and Paris, although most connections pass through Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo or Belo Horizonte.

There are flights from Amsterdam with KLM via Sao Paulo, or TAP via Lisbon and Salvador. TAM has flights from London to Porto Seguro via Sao Paulo and Salvador, as other companies. TAM GERMANY has flights from Frankfurt via Paris to Sao Paulo.

You can rent a car at the airport or in the center of Porto Seguro at HERTZ or LOCALIZA. From Porto Seguro you can take a taxi to the ferry (Balsa) across Rio Buranhem to the other side and take a taxi or bus (ÁGUIA AZUL) to Trancoso in about 60 minutes.
If you ask us in advance, we can arrange a taxi for you. (see RENTAL RATES). For roadmaps click here.

A taxi directly from the airport to Trancoso costs around 150 Reais (€ 55). A taxi to the ferry (Balsa) in Porto Seguro around 20 Reais (€ 8). In both cases you will have to pass Rio Buranhém by ferry for about 6 Reais (€ 2) to take a bus (ônibus) (viação Águia Azul - see timetable) or a van to Trancoso for 5 Reais (€ 2).

Casa da Vanessa is situated near the beginning of Rua Principal and many vans and busses pass. At Rua Principal are several bus stops. If your are by bus, get off just after Posto da Saude (First Aid) at the beginning of Rua Principal. Take Estrada dos Macacos on your left after 50m. After 100m you will find the villas on your left hand side.

TRANCOSO

It’s worth arriving in Trancoso, a chic little town on the north-east Brazilian coast about 300 miles south of Salvador, at night-time. A preservation order means the Quadrado, the broad village green that makes up the town’s historic centre, has almost no outdoor electric light. Instead, after sunset, the boutique bars, shops and restaurants that now occupy most of the one-storey artisans’ houses on either side of the grass put out gently flickering coloured candles on their tables and window sills, giving the place a wonderfully fairy-tale feel. Above you a carpet of stars shines down and, perched on top of the cliffs near to where the Portuguese first landed in Brazil 500 years ago, a simple, slightly dilapidated church basks, with just the slightest ecclesiastical aloofness, in its (permitted) electric floodlighting. Starting at the bottom of the cliff, the sand stretches for hundreds of kilometres in either direction and, however busy the town seems to be, you can pretty soon find a quiet spot to yourself. Trancoso is a small historic, Indian village with a serene atmosphere, nice restaurants, shops and lounge bars. It is mentioned as a transcendant place and compared with Ibiza, Goa and Bali. The houses on the Quadrado have, as much as possible, been kept in their original form. With so much outdoor beauty, it's not surprising that in Trancoso you spend very little time indoors ... even when you are indoors.

Softly, softly under a Brazilian sky. By David Baker. Published: November 25 2005, Financial Times.

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