Baía do Sancho

Fernando de Noronha is a small volcanic archipelago of 21 islands some 350 km off the north-east coast of Brazil, and Baía do Sancho is the jewel of its main island. The bay is a curve of golden-white sand at the foot of high cliffs, backed by green scrub and facing water that runs from brilliant turquoise near the shore to deep blue beyond. There is no road down and no building on the beach: the cliffs close it off from the land, which is exactly what keeps it so unspoiled.

The approach is half the pleasure. From the clifftop the bay is seen whole, and the water is clear enough that shoals of fish — and the occasional shark — can be spotted from above before you reach the sand. The way down is a set of steep metal ladders fixed inside a narrow split in the rock, so that you descend through the cliff itself and step out onto the beach. The alternative is to arrive from the sea by boat. In the water, the same clarity makes it a favourite place for snorkelling.

The beach lies within the Fernando de Noronha Marine National Park, created in 1988 and covering most of the archipelago; in 2001 the islands were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a feeding ground for tuna, sharks, sea turtles and marine mammals, and spinner dolphins gather in a neighbouring bay. The archipelago has a long history — Amerigo Vespucci arrived with Gonçalo Coelho's expedition in 1503, and the islands were granted to the merchant Fernão de Loronha — but Sancho belongs to nature. Traveller polls have repeatedly named it the best beach in the world, in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020 among other years.

Getting there

Fernando de Noronha Airport (FEN) is only about 2 km from the bay, with regular flights from Recife and Natal on the mainland; the nearest mainland town to the islands is Touros, some 366 km away across the Atlantic. On the island the beach is reached on foot from the clifftop via the ladders through the rock, or by boat.