Neighborhood · São Paulo/SP
Itacaré
On the Costa do Cacau, in southern Bahia: the town that surfers discovered in the 1980s and that the Environmental Protection Area has kept with the Atlantic Forest running down to the sand.
The neighbourhood’s story
Itacaré is not a neighbourhood: it is a municipality on the southern coast of Bahia, on the Costa do Cacau, between Ilhéus and the Maraú peninsula. The town appears in the work of Jorge Amado before it appears on the tourism map; it was “discovered” in the 1980s by surfers, who spread its name across the country, and today its cobbled streets and colonial mansions coexist with art studios, capoeira circles, candomblé and a cuisine that ranges from traditional seafood to international dishes.
What sets Itacaré apart from the rest of the north-eastern coast is an administrative decision: the creation of the Environmental Protection Area covering the region. It is this that prevents the shoreline from becoming a wall of buildings and that keeps the Atlantic Forest right up against the beaches — and it is this, therefore, that sustains the property value of the stretch. The local ultra-high-end market is organised around very low-density developments, almost always linked to hotel operations, such as Txai Itacaré, on Praia de Itacarezinho.
The region’s economy has a history of its own: it was cacao that built the Costa do Cacau, and it was the crisis in cacao farming, combined with environmental restrictions, that pushed local communities into new arrangements — some of them linked to the tourism developments themselves, which began buying local organic produce.
Itacaré: the Atlantic Forest right up against the beach, protected by law, on the southern coast of Bahia. Low density by decree — and, therefore, genuine scarcity.
The surrounding area
- Clubs: leisure infrastructure belongs to the resorts and developments themselves; there is no urban club culture here.
- Schools: second-home territory; the reference schooling remains in buyers’ home cities.
- Dining and lifestyle: fine dining arrived through the hotel trade — Txai Resort Itacaré is a member of Relais & Châteaux — alongside traditional Bahian cuisine and the town-centre restaurant scene.
- Parks: the Costa do Cacau Environmental Protection Area, the preserved beaches of Itacarezinho and Serra Grande, Atlantic Forest trails and the region’s cacao farms.
In the Fragata archive
There is 1 development from the portfolio in the neighbourhood (the backlinks panel lists them all): Txai Itacaré.
In the Fragata collection
One address in this neighbourhood is in the collection, with its full entry. Our curation keeps mapping the rest.
