Lençóis Maranhenses Travel Tips: A Guide by Someone Who Lives the Park
Everything I wish every couple knew before traveling: when to come, how to get here and where to stay, told by a local photographer who has been walking these dunes for 27 years.
What is Lençóis Maranhenses
Imagine a desert of white sand dunes the size of a large city that fills up every year with freshwater lagoons in shades of blue and green. That is Lençóis Maranhenses: a national park on the coast of Maranhão, with about 155,000 hectares of dunes, where the rain from the first months of the year gets trapped between the dunes and creates thousands of natural pools. There is no other place like it in the world, and that is why couples from all over Brazil and abroad cross so many miles to see this landscape once in a lifetime.
When to come: the honest summary
The question I get the most. The short answer: the lagoons fill with the rains early in the year and reach their peak from June to September. The full answer, month by month, with what each period truly delivers, is in the best time to visit guide.
See the best time to visit guide →How to get here: the road to paradise
Your trip starts in São Luís, the capital of Maranhão and the main gateway to the region: Marechal Cunha Machado Airport (SLZ) receives flights from Brazil's major capitals. From there, you head to one of the park's three gateway towns, and each has its own route and its own personality.
Barreirinhas
The most structured route: 260 km from São Luís, about 4 hours on the paved BR-402.
How to get to Barreirinhas →Santo Amaro
The most preserved and exclusive: 240 km, about three and a half hours, paved road all the way to town.
How to get to Santo Amaro →Atins
The most rustic and charming: from Barreirinhas, a speedboat down the Preguiças river in about 40 minutes.
How to get to Atins →Inside the park, access to the dunes and lagoons is regulated and done in 4x4 vehicles run by accredited local tour companies, which you hire at your destination.
Where to stay: three base towns, three experiences
There is no single answer: there is the right base for your travel style. I put together an honest comparison, with the one criterion nobody tells tourists: how each base performs in photos.
Compare the three base towns →
Through the eyes of a photographer who shoots here
I got to know every corner of this park with a camera in my hand. I know which lagoon has the bluest water each week, which dune gives the best golden hour, and where to find silence even in high season. These tips are the same ones I give the couples I photograph. If your trip is also the trip of a lifetime for the two of you, maybe you will want to bring it home in photographs.
