We had a particularly unlucky experience with the weather on this island, it pretty much rained for the entire 48 hours we were there. Getting to Ilha Grande was a little confusing as there are two ports: Angra dos Reis and Conceicao de Jacarei. Either one is fine and the bus takes approx 4 hours. The main bus company that goes there is ‘Costa Verde’. Buses in Brazil are super safe and good quality, they are like coaches in the UK or even better! Isla Grande is also super safe to walk around at night.
The island is a little bit on the expensive side, especially after carnival the hostels ramp up their prices as they know people will be heading that way after. We stayed in ‘Hi Holandes’ hostel which was very clean and had an amazing breakfast!
On the day that we had one day of no rain and so were able to do the ‘unlimited Caipirinha tour’ which took us to many beautiful snorkelling spots around the island. The tour cost $80 and is 5 hours. We were a little disappointed with the tour as lunch was not included and the caipirinhas tasted of juice mostly. Nevertheless it was super quiet so we pretty much had the whole boat to ourselves.
It was on our way back to the island that the downpour started, it rained solidly for 24 hours. I have never seen rain like it! This was the first time in my entire trip that I had been ‘rained in’, but we were lucky enough to be in beautiful surroundings in the hostel, as the common area was outside and we could enjoy the view of the diverse vegetation. There are many hikes to do on the island and beautiful waterfalls to see, we unfortunately could not visit these as we were only there for 2 nights and were rained in on one of the days!
In terms of restaurants and nightlife, the island has many to choose from! Some recommended ones are kebab house, Las Sorrentinas (pasta) and Restaurant Canoas which have excellent cinnamon cachaca cocktails. Biergarten is a social hostel where most backpackers go to enjoy a drink, the nightclub is called Acuario.
It was a real shame that our experience of this island was tainted by the rain, if I had more time I would have loved to explore the different hikes and maybe do some scuba diving in the blue lagoon too! Going to Ilha Grande around the time of carnival is risky as it is in the middle of rainy season.
Romy's Roamings 