short list: florianopolis.

It's about the size of New York City, but the island of Santa Catarina has no skyscraper in sight-- just beaches and ocean.

where to stay:

We stayed in a friend's home in Campeche, the surf paradise for Brazilians.

what to do:

beach, beach, beach.

Go to Isla da Campeche, a beautiful preserved island that allows only 200-some visitors per day. It's my version of paradise; lush, greenery, few people, clear waters.

We also headed to the beach of Campeche, Joaquina, Praia Mole (known for its surfing), and Praia Barra da Lagoa.

Besides the beach, you can check out the Lagoa-- a huge lagoon in the middle of the island. There are trails around it, which we did, and you can take a boat to different parts of the lagoon and lunch right along the water. Just be sure to know how long your trail is going to take before you head out-- a half hour trail ended up taking us nearly four hours to get to any sort of civilization.

If you're interested in sandboarding-- a sport similar to snowboarding, but takes place IN the sand-- check out Jaoquina-- there's huge dunes and to try it out is pretty cheap-- R$10 for as long as you want. Just be sure to go when the sun starts to set, because the sand gets hot, and the sun is bright. There are stalls selling fresh sugarcane juice (caldo da cana) along the way-- you can get it with a splash of lime, passionfruit, or other Brazilian fruits (I recommend the lime; it cuts the sweet).

what to eat:

There's lot of good seafood on the island, and though I can't recommend a particular place-- nearly everywhere we went had a great selection of fish. Veggies are a bit scarce, but before you embark to the Isla da Campeche, there's a por-kilo that has a pretty abundant selection of greens. They are also right next to a por-kilo ice cream shop, which has fun flavors like ginger and papaya.

notes:

Floripa is NOT public transportation friendly. We spent a lot of time waiting for buses, so I highly suggest renting a car. By the end of the trip, I was actually a bit frustrated with the fact that we would waste nearly half a day trying to go to and from places.

Also(!)-- bikinis are pretty cheap here in comparison to Rio. I found a cute one in a pop-up store near the Lagoa, and another one in one of the shops near Praia Barra da Lagoa.