The Nordeste is where Brazil began, and where most Brazilians go on holiday. Nine states curve around the country's north-eastern shoulder, from Maranhão to Bahia, with a coast of reefs, palms, dunes and fishing villages, a sun that barely takes a day off, and the deepest roots of the country's African and Portuguese culture.
Salvador, the first capital, is the heart of Afro-Brazilian Brazil: the Pelourinho's painted colonial streets, capoeira, candomblé and the best food in the country. South of it runs the Bahian coast — Morro de São Paulo and Boipeba, Itacaré, and the Discovery Coast around Porto Seguro, Trancoso and Caraíva. Inland, the Chapada Diamantina, reached from Lençóis, has some of the best hiking in Brazil.
Further north, Recife and its baroque twin Olinda hold one of Brazil's great carnivals, and the reef pools of Porto de Galinhas, Maragogi and São Miguel dos Milagres line the coast either side. Offshore, Fernando de Noronha is the finest marine park in the South Atlantic.
The far north is dune country: Jericoacoara and the kitesurf beaches of Ceará, the Parnaíba delta, and the Lençóis Maranhenses, whose rain-filled lagoons are one of the great sights of South America. In the dry interior, the Serra da Capivara holds the richest rock art in the Americas.
The coast is warm all year. Along much of it the heaviest rain falls from April to July; in Maranhão and Ceará the rains come earlier, from January to May, and fill the dune lagoons.
