Ponta Negra is the beach that matters in Natal. It is three kilometers of fine sand backed by the city's best concentration of restaurants, bars, and pousadas, with the Morro do Careca dune rising dramatically at its southern end. The surf here is reliable — not enormous, but consistent enough for bodyboarders — and the water is warm year-round.
The boardwalk (orla) gets very busy on weekends and in the evenings, when the beach bars put out their plastic chairs and tables and forró music drifts across the sand. It is also where the craft markets set up at night. For swimming, the northern end of the beach, closer to the Morro do Careca end, tends to have calmer conditions. If you stay in Natal for any length of time, you will find yourself coming back to Ponta Negra repeatedly.