The easiest and most rewarding day trip is across the river to Arraial d'Ajuda — a quieter clifftop village reached by a five-minute car ferry, with its own beaches and a cluster of restaurants around the church square. South from Arraial the coast continues to Trancoso, a once-bohemian village turned upmarket retreat, and beyond that to the still-rustic riverside village of Caraíva.
North of Porto Seguro, Santa Cruz Cabrália is a small fishing town at the mouth of the João de Tiba river with a quieter colonial plaza of its own and good beaches at Coroa Vermelha — the actual landing site of Cabral's fleet in 1500.
