São Sebastião is a historic town on São Paulo's north coast, facing Ilhabela across a narrow channel, and the starting point of the ferry to the island. Its small colonial centre, with a church on the waterfront square, dates from the seventeenth century.
Most visitors come for the beaches, which run south of town along the Rio–Santos road. Maresias is the best known, a lively surf beach with bars and a party scene; Juquehy and Barra do Sahy are calmer and popular with families; and Camburi and Boiçucanga sit between them. Behind them all the Atlantic forest climbs steeply up the Serra do Mar.
São Sebastião is about three hours from São Paulo, and the beaches fill up with paulistanos on summer weekends, when the road gets jammed. Midweek, or outside January and February, the coast is far more peaceful.