Barefoot Casual Chic in Brazil’s Party Beachtown
Búzios is about gorgeous beaches and gorgeous nightlife. People looking for a quiet hideaway head to Parati; those looking for the St.-Tropez of South America flock here. Búzios – Portuguese for “shells” – remains a fishing village at heart, despite the vacationers from nearby Rio, who put this place on the map long before it was immortalized by Brigitte Bardot in the 1960s. The small amoeba-shaped peninsula of a town offers twenty-some-odd beaches, and the day’s most pressing decision is which crescent cove to visit. Nights are filled with a variety of live-music bars and jazz clubs, whose denizens dance till dawn.
The cobbled Rua das Pedras is lined with chic, expensive stores, casual but excellent restaurants, and open-air bars that invite lingering. Colonial-style inns, or pousadas, blend luxe with coziness for their sophisticated clientele. The castaway-minded hop aboard a schooner that shuttles them to Nas Rocas, a private island retreat for those who prefer to view the action from across a moonlit bay.
