Everyone keeps telling us that Florianópolis is better in summer, which I thought was kind of weird because almost everywhere (except ski resorts) are better in summer! Thankfully this didn’t deter us from going down to check it out ourselves and I’m so happy we did. Although Florianópolis is the main city on Ilha de Santa Catarina it’s not actually the best place to stay and only really used as a gateway to get to the coastline on the east side (an easy 30-40 min bus ride away). On the island there are two main lagoons, Lagoa do Peri and the more populated Lagoa da Conceição, (which is where I recommend you stay). From Lagoa da Conceição it’s a a 15 -20min bus ride to the coastline, where there is a variety of accommodation on the beachfront.
Once down on Ilha de Santa Catarina there is a notable change with the people and their lifestyle. More European looking in appearance, they have a laid-back, relaxed attitude to life and there is a clear hippy/vegetarian/alternative vibe in the air. It’s easy to forget you are actually in Brazil! The main attraction on the island is the beautiful beaches on the coastline and all the sports that come along with it. Obviously water sports are big and there are plenty of places to surf (Xave’s favourite beach was Praia Mole), paddle board, dive and kite-surf. If you are looking for something a bit different it’s also possible to go sand boarding on the dunes of Praia da Joaquina, which is fun for a couple of hours (and a great work-out). There are lots of hiking options as well, which can get you to hard to reach secluded beach locations. If you have a group of four to five people, a good and relatively cheap way to see the island would be to hire a car, so you don’t have to sit for hours on the buses.
Not just a holiday destination for foreigners, it’s quite a popular spot for locals as well, all looking at letting their hair down. So if you want to party, this is the place to go. Any night of the week you can find a bar or club putting on an event, one of the highlight is Green Valley (named in 2014 by DJ Mag as the second best club in the world) on Saturday nights. Whilst we were there we decided to go out on a Monday night to the bar recommended by our hostel. It was pretty quiet but there was a large group of us so we were all having a good time. Xave was in very good spirits and thought it would be a good idea to start doing high kicks on the dance floor. At 6″1 he has very long legs so naturally cleared the dance floor pretty quickly as people moved out of his way to avoid being kicked. In the process he almost took out a small female bouncer, which forced the other male bouncers to step in. As they were trying to kick him out, the DJ noticed and stopped the music (I was mortified, people were still dancing!) and got down from the podium to see what was going on. The DJ told the bouncers to leave Xave alone because he “was just having fun” and he refused to start playing music again unless they let him stay. The bouncers had no choice, they couldn’t have a bar without music, so they compromised by prohibiting the high kicks!
The next day, I was still embarrassed by the event and Xave didn’t even remember what had happened! Luckily we were leaving that day to Foz do Iguaçu, so we didn’t get a chance to run into anyone from the night before.
Every Country 