Things to do in Florianópolis

Neighborhood · Centre of the island

A saltwater lagoon ringed by bars, restaurants and the densest concentration of foreign residents on the island.

Local tip: The Centrinho is where everyone eats and drinks, and it is also where the summer traffic jams. The dunes on the far side, between the Lagoa and Joaquina, are the good part — walk across them in the late afternoon and sandboard down the seaward face.

Food · Downtown, island side

The 1898 market hall and the streets around it — the working, administrative city most visitors never see.

Local tip: Box 32 upstairs is the institution: prawns and cold beer from midday, packed with civil servants on a Friday. The market is the one place in Florianópolis where the city feels like a city rather than a collection of beach villages.

Culture · South-west coast

An Azorean colonial village of whitewashed houses and a 1806 church, facing calm water lined with oyster farms.

Local tip: This is where Brazil's oysters actually come from, and the restaurants along the waterfront serve them a couple of hours out of the sea. Go on a weekday, eat at whichever place has the fishermen's vans outside, and stay for the sunset over the mainland mountains.

Nature · North end of the Lagoa da Conceição

A village with no road access at all, reachable only by a lagoon boat or a two-hour trail along the shore.

Local tip: The scheduled boat leaves from the Centrinho and costs almost nothing — it is public transport, not a tour. Walk one way along the old trail and take the boat back. There are perhaps a dozen restaurants at the end and no cars anywhere, which on this island is a genuinely strange and lovely sensation.

Nightlife · East coast

The island's surf and party stretch — beach bars on the sand at Mole, a fishing village turned nightlife strip at Barra.

Local tip: Mole is spectacular and has a genuinely dangerous rip; swim between the flags in season and stay out of the water when the guards have gone. Barra da Lagoa has the better and cheaper seafood, and a canal walkway out to a natural swimming pool in the rocks.

Landmark · Between the island and the mainland

A 1926 eyebar suspension bridge, the largest of its kind in Brazil, closed for twenty-eight years and reopened in 2019.

Local tip: It carries only light traffic and pedestrians now, which is the point — walk it at sunset for the view back at the island. The two modern bridges either side of it carry the entire island's traffic, which explains a great deal about how this city works.