Where to Stay in Guarujá, São Paulo

What is Guarujá known for?

Guarujá fills an island that is coterminous with the municipality, and its shore alternates between avenues and urban blocks with sand at the end of them and coves reached only on foot, which is why the place has been given over to tourism since the municipality was created in 1934. Its metropolitan area centres on Santos. Acqua Mundo keeps an aquarium for the wet afternoons, and the Fortaleza de Itapema still watches the channel.

Sand does the rest.

What are the main landmarks in Guarujá?

Forts and morros, mostly. The Fortress of Santo Amaro da Barra Grande and the Fortaleza de Itapema are the old defences of the channel, and the Farol de Itapema still marks the same water for anything coming in. Acqua Mundo runs the aquarium.

Casa da Pedra and the Edifício Sobre as Ondas cover the built heritage, while the Ermida de Santo Antônio de Guaíbe and the Paróquia Nossa Senhora Fátima e Santo Amaro take the churches. Morro do Maluf, Morro do Botelho, Morro do Monduba, Morro do Pinto and Morro do Icanhema lift the rest.

What is the history of Guarujá?

The name comes from Tupi. It translates as narrow path, which is the oldest thing on record about the island and the only part of the story that predates the Portuguese forts. Defence came next.

The Fortress of Santo Amaro da Barra Grande and the Fortaleza de Itapema guard the water approaches, and the Farol de Itapema later put a light on the same ground. Guns, then lamps. Municipal status arrived in 1934.

From that point Guarujá built for visitors rather than for anything else, and the beachfront that fills its avenues went up on an island small enough that the municipal boundary and the shoreline are almost the same line. The Edifício Sobre as Ondas and Casa da Pedra belong to that built shore. Acqua Mundo belongs to the later trade.

Meanwhile the Baixada Santista grew around Santos into a metropolitan region that folded the island in, leaving Guarujá to serve as its beach while São Vicente Island took the other side of the water. Ilha dos Arvoredos sits offshore, one of the small isles outside the island proper. Conceiçãozinha keeps a former school on the list.

Where is Guarujá?

An island of a hundred and forty square kilometres. The municipality and the island are almost the same shape, with only small offshore isles like Ilha dos Arvoredos outside the line, and São Vicente Island lies across the water. Hills interrupt the shore.

Morro do Icanhema, Morro do Monduba and the Serra do Guararu break the coast into separate beaches rather than one long strand. Beaches take the gaps between them.

What is the climate of Guarujá?

The sea keeps the edges even. Guarujá sits in the subtropical band of the southern hemisphere, so its warm wet months fall around the turn of the year and the cooler drier ones through the middle, with the water off the beaches moderating both. The Serra do Guararu catches the cloud.

Rain gathers on those slopes more readily than over the avenues, and a day planned around Vila da Prainha Branca can turn wetter than one spent on the built shore. Sun returns fast here.

How do you get to Guarujá?

Access is by road. Guarujá lies 87 kilometres from São Paulo, which is close enough for the capital to treat the island as a weekend destination and far enough that the approach roads fill when the holidays come round. Santos is the near city.

The Baixada Santista puts the island inside a metropolitan region, so the last stretch is urban driving rather than open country, and the crossing onto the island decides how long it takes.