One of the most famous specks of coastline in beautiful Bahia, the stylish beach town of Trancoso embodies delightfully contradictory qualities. It is both posey and insouciant, a celebrity mecca, home to some of Brazil’s finest luxury hotels but that still sustains the warm, languid vibe of the hippies and artists who put down roots here in the 1970s.

The region’s history goes back much further than this though. Known as the “Discovery Coast” this was the first stretch of the Brazilian coastline sighted by Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral 500 years ago and the Jesuits founded the town we know today as Trancoso shortly afterwards, making it one of the oldest villages in Brazil.