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The dunes of the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park look like gigantic sheets of sand.

The Lençóis Maranhenses National Park is located in the municipalities of Paulino Neves, Tutóia, Barreirinhas, Santo Amaro, Primeira Cruz and Humberto de Campos.

The Lençóis Maranhenses National Park covers 155,000 hectares of dunes, rivers, lagoons and mangroves.

There are two types of scenery, depending on the time of year: during the drought, the park becomes a veritable desert bathed by the ocean; with the rains, the classic landscape of the place is formed, an incredible sequence of dunes and lagoons.

Exploring this vast expanse of sand is a unique and gruelling experience.

In the 1970s, a Petrobras team flew over Morrarias and coined a new name for it: Lençóis Maranhenses.

It’s perfect, anyone who sees the sand dunes has the feeling that they are looking at gigantic sheets, swaying in the wind under the sun.

It’s the wind, in fact, that forms the almost 50 metre high dunes, which stretch over 100 kilometres of coastline and 50 kilometres inland.

On the coast, the beaches are wide and extensive. Inland, the predominance is of “marraria”, i.e. dunes dotted with lagoons formed by rainwater.

The dunes are spread over two deserts: the Grandes Lençóis Maranhenses, located to the west of the Preguiças River, and the Pequenos Lençóis, to the east.

Inaugurated in 1981, the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park covers an area of 155,000 hectares, with a perimeter of 270 kilometres, including the municipalities of Paulino Neves, Tutóia, Barreirinhas, Santo Amaro, Primeira Cruz and Humberto de Campos.

Tourist attractions in the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park

1. LITTLE LENZÓIS
2. BARREIRINHAS
3. CABURÉ
4. WALK BY THE PREGUIÇAS RIVER
5. LAGOAS
6. DESCENT OF THE CARDOSA RIVER
7. SPORT OF THE PARK
8. ATINS
9. BURITI WOODCRAFT
10. TUTÓIA
11. SANTO AMARO DO MARANHÃO
12. LAGO DE SANTO AMARO
13. QUEIMADA DOS BRITOS
14. THE SIMPLE PLEASURES IN THE VASTNESS OF THE LENS

Barreirinhas is the most structured town around the preservation area, but there are also excursions from Atins (east) and Santo Amaro do Maranhão (west).

Barreirinhas, 260 kilometres from São Luís, has the best infrastructure for tourists. It is home to the park’s headquarters.

The town is also the starting point for trips along the Preguiças River and is on the tourist route that includes the Parnaíba Delta, in Piauí, and Jericoacoara, in Ceará.

See the Lençóis Maranhenses map in Maranhão

After Barreirinhas, the most popular location is Santo Amaro do Maranhão, the setting for the film Casa de areia, directed by Andrucha Waddington in 2005.

1. PEQUENOS LENÇÓIS

The Small Lençois, which form a group of dunes outside the National Park, also offer beautiful scenery and freshwater lagoons for delicious swimming. Located on the banks of the Preguiças River, they are also popular for their diverse landscape.

During the tour, you’ll see mangroves, beaches and closed vegetation in the middle of the sand. To make the Little Lençois even more interesting, try a speedboat trip, with stops in the villages of Mandacaru and Vassouras and also at Caburé Beach. It’s also worth taking a quad bike tour between the dunes and the beach, leaving from Barreirinha and arriving at the sea.

2. BARREIRINHAS 

Barreirinhas is a municipality in the state of Maranhão, in Brazil.

The municipality is known for being the “gateway” to the tourist region known as Lençóis Maranhenses, which consists of a vast area of high white sand dunes and lakes and lagoons, also known as the “Brazilian Desert”.

Barreirinhas in the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, founded in 1871 on the banks of the Preguiças River, has always played the role of a support town in the region.

Thanks to its location, it was a trading post for fishermen and farmers in the surrounding area; today, it basically lives off tourism, with a concentration of hotels, inns, restaurants and tourist support services.

The town has the headquarters of the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, where lectures are given on the ecosystems of the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park and the rules and precautions that must be followed to maintain them (Av. Paulista, s/n, Boa Vista).

Barreirinhas - Lençóis Maranhenses

The great attraction of Barreirinhas is the Preguiças River, which cuts through it in a curve – a river with dark waters that are still clean, despite the developments that are beginning to spring up around it.

To explore the region, you need to hire guides; of the more than ten agencies in town, we’d like to highlight a few with different profiles: Tropical Adventure offers personalised tours in vehicles with traction and air conditioning.

Eco-Dunas offers adventure sports, flightseeing, buoy-crossing and trips to little-publicised places in the park.

Rota das Trilhas offers more traditional tours.

The Tourist Office, located right at the entrance to the town, also provides directions and information.

Barreirinhas can be reached from São Luís via the MA-402, the Translitorânea, a 265-kilometre journey that takes around three hours.

3. CABURÉ

Caburé is a fishing village and its respective beach, located in the municipality of Barreirinhas, in the state of Maranhão, in Brazil. It is a popular stop-off point for tourist excursions to the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park.

Caburé é um vilarejo de pescadores no Maranhão

The beach of Caburé, which lies between the Preguiças River and the sea, is within the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park.

One of the most peculiar sensations is to come out of a dip in the sea, walk less than five minutes and get the salt water off your body with a swim in the river.

4. WALK BY THE PREGUIÇAS RIVER

Crossing the Preguiças River in the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park is done by speedboat or voadeira – a fast boat with an engine on the stern, and is full of attractions.

The first are the 40 metre high dunes that rise up in Vassouras, a fishing village that you reach after 45 minutes of sailing.

There, visitors can choose between a dip in the river or a walk along Pequenos Lençóis beach. The next stop is Espadarte, Morro do Boi and Moitas.

The next stop is the village of Mandacaru, where you’ll find the Preguiças Lighthouse, with 160 steps. It’s well worth the effort, as from the top you can see the most beautiful view in the region.

Passeio pelo Rio Preguiças

Afterwards, a lunch break in Caburé, near the mouth of the Preguiças River, a town with no attractions, frequented only for its restaurants.

5. LAGOAS

After crossing the Preguiças River, the programme is to climb into a jeep and head for the lagoons of the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park.

As soon as you leave the ferry, the car follows a winding road between lakes and streams, with flooded stretches.

In 40 minutes, you reach a point from where you have to walk.

Another five minutes and you reach the Preguiça lagoon, with its turquoise waters.

After another ten minutes’ walk, you reach the beautiful Blue Lagoon, which lives up to its name.

One of the most popular spots in the park, it’s often crowded – those who want to relax can walk another ten minutes to the Peixe lagoon, which, incidentally, is one of the only ones not to dry up in summer (the Azul simply disappears at the end of the year).

Surrounded by vegetation and with dark green waters, it precedes the famous Bonita lagoon, surrounded by dunes of up to 40 metres. To reach it, you have to take another winding road for about an hour.

6. DOWN THE CARDOSA RIVER

The Cardosa River is about an hour and a half’s drive from the centre of Barreirinhas.

Its crystal-clear, calm waters invite you to take a kayak or float-cross down the river, where a snorkelling mask is essential to see the fish. The descent takes an average of two hours.

7. FLIGHT FROM THE PARK

For 30 minutes, a twin-engine aeroplane flies over the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park.

After taking off from Barreirinhas, it takes a panoramic view of the region, reaching the mouth of the Preguiças River at Atins. The aerial view of the vast expanses of dunes and lagoons is unforgettable.

8. ATINS

This village of Atins in the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park ends the course of the Preguiças River, which then flows into the sea.

Atins, which you can reach with guides from agencies in Barreirinhas, marks the beginning of the so-called Great Lençois beach, a region that ends 100 kilometres away, in Travosa, at the other end of the Lençois Maranhenses National Park.

The small fishing village received electricity a few years ago and still lives off fishing.

There are no cars on the sandy streets and a single public telephone ensures communication with the world.

For all this, Atins preserves a magical atmosphere, reinforced by its special geographical situation: situated between the river and the sea, next to the dunes of the park and with a beach that, depending on the tide, is adorned by natural saltwater pools.

The village is surrounded by attractions such as the Pedras well, which opens up in the middle of the vast expanse of sand in a unique shade of turquoise blue, and the Mário lagoon, in whose dark waters white aquatic flowers float. On the outskirts of the lagoon, Mrs Luzia serves incomparable prawns from her stall.

9. BURITI WOOD CRAFTS

Everything can be used from the Buriti – the palm tree that borders much of the Preguiças River and the region’s lakes: starch is extracted from the pith; oil, juices, sorbets, etc. are made from the pulp of the fruit: oil, juices, ice creams and sweets; the leaves cover dwellings, and from their shoots, called “eyes”, in addition to the palm heart, a fine thread is extracted, used to make bags, purses, hats and other handicrafts, which can be found in shops in the city, in stalls on the edge of the Bonita lagoon and on the ferries that cross the Preguiças river.

10. TUTÓIA

Tutóia is a Brazilian municipality in the state of Maranhão.

Although surrounded by natural beauty, the town itself, 400 kilometres from Barreirinhas, is unattractive: with a precarious structure of restaurants and inns, it is often used as a bridge between the Lençóis Maranhenses and the Parnaíba river delta in Piauí – which can be seen in the distance from the port.

The town is a base for those visiting the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park and the Parnaíba River Delta.

In Tutóia you can go on various trips, such as visiting the 20 kilometres of paradisiacal beaches with calm seas and white sand dunes, including Arpoador and Namorados, the Lagoas da Taboa, Jacaré, Areia and Lagoinha, the Ilhas  Cajueiro, Coroatá, Melancieiro, Igoronhon, Grande, Pombas, José Correia, Caieira, Papagaio, forming the great Parnaiba Delta, as well as discovering the region’s handicrafts in straw, leather, coconut, horn, thread and shells.

However, there are no speedboats available, only ferries that make the eight-hour crossing every other day. By car, the connection between Tutóia and Parnaíba is via the BR-402 motorway, with stretches in a poor state of repair.

11. SANTO AMARO DO MARANHÃO

Santo Amaro do Maranhão, 232 kilometres from São Luís, is still a little-visited town.

Santo Amaro do Maranhão

One of the reasons for this is the difficulty of access.

Of the 96 kilometres that separate it from Barreirinhas, 35 are on sandy roads; in the winter months, with the heavy rains that fall in the region, the distance can only be overcome in four-wheel drive vehicles – which, even then, run the risk of getting bogged down.

With 10,000 inhabitants, the town bathed by the yellowish waters of the Alegre River is an alternative gateway for those who want to explore the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park.

Unlike Barreirinhas, which is an hour away from the dunes, Santo Amaro is nestled in them.

The town can be reached via the MA-402 up to the village of Sangue; the best option, given the precariousness of the road, is to take a chartered jeep with a guide from Barreirinhas.

12. LAGO DE SANTO AMARO

Located on the banks of the Alegre River, Santo Amaro is surrounded by lakes, lagoons and rivers that cut through the vast expanse of white sands.

One of its attractions is the Santo Amaro Lake, where part of the Alegre flows into the sea; full of fish, it provides a livelihood for most of the locals. To visit it, you need to hire a boat in the town, which will travel along the shallow waters of the river, passing through small communities.

The town’s postcard is the Gaivota lagoon, 6 kilometres from the centre – an hour’s walk or 30 minutes in a four-wheel drive vehicle.

Spilling out into the middle of very white dunes, the stunning turquoise lagoon is full all year round, especially in winter.

Shallow at the edge, it reaches a depth of 2.5 metres – an irresistible invitation to bathe.

If you keep going up and down the dunes, you’ll reach Cajueiro in 20 minutes: a small house surrounded by leafy mango trees and – of course – cashew trees, some of which are centuries old; next to it, a lagoon with dark waters, from which the owner of the house takes his daily meal.

An almost unreal setting with a simple beauty. On the outskirts of Santo Amaro is the well known as Barreira das Pacas, with access not regulated by Ibama.

13. QUEIMADA DOS BRITOS

One hundred residents, 5,000 goats – goat farming is one of the main economic activities in the area – beautiful dunes and lagoons.

This is Queimada dos Britos, a village located within the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park.

A green area embedded in the sand, it resembles an oasis, with very simple houses covered in straw and still no electricity.

The village can be reached after two hours in a jeep with traction or eight hours on a difficult hike through the sand.

Near Queimada dos Britos is Baixa Grande, another lush green area in the middle of the sand.

This region benefits from the presence of the Negro River, whose course cuts through the entire National Park from north to south. At its source is the Esperança lagoon, another beautiful attraction in the park.

14. THE SIMPLE PLEASURES IN THE VASTNESS OF THE LENCOIS

It’s hard to put into words the size and grandeur of the Lençóis Maranhenses.

To understand them, you have to be there – and let your soul be as light as the wind, assimilating the incessant movement of the beach sands that enter the continent to form the gigantic dunes.

In the unusual landscape of Lençóis Maranhenses, you can enjoy rare pleasures: watching the sun set over the river or the sea, admiring flocks of guarás, walking for hours on an immense, deserted beach until you find a lagoon of unimaginable blue colour amidst the white expanse – a surprising gift from nature.

Above all, there you can rediscover simple, lost pleasures: running, playing, swimming, cruising in a canoe with sails improvised from plastic bags, breathing deeply, listening to the sound of silence.

Then, when the generators are switched off – at 10pm – you can lie under the pitch-black sky, streaked with shooting stars.

The dunes are divided into Pequenos and Grandes Lençóis, cut by the slow and enchanting Preguiças River, on whose banks are tiny, rustic villages – Vassouras, Caburé, Mandacaru – places without any infrastructure, very different from the mass tourist destinations.

Barreirinhas, the base town for tours in the region, is now starting to organise itself; during the high season, its modest streets are filled with cars and jeeps leaving and arriving from the dunes, taking visitors mainly to the more easily accessible Lagoas Azul and Lagoas do Peixe.

Those willing to walk a little further will be rewarded with other, more beautiful and empty lagoons, in a feeling of permanent discovery: when you climb a dune, you never know what you’ll find on the other side; it could be a long white space, or another dune, or a new lake with clear, warm waters.

The great paradox is that in this scenario of permanent movement, where you watch the eternal dance of wind and sand, there is a side of permanence – it has been the same for hundreds of years, and there is no sign to remind you that we are in the 21st century.

A game of illusions with time and space.

From Barreirinhas, you can travel along the Preguiças River, passing through its villages. The watercourse meanders past sand hills and flooded mangroves.

Near the mouth is Caburé, a village situated on a sandy peninsula. On one side is the river, on the other the sea. In between, there are a few rustic buildings, some simple inns.

And the traveller, between river and sea, between fresh and salt water, receiving the wind in the face. From there you can clearly see that the sheets are not homogenous.

To the east, the dunes are yellowish, the lagoons darker.

From Caburé you can take a boat to the small town of Atins – from where, after a walk, you can reach the deep Poço das Pedras, with its emerald green water. Ask around for Luzia’s prawns – and the programme will be complete and unforgettable.

In a globalised world, where even the most remote corners have sophisticated hotels with impeccable service, the Lençóis Maranhenses appear to be a strange exception, a place apart.

But with their rustic and unspoilt beauty, the simplicity of their accommodation and the authenticity of their inhabitants, they have established themselves as one of the most irresistible travel destinations in Brazil – for those who know how to enjoy them, they are pure luxury.

See when to go to Lençóis Maranhenses

Lençóis Maranhenses Travel and Tourism Guide

Barreirinhas Travel Guide