A volcanic outcrop 350 kilometers off Brazil's northeast coast, Fernando de Noronha limits its own visitor numbers to protect the reason people come.
Baía do Sancho, reached by a ladder bolted into a cliff crevice, tops most rankings of Brazil's best beach, and for once the ranking holds up — turtles and reef fish are visible from the shallows without a mask, and the cliffs framing it block most of the wind.
Brazil caps the number of tourists allowed on the island at any time and charges a daily environmental preservation tax on top of park entry fees, which keeps Noronha expensive and uncrowded by Brazilian-coast standards; book accommodation and the tax registration well before you fly in from Recife or Natal.
Spinner dolphins gather by the hundreds in the Baía dos Golfinhos most mornings, a ritual best watched from the clifftop trail above rather than the water, since the bay itself is protected from swimmers to keep the pod undisturbed.
