The Itacare Village is situated on the 'Costa do Cacau' close to Itacare in a Condominium called "Villas de Sao Jose". From the main entrance of the Condominium it takes a 10 minutes drive through wonderful nature to arrive to the hotel grounds.The Condominium is shared by the Itacare Village ,the Itacare Eco Resort and a view private villas .Unfortunately the 2 Hotels do not cooperate much ,that is why the service on the beach is made by the Eco Resort and on the Poolaerea it is made by the Itacare Village. Guests of the Itacare Village can go out for dinner in the Eco Resort, but you can't bring guests for dinner ,if you stay in the Itacare Village.All guests are booked on half board. This was a pitty for us , because on our stay on the last 2 days the Itacare Village was fully booked and parts of our family had to stay in another place and it wasn't possible for them to join us at dinner.
Besides this , the hotel is very beautyful !The main reception, the restaurant and the poolarea , which are close to each other -right at the beach- are the center of the Itacare Village. The view to the sea is romantic,specially with a full moon shining and the food and drinks are fine, the staff was always friendly .(Nobody speaks english, so I had to translate for my family ,who doesn´t speak portuguese all the time)
The Hotelrooms are divided into 5 'Villages'. Each Village consists of different types of appartments.Village 1 is the closest to the beach and Village 5 is about 300 m away in the hills, but a shuttle takes you there anytime.
We booked 2 appartments in Village 5.The rooms are okay , more practical than pretty ,but fine. The only dislike for me was the sound isolation.Sometimes you could understand every word ,that was spoken nextdoor... Each room has a terrace ,the view is wonderful.
We really enjoyed the hotel and the beauty of this nature and hope to be back in the future!

This private eco paradise sits on an old cocoa plantation and is nestled in the side of a hillside directly on the coast. Brazilians love this vacation village but it does take about two days to get to it from the States. We spent the night in Sao Paulo and then took another flight up to the central coastal state of Bahia, then an hour car ride to the resort. The village people surf all day and then open their shops in late afternoon. The shops line cobble stone streets and dancing and eating begins! We did not see one American our entire trip.

The resort sits next to a beautiful little lagoon where you can kayak. The resort is small and is actually a collection of villas built into the hillside nestled among the giant palms. The beach is amazing with palm trees and wonderful sand. The service is excellent and, since you're so close to the kitchen/bar, very fast too.

At night there are thousands of frogs singing like a symphony in the marshes on the property. The property is a protected animal reserve a few times a day, the horse back rangers will come galloping by.

Almost each day or evening, the rains would come which was a delightful break from the hot Brazilian sun. The power would go out which made the resort quite romantic and guests would gather in the main restuarant by candlelight, drink, eat and share wonderful stories. I suggest you learn a little portugese for going. They guide you through yoga on the beach in the morning and you can get wonderful massages near the lagoon.

The most amazing part of this trip is how the staff and locals will go out of their way to get you anything you need. They once drove an hour away to bring us batteries for our camera, which took two days but they showed up with our change and our batteries.

One particuluar day, with a guide, we canoed across a bay up to a waterfall in the jungle. As we got closer in, the mangroves got smaller and smaller and there were hundreds of varying colors of crabs hanging from the branches, unbelievable birds and wildlife but we saw no monkeys. After a beautiful trek up to the water fall and an afternoon swim, another monsoon came and began to fill the canoes with water. We tourists stay under a "restuarant" until the rains stopped. The guides worked the entire time bailing water out.

We found an incredible resturant in the village one evening and while dining another monsoon came. This restaurant had no walls so the rains came in and flooded the restaurant. The owner moved us to a higher table, lit candles and preceded to give us free shots of alcohol. We still could not pay by credit card so the owner told us to come back the next day and pay. We missed the taxi back to the resort so the resort's staff came and got us. When the power would go out in the village, we used our video camera to get around the cobble stone streets. Nothing stopped the locals from dancing or dining in the streets by candle light.

The ride to and from the resort to Ilehues is absolutley stunning with cliffs and the giant waves. You can stop and zipline down the cliffs or trek back into the jungle to see the monkeys.

The locals love Americans and hardly ever get to meet any. We never saw another American the entire trip. We made friends of a Brazilian couple and hung out with them a great deal...it was so much fun and we have stayed in touch.

This was a trip that was out of this world and an adventure no doubt. The hardest part is the two days to get there and back to the states. We definitely will go back to this little piece of paradise in Brazil.