The 8 best walks and hikes in Santa Catarina, ranked
Coastal walking trail through Atlantic Forest in Santa Catarina
Eight walks across the state, ordered by whether the trail is worth the sweat.
1. Lagoinha do Leste, Florianópolis
A 3.5 km trail from Pântano do Sul over a coastal ridge to Lagoinha do Leste — an undeveloped beach with a freshwater lagoon behind it, reachable only on foot or by boat. Two hours in, two hours back, moderate difficulty. No fee, no infrastructure at the beach, no signal for most of the trail. The reward is a beach that looks the way island beaches looked before anyone had cars.
Go early: leave the trailhead by 9am to have the beach for a few hours before day-trippers arrive around 12. Bring all your water (2 litres minimum), lunch, and cash for the small kiosk that sometimes operates on the beach in high season. This ranks first because no other walk in the state delivers a destination this genuinely wild this close to a state capital.
2. Trilha do Poço da Bruxa to Praia da Solidão
The southern tip of Florianópolis island, a coastal walk of about 6 km one way through Atlantic Forest and along cliff-top paths, ending at Praia da Solidão. Moderate difficulty with a few steep sections. Passes small waterfalls and swimming pools inland from the coast. Free access from the Costa de Dentro trailhead; roughly three hours each way.
You can shortcut by taking a car to Solidão and doing shorter out-and-back walks from either end. The full traverse rewards fit walkers with the best coastal-forest combination on the island. Wear proper shoes — the trail turns to red clay after rain and gets slick. This ranks second because it delivers real remoteness within Florianópolis city limits, and that's a rare combination.
3. Costão do Santinho petroglyph loop
A 4 km loop from Praia do Santinho over the granite headland at the north end of the beach, passing prehistoric petroglyphs carved into the rock. Easy-to-moderate; two hours round trip. The petroglyphs are 4,000-5,000 years old and there are dozens of them, some faint, some deeply cut. Free, no gate, no guide required though one at the beach kiosk will explain them for R$50.
The walk itself is worth doing even ignoring the carvings — the granite gives you 360° views of the north-coast beaches and the Atlantic. Go in late afternoon for the light on the rock. It ranks third because it combines archaeology with landscape better than anything else on this list, and the effort is minor.
4. Morro do Sapo, Parque Nacional da Serra do Itajaí
A 6 km round-trip climb through Atlantic Forest to a granite dome at 900 metres, accessed from Guabiruba about 30 km from Blumenau. Moderate-to-hard: the last kilometre is a genuine climb over exposed rock, and you need both hands in a few places. Free with ICMBio registration; three to four hours total including the summit.
The reward is a 360° view over the entire Itajaí valley — a scale of wilderness that surprises people who think of Santa Catarina as a coastal state. Go on a weekday; weekends bring Blumenau day-hikers. Bring 2 litres of water and don’t attempt in wet weather; the summit rock gets deadly slick. Ranks fourth because access is inconvenient and the difficulty filters casual walkers.
5. Trilha da Fortaleza de Santa Cruz de Anhatomirim
Not really a hike — a 20-minute walking loop around a restored 18th-century fortress on an island in the Baía Norte, reached by boat from Governador Celso Ramos. Easy, paved paths, historical interpretation in Portuguese and patchy English. Entry R$25 to the fortress plus R$120-160 for the boat return.
This ranks fifth as a walk because the walk itself is short, but the setting — a genuine colonial fort on an island with cannons still in place — earns its slot on this list. Combine with a swim off the fortress dock in summer and a seafood lunch back on the mainland. The boat trip through the bay is half the appeal. Best as a full half-day.
6. Vidal Ramos to Rio dos Cedros ridge walk
A 12 km ridge walk through pastoral country in the Vale Europeu, connecting two small colonial towns via marked farmland trails. Easy-to-moderate; four to five hours. Almost all on private land under Vale Europeu tourism cooperation, and locals hosting turismo rural provide waypoints, water refills and occasional meals along the way for R$25-40.
This is a different kind of walk from the coastal and forest options above — you’re crossing worked land rather than wilderness, and the reward is the villages and farmhouses rather than a beach or a summit. Book through the Vale Europeu tourism office in Timbó for a marked route and shuttle back. Ranks sixth because it's a specific taste, but if you love European-style walking holidays, it moves up.
7. Circuito das Cachoeiras, Corupá
A single-day route through a series of waterfalls on private land near Corupá (accessible from Joinville or Blumenau, roughly 90 minutes). Fourteen waterfalls total on the full circuit; most people do 5-8. Marked and maintained; entry R$50 covers the day. Bring swimming gear — several falls have pools you can enter.
The walking is easy; distances between falls are 500 metres to 2 km on graded paths. It's a family-friendly hike day rather than an athletic one, and it ranks seventh only because the sights are all variations on the same theme (water falling over basalt). If waterfalls are your thing, bump it up two slots. Restaurant on-site does grilled trout lunches for R$70.
8. Praia do Rosa cliff path north to Ouvidor
A 4 km walk from Rosa Norte over the coastal headlands and down into Praia do Ouvidor. Easy to moderate; two hours one way. Passes viewpoints where southern right whales are visible in the bay from July to November. Return by the same route or arrange a taxi from Ouvidor (R$40).
This is a lower-effort coastal walk than the Florianópolis options, which suits Rosa's holiday-town rhythm. Best at low tide when a beach-and-headland route is possible; at high tide you’re pushed onto the higher clifftop path, still walkable but less scenic. Ranks last on this list because the individual elements are all better represented by higher-ranked walks, but as a Rosa activity it's the best hour and a half you can spend.
Before you book
The questions people ask about Blumenau, answered with this month’s numbers.
The Florianópolis coastal trails (Lagoinha do Leste, Solidão, Costão do Santinho) are safe enough that many locals walk them solo, especially in daylight and in season. Morro do Sapo and the Vale Europeu ridge walk benefit from a partner because signal is patchy and injuries would be slow to resolve. Never walk any of these after dark, even short segments.
The Costão do Santinho petroglyph loop or the Rosa-to-Ouvidor cliff path. Both are under 6 km, well-drained, don’t require serious climbing, and reward the effort with genuine views and interesting content — archaeology in one case, whales (in season) and beaches in the other. Neither needs specialist gear beyond trainers and a water bottle.
March-May and September-November are ideal — cooler temperatures, lower humidity, less rain than the extremes. Summer (December-February) is hot and humid and the coastal trails bake by 11am. Winter (June-August) is comfortable on the coast but the mountain hikes (Morro do Sapo, anything in the Serra) can hit near-freezing at altitude and bring fog that ruins visibility.
