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Cabo Frio is a beach city in the Lakes Region of Rio de Janeiro state in Brazil, about 150 km east of Rio de Janeiro, famous for its white-sand beaches such as Praia do Forte and Peró, the Itajuru Canal and the 17th-century São Mateus Fort. It grew into a major summer resort from the 1970s.
In 1503 ships under Amerigo Vespucci built a fortified trading post for brazilwood by the mouth of the Araruama lagoon. The Portuguese later built forts to guard that channel, and from 1616 the village grew at Passagem, now the historic quarter. Franciscan friars added a convent in the 1690s and a hilltop chapel in 1740.
Spend your days on the beaches, from the long Praia do Forte to the smaller beaches of Conchas and Brava, and take a schooner along the Itajuru Canal. In the late afternoon climb the Morro da Guia for the view, then have dinner in the old lanes of Passagem.
São Mateus Fort stands on a rocky islet at the northeast end of Praia do Forte in Cabo Frio. Designed by Francisco de Frias da Mesquita in 1617, it was in service by 1620, guarding the village and the lagoon channel, today the Itajuru Canal. It gives the beach its name.
Convent of Our Lady of the Angels is a Franciscan convent in Cabo Frio, begun on 2 August 1686 at the foot of the Morro da Guia and opened in 1696. In 1707 it became a novitiate. Listed by IPHAN in 1957, it now houses the Museum of Religious and Traditional Art, run by IBRAM.
Our Lady of Guia Chapel is a small colonial chapel built in 1740 by Franciscan friars atop the Morro da Guia in Cabo Frio. Legend says its image of the Virgin kept vanishing from the convent and appearing on the hill. It opens on feast days, but the hilltop view is free to all.
Passagem is the historic quarter of Cabo Frio, the town's first settlement, begun in 1616 on the bank of the Itajuru Canal. Its narrow cobbled lanes keep colonial facades around Largo de São Benedito, whose church dates from 1761. Today it is a popular area for restaurants and bars.
Itajuru Canal is a 6 km navigable channel linking Araruama Lagoon to the Atlantic Ocean, mostly within Cabo Frio. Its waterfront by the Gamboa district has a promenade, a craft fair and schooners offering boat trips to the beaches. A nine-meter statue of an angel was raised in its waters in 1907.
Ilha do Japonês is a small island in Cabo Frio, surrounded by bars and restaurants that serve snacks. On summer nights locals and visitors drag nets for shrimp in the shallows nearby. Records show the Japanese Yamagata family fishing and working salt pans in the region from the early 1900s.
Araruama Lagoon stretches from Saquarema to Cabo Frio, which sits at its only outlet to the sea, the Itajuru Canal. Covering about 220 square km, about 37 km long and 13 km wide, it is the largest permanently hypersaline lagoon in the world. Its Tupi name means the place where macaws drink water.
Costa do Sol State Park was created on 18 April 2011 to protect about 9,841 hectares of the Lakes Region, split into four sectors across Cabo Frio, Araruama, Búzios, Arraial do Cabo, Saquarema and São Pedro da Aldeia. Its areas guard shell mounds, dunes, restinga, lagoons and coastal forest.
Peró Dunes rise behind Praia do Peró in the Peró district of Cabo Frio, about 5 km from the center, within the Pau-Brasil Environmental Protection Area, which protects dunes and restinga. The dunes are recommended for beginners in sandboarding, and two seaside hills have trails.
Praia do Forte is the main beach of Cabo Frio, a 7.5 km stretch of sand ending at the 17th-century São Mateus Fort. It runs past the Balneário das Dunas, Algodoal and Braga districts, which grew as summer resorts from the 1970s, and it hosts the largest New Year's Eve party in the Lakes Region.
Praia do Peró is a beach about 7 km long in Cabo Frio, with stretches of surf and others of calm water. Artisanal fishermen work its sands, and the protected Peró Dunes lie at one end. In 2018 it first won the international Blue Flag award, renewed for the eighth year running in 2025-2026.
Praia das Conchas is a small beach in the Peró district of Cabo Frio, set between two rocky hills to the right of Praia do Peró. It is popular with anglers casting for grouper, bluefish and mullet, and it has a lovely view of the Cabo Frio islands. Kiosks, restaurants and live music line its shore.
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Log in to add photosPhoto: Halley Pacheco de Oliveira, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
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