Garopaba is a beautiful place to live – a zen-like surf town located one hour from Florianopolis, featuring gorgeous, undeveloped beaches, tall dunes, kitesurf lagoons, all against a backdrop of green hills and waterfalls.

In summer and the weekends, Garopaba can get quite touristy – which explains why this relatively small town has more than a couple of good restaurants, major supermarkets, modern gyms, a brand new 24h hospital etc.

It now has year-round life, as many Brazilians from the larger cities have picked Garopaba as their home for longer stays.

If you like Florianópolis, but can do without the traffic jams and overcrowding, Garopaba is the spot for you.

While the center can get busy, most life happens outside and near the 30km of beaches (many undeveloped, and separated by hills). From north to south, you can discover Praia da Gamboa (with a watchhouse for whale watching from the hill near the beach), Praia do Siriu (where you can swim either in the ocean or in the mound of the Siriu lake, but 90% of the beach is protected dunes (make sure to go on top of them for a sunrise!)

Silveira beach (near the centre but popular with surfers), Ferrugem beach (where surfers, youngsters, well, everyone hangs out), and finally Praia do Rosa, with its many bars and restaurants and occasionally wild beach parties(we´ve skipped a few).

Surf towns always bring a few extra´s. Even if you don´t surf, you can spend hours watching the gorgeous waves and the surfers, but surfers also bring a young, relax atmosphere. Healthy and organic food or grass fed beef are easy to find.

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