Lencois is a beautiful national park in Brazil. It is located directly North of Rio De Janeiro. I didn’t know a lot about it when we went except for the pictures I had seen. I had a lot of questions before going. Lencois is such a beautiful place and I want to help you get there! I hope these tips can make your trip a little easier and help you know more of what to expect.
AIRPORT
We flew from Rio to the Sao Luis airport (SLZ airport code.) It takes about 5 hours to fly there from Rio. There is almost always one stop in between. The prices range anywhere from $100-150 for a one way ticket or around $250-350 for a roundtrip ticket.
WHERE TO STAY
We stayed in a place called Barreirinhas Maranhao. It’s 3 hours and 40 minutes from the SLZ airport. It takes a little under an hour to get to Lencois National park from here. Barreirinhas Maranhao is a beautiful city right by a river and surrounded by greenery. There are a few hotels to chose from and there are also Airbnb’s. We stayed in an Airbnb because it was the cheapest option. However, the hotels are still pretty affordable.
HOW TO GET AROUND
We chose to rent a car. We rented one from the SLZ airport and drove straight to our airbnb. There is a bus that takes you to Barreirinhas but it takes 2.5 hours longer to get there than it does to drive yourself. Renting a car was easy and straightforward. We were able to pick one up from the SLZ airport.
DRIVING IN LENCOIS
The drive from SLZ airport to Barreirinhas was pretty straightforward. It’s easy enough to follow the GPS on our phones. BUT the roads are some of the worst I’ve ever seen. (pictures below) There are potholes everywhere, and I’m not talking about small potholes. Big potholes that could ruin your tire or car if you drive too fast over one of them. We saw one car get stuck in one of the potholes because it was so big. It’s a good idea to drive on the slow side so you can swerve the potholes and if you do happen to hit one you’re going slow enough that not a lot of damage will happen to your car. Thankfully the road to Barreirinhas isn’t very crowded so you don’t have a lot of traffic to watch for. Sometimes when driving the best thing to do to avoid potholes is to drive on the other side of the road and since there’s not a lot of traffic you have the freedom to do that in order to ditch the potholes. Another good thing to note is the other drivers are also very aware of the potholes on both sides of the road. So if there are potholes one way and you have to swerve to the other lane the drivers are aware and expect you to do that. They will move out of the way and let you swerve to avoid a pothole. They expect you to come over to their lane. They will also swerve over to your lane to avoid potholes. I found it to be a courtesy thing and you just move over to make more room because they do the same for you. I highly suggest only driving in the daylight. We did not drive at night and I am so glad because it was hard enough navigating through the potholes in broad daylight.
HOW TO GET TO LENCOIS MARANHENSES NATIONAL PARK
We tried to drive to the actual park ourselves. I suggest to not do that. The map was not straightforward and took us down small sandy roads. We got our car stuck and luckily there were a group of men around that helped push our car out of the sand. After that we decided to turn around and head back to the city. I’m also not even entirely sure we were headed in the right direction. So take it from me and don’t drive there yourself. We ended up finding a tour guide in the city who took us. They took us in a big vehicle with huge tires that was made for going through water and sand. There are also lots of tours around so if you don’t book it beforehand you can just drive to one of the tour shops and plan it day of – like we did. There are also options to book tours online through Get Your Guide or Viator. It can be nice to book beforehand and have peace of mind. The tours I have seen are very affordable and average about $30. We met some friends on the tour so that is another reason I suggest getting a guide to go to the park. You don’t have to try to figure out where you are going, the guides know exactly how to get there and are equipped with the right vehicle, and you can just relax and talk to your new friends.
Pictures of the roads with potholes! You drive on the righthand side of the road. But the car ahead was on the left side of the road to avoid the potholes
Another pic of the potholes. I didn’t take great pictures of the roads but this is just one example of the types of road conditions you will see.