Croa do Goré and Ilha dos Namorados boat trip

A crôa is a sandbank that a river leaves exposed at low tide, and the goré is the small, quick crab that burrows all over it. Boats leave the Orla do Pôr do Sol in Mosqueiro, Aracaju's southernmost beach, and head 40 minutes down the Vaza-Barris past mangroves and restinga to the Croa do Goré, where straw umbrellas, tables in the shallows and a floating bar are waiting. You get about an hour there. Depending on the tide the sand is either wide open or the water is creeping up the table legs.

The boat then runs another half hour along the mangroves to Ilha dos Namorados, a much larger sandbank where the river meets the Atlantic, for a two-hour stop with water hammocks, kayaks and stand-up paddleboards. The full trip takes about five hours, with morning and afternoon sailings, and you finish back at the Orla do Pôr do Sol in time for the sunset it is named after. Catamarans usually have a bar and a netted pool in the middle of the deck; smaller speedboats go only to the Croa. Agencies in Aracaju sell the trip with a hotel transfer, while anyone with a car can drive to Mosqueiro and buy it at the dock for less. It doesn't sail every day, so book ahead. A tide too high means no sandbank, and weekends are the busiest.