Balneário de Alter do Chão - Santarém/Pará

1. Alter do Chao, Pará

Tom Phillips, The Guardian's Brazil correspondent

Brazil's best beach is not in Rio de Janeiro or the sun-bathed north-east. It's not even on the coast. It is on a river at the heart of the Amazon rainforest. Around 30km from the rainforest city of Santarem, Alter do Chao is the jungle's answer to the Caribbean. After a week holed up in the jungle, Alter do Chao is the perfect place to relax: you can lounge on the river beaches in the morning, gorge yourself on a local grilled fish in the afternoon and retreat to one of the area's many charming pousadas by night. People often call the humid and dense Amazon the "green inferno". Alter do Chao is its golden paradise.