Baía do Sancho

Baía do Sancho is on Fernando de Noronha, a volcanic archipelago three hundred and fifty kilometres off the Brazilian coast. It is a crescent of pale sand enclosed by cliffs seventy metres high, and it is repeatedly voted the best beach in the world by traveller polls — a claim that in this case has some substance behind it.

The access is unusual enough to be part of the appeal. From the clifftop, a path leads to a narrow fissure in the rock with two vertical steel ladders bolted inside it; you descend through the crack and emerge on the sand. The alternative is by boat. The ladders are single-file and there is a queue in season.

The island's protection is the more important fact. Fernando de Noronha is a national marine park and a World Heritage site, and it limits how many people may be present: visitors pay a daily environmental tax that rises with length of stay, park entry is a separate ticket, and the number of beds on the island is capped. Some beaches close entirely during spinner dolphin resting hours or turtle nesting. Baía dos Porcos next door is reachable at low tide over the rocks and has the natural pools, and Baía do Sueste on the other side of the island is where the turtles are, with snorkelling permitted under supervision.

The bay itself is reef-protected with clear calm water, and the snorkelling is exceptional — turtles, rays and reef fish routinely, sharks offshore. Vegetation grows down the cliff and there is shade at the back of the sand, which is rare here.

Ladders down a fissure, a daily cap, an island tax that rises the longer you stay. Fernando de Noronha prices access deliberately and the beach at the bottom is the reward for accepting that. Anyone with a fear of enclosed spaces or a bad knee should look at it from the top, which is where most of the photographs were taken anyway.