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More information on Ponta Negra Beach in Natal

Description: Ponta Negra Beach in Natal

One of the most well known and visited beaches in the city, Ponta Negra is in an area that is frequented by tourists due to the beautiful beach, numerous hotels, restaurants and activities available to them.  One of the most famous and well known post card pictures of Natal has been taken from this area, and includes the famous Morro do Careca or bald mans hill, which lies at the very southern most point of the beach.   Overall the beach is one of our favorites in the city because of all it has to offer, but it can get crowded because everyone else considers this one of the best beaches in the area as well.

The entire beach has seen many upgrades down over the years, including a wide brick walkway that runs the entire 4km length of the beach, which is dotted with small brick kiosks which sell local foods, drinks and snacks.  The food is very affordable and often served in smaller portion sizes which allows you try out many different cuisines.

To the south of the beach, closer to the Morro do Careca, the water is more calm and has fewer waves.  This is also where you will find many of the water activities, including stand up paddle which has become very popular in the area.  As you move north, the waters get a bit more choppy and waves increase in size moderately, but never become very large here.   The beach here is very flat, which means during low tide there is a huge beach to walk along, but during high tide the waters come almost all the way up the beach.  It is still possible to walk along the waters edge, but at these times it is often more fun to walk along the beautiful board walk.

Along the beach you will find many umbrellas with several chairs for rent.  Most people come to the beach with virtually nothing and simply rent the umbrellas.  They are affordable and plentiful so it's generally not very difficult to find an open one.   Umbrella business owners are only allowed to place a maximum of ten umbrellas, so there are many owners along this beach, and they are all very attentive to the needs of their customers.   They often speak a bit of English due to the number of tourists that visit the beach and you should be able to get along fairly well with limited Portuguese.  

Ask them how much rent is, as it changes by season but they all seem to charge around the same amount.  Roughly R$10-30, and they will often waive the fee if you spend R$30-40 in food and beverages.   They all typically have the same set of items available and purchase it from a restaurant.  Typically the food is fairly expensive for what you get, even when they try and sell you "Everything on the menu for R$75+, a 50% savings!".  What most locals do is purchase beverages from the umbrella owners, and then purchase food from the various vendors that walk along the beach with their carts.   This is completely acceptable to buy food from them, and not the umbrella owners and eat it at the umbrella!  There are no roaming vendors that sell beverages, so they always end up with the beverage sales and rent from the umbrellas.  

Many great types of food can be found on the beach, including meat skewers, fried cheese, shrimp, corn on the cob, brigadarios (a soft chocolate ball with condensed milk, coated in chocolate sprinkles), cocada (a coconut based dessert, often in plain, passion fruit, or a brown sugar version), crepes and other small snacks.  Some of the food is made right there on the spot, such as the meat, shrimp and cheese options on small little portable bbq's.  The crepes often come in large carts where they can cook them fresh for you and the desserts are often home made the night before.   Everything is delicious, usually comes in small portions and is very affordable.  

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