Brazil, São Miguel Dos Milagres

Why Go Now: Located between the much more famous Brazilian beaches in Recife and Bahia, São Miguel dos Milagres, a two-hour flight from São Paulo in the state of Alogoas, is off most travelers’ radar. The attraction: natural, reef-formed swimming pools, warm emerald waters, and hypnotically tranqüilo beaches.

“In a sense, there’s no tourism—on any given day, maybe a hundred visitors can be found on a beach twenty-five miles long,” says Joaquim Gonçalves, the Portuguese owner of two pousadas in the area. That may change in the coming years: Adrian Zecha’s Amanresorts has been looking at land near Alogoas’s capital, Maceió, and while paulistas (São Paulo residents) make up the majority of the visitors, more than a few French, Italian, and Portuguese travelers are joining the mix. “It’s getting the kind of buzz Trancoso did 15 years ago,” says Eric Sheets, founder of the luxury travel agency Latin Excursions (latinexcursions.com), who has been sending clients to the region for the past seven months.

The Details: Nilo Burgarelli opened the area’s first lodge, the Pousada do Toque (Doubles from $327, including dinner and breakfast) in 2000. When he launched, the road hadn’t been paved and there was no phone service. His 13-cabana garden retreat serves as an escape for the host of Big Brother Brazil as well as many Brazilian families, who book one of the three private pool cabanas. Set in a lush jungle garden (the sunrise bird chorus is impressive), guest rooms have marble and tile-mosaic bathrooms, ofuro tubs, and rough-hewn local woodwork. But the pousada’s restaurant is the real attraction, with dishes like peixe ao molho de camarão—grilled fish topped with a chunky shrimp-and-tomato sauce.

Down a one-mile dirt track five miles north of São Miguel is Goncalves’s four-year-old Aldeia Beijupirá (Doubles from $287). Beijupirá’s nine thatched-roof bungalows are surrounded by private gardens of palms and red hibiscus. The stucco rooms are minimal, with polished cement floors and platform beds.

The best way to explore São Miguel’s sparsely populated coast is by boat: the pousadas will contract a fisherman to take you out to the reef a half-mile off the beach ($10), where foot-deep tide pools are filled with bath-warm water and tiny scuttling crabs, and ringed by coral lined with scores of purple-back sea urchins.

“We came here for a life-changing experience. Bahia wasn’t what we were looking for; it all seemed really developed,” says paulista Jessy Greenhut. In March, together with her Israeli husband, Tsachi, she bought the Pousada da Amendoeira (Doubles from $167), named after the huge almond tree that shades its beachfront lounge. Steps from the Pousada do Toque, the Amendoeira has a more modest, earthy vibe, with a pumpkin patch and small cabanas. “A lot of people who come here are really attached to nature,” says Greenhut. With a beach like São Miguel’s, it’s not hard to see why. —Ian Mount