A tropical rainforest retreat in Trancoso, Brazil’s coolest beach town.
Casa Anderson is the Brazilian home of CNN journalist Anderson Cooper and was designed by his friend Wilbert Das, the former creative director of Diesel and owner of nearby Uxua Casa Hotel & Spa. Unassuming from the front, a main house and three separate wooden guest suites are set in lush tropical gardens, with a 20m pool at the back.
The front gate opens directly onto the Quadrado, Trancoso’s charming, hippie-chic town square; at the far end is a fisherman’s path down to the beaches of the Atlantic.
What we love about Casa Anderson
- Set across four separate buildings: the first houses a large living room, dining room and kitchen, and there are three separate guest suites in the gardens beyond it.
- Each suite is inspired by a different local building style – one is a traditional colonial-type house, one is built from clay and eucalyptus using pau a pique, and the master suite at the back is raised on stilts like a fisherman’s hut.
- It is filled with vintage Brazilian furniture, local ceramics, reclaimed timber, old maps, ceramics and pieces made by local craftsmen; Cooper still picks up things for the house when he is in Brazil.
- A 20m pool at the back of the house, which you can jump into from the master suite balcony; beside it, an enormous hollow pequi tree has been turned into an outdoor shower and bar.
- Beautiful tropical gardens with palms, orchids, cacao, açaí and seven different varieties of banana, with nesting birds and a family of monkeys that comes to visit.
Step out of the gate and you are on the Quadrado, Trancoso’s grassy village green, lined with brightly painted fishermen’s houses.
It is quiet in the morning then comes alive towards dusk, when children play football on the grass, the craft market opens, live musicians play around the square and restaurants set their tables outside under the trees by candlelight.
At the far end stands the whitewashed São João Batista church. From here, follow the old fishermen’s path down across the mangroves to the beach. The best is Praia dos Nativos, home to UXUA’s Praia Bar, made from a salvaged fishing boat where the beach meets the Trancoso River.
When to Travel
In Trancoso, the temperature is nearly always warm and balmy, with little variation. There’s likely to be more rain and less sun between April and July, although the tropical climate means you can expect occasional showers at any time of year.
ENQUIRE NOWCONTACT US
Private travel to Latin America and Antarctica for adventurous spirits.
Conde Nast Traveler Specialists every year since 2017
