Top 10 Beaches in Brazil

Top 10 Beaches in Brazil

The Brazilian equivalent of the British expression "Just my cup of tea" is "é minha praia" ('That's my beach"), which tells you all you need to know about the two countries' relative cultural values. Brazilians can talk for hours about their favourite strip, nowhere is more closely associated with the beach as lifestyle than Brazil, and golden sands provide many of the country's cultural icons: The Girl from Ipanema, Havaianas, fio dental ("dental floss") bikinis, Copacabana ...

With 8,000km of coastline and thousands of beaches to choose from – most of them lying beneath palm trees in the tropics – we asked 10 experts to choose their favourites, from a river beach in the Amazon down to one of the country's hippest beach cities, Florianópolis. And if we've missed out your favourite, we'd like to hear from you.

1. Alter do Chao, Pará

2. Fernando de Noronha

3. Praia do Toque, Alagoas

4. Taipus de Fora, Maraú peninsula, Bahia

5. Caraiva, Bahia

6. Arpoador, Rio de Janeiro

7. Lopes Mendes, Ilha Grande, Rio state

8 Praia da Fazenda, São Paulo state

9 Bonete, São Paulo state

10. Lagoinha do Leste, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina