Atins: Wind, Beach, and Kitesurfing in the Lençóis Maranhenses

Given how large the Lençóis Maranhenses are, the park can be explored from three different regions: Atins, Barreirinhas, and Santo Amaro, as we mentioned in our Barreirinhas post.

We chose Atins, since it has a beach and people told us it was the most beautiful place to stay — though also more rustic, being a small fishing village.

One fun fact: this area has a big kitesurfing following, thanks to the strong winds, and the scene out on the water is genuinely beautiful.

What to do in Atins

Our biggest tip for this region: people here aren’t very reliable with timing, so plan one activity per day to avoid issues with delays or schedules!

Along the same lines, only book with larger, established companies, even if it costs more — it saves you a lot of headaches, since independent guides can be unreliable, or even disappear with your money.

Getting to and from Barreirinhas should never be scheduled right around a tour or a flight, since there’s real risk of delay, as mentioned above.

Because of all this, we’d recommend staying in the region for about seven days to see everything at a comfortable pace — a holiday-weekend trip like ours wasn’t nearly enough time to see it all.

Obviously, this all comes down to the general lack of reliability among local tour operators, but we heard from a lot of people that “that’s just how it is here.”

In Atins, the roads aren’t paved — it’s all sand, so make sure you bring appropriate footwear.

Getting from Barreirinhas to Atins

After our flight over Barreirinhas, we were told to head to where people catch a Toyota to Atins. We were given a driver’s name to look for, and told the truck would leave at 10:30 AM.

Once we got in the Toyota, things started going wrong, and we ended up five hours late arriving in Atins, missing the Scarlet Ibis flight tour as a result.

As we’ve mentioned, punctuality and reliability aren’t strong points here. Our driver, Seu Inoque, waited three hours for his own family without telling us they’d be delayed, leaving us baking in the midday sun.

After that, you have to take a ferry to cross the river, and the whole setup is pretty makeshift — the “ferry” is just a barge pushed by a boat, with a line to cross.

Once we reached the other side, the road was single-lane, running on an informal “gentleman’s agreement” that whoever’s more heavily loaded backs up to let the other pass.

Well, the driver coming toward us didn’t back up, and when he finally tried to move, he got stuck — and then so did we.

So our tip: only go by boat, since the Toyota route isn’t worth it, has too many things that can go wrong, and honestly the scenery along the way isn’t great either.

Where to stay in Atins

We stayed at Lagoa do Vento and really enjoyed it — good room, nice bathroom, and breakfast included.

The owners are incredibly friendly and helpful. The hotel is close to the beach and the main restaurants, making it easy to get around on foot.

Praia do Amor

• Boat trip to Ilha do Amor
• Lunch cooked by a local “grandma”
• R$120 per person

This tour honestly isn’t worth it — the island itself isn’t very pretty, and the food is just okay. Read more about the food in where to eat in Atins.

Atins and the Lençóis Maranhenses

• Lençóis Maranhenses National Park
• Managed by ICMBio
• Spans 156,584 hectares
• Only licensed vehicles are allowed inside
• ATVs are prohibited
• Cost: R$150 per person

This is the best tour of the trip — swimming in the freshwater lagoons between the dunes is genuinely wonderful. We booked a full-day tour, running up and down the dunes, floating in the lagoons, and topping it all off with the sunset.

The sunset is the most beautiful part of the tour, so we’d say the full-day option is essential. You won’t regret it.

The “jardineira” (open-air truck) that takes you out moves fast, and there’s a lot of wind, with sand that really stings — so bring sunglasses and something to protect your body, since it hurts wherever it hits bare skin.

Praia de Atins

Well worth grabbing a bite on the beach while watching the sunset and the kites out on the water — just spend a day enjoying the sun and the beach shacks.

Pequenos Lençóis

• Three fishing villages: Mandacarú, Camburé, and Vassouras
• Accessible from either Atins or Barreirinhas
• By boat or ATV
• Vassouras: monkey sanctuary where the animals come right up to you
• Mandacarú: Farol da Preguiça lighthouse, currently under renovation
• Camburé: where the river meets the sea

This is usually a full-day tour, though we were offered a half-day version and tried to fit it in after Ilha do Amor.

Whichever village you visit, based on what we’ve read from other blogs, the tour is beautiful and worth it.

We only made it to Mandacarú, since reaching Vassouras requires another river crossing by ferry. Our ATV driver, Pedrinho, strung us along and never actually did the tour — another reminder of the lack of reliability we kept running into.

So take the info above as a reference, but note that the lighthouse in Mandacarú was under renovation during our visit, so the photos aren’t great.

Scarlet Ibis Flight

• Boat trip along a tributary of the Rio Preguiça
• Departs 4:30 PM, returns 6 PM
• R$50 per person

We had this tour booked, but couldn’t make it, since our transport ran more than three hours late.

Kitesurfing

Very common in this region, but lessons are pretty expensive — two hours costs R$560.

They typically won’t let you into the water until you’ve completed at least five two-hour lessons, since the first sessions are purely theoretical.

So this activity is really worth it if you already kitesurf, or if you’re genuinely committed to learning. Otherwise, we thought it was expensive just for theory lessons.

Getting back to São Luís

The boat from Atins to Barreirinhas

We woke up at 5:15 AM, since the boat from Atins to Barreirinhas was supposed to leave at 6:00 AM. And here’s the first odd thing of the day: the transfer to the dock — for a boat leaving at 6:00 — wasn’t scheduled to arrive until between 6:15 and 6:45. Yes, you read that correctly.

We got there at 6:15, the first to arrive, and the boat ended up leaving at 7:30. The crossing itself, just 41 km, took 1h15m.

Transfer from Barreirinhas to São Luís

We were supposed to leave Barreirinhas at 8:30 for São Luís. We arrived 15 minutes late, rushing, since we take punctuality seriously, and had been messaging the company the whole time about the ferry delay.

Tigre Turismo picked us up at the port and took us to their office, where we assumed the bus would be waiting, since our flight was at 3 PM and the drive takes about 5 hours. It wasn’t there, so we started asking questions.

The company, with stunning disregard for the schedule, didn’t leave until 11:00 AM, and even then stopped to wait for two more passengers on the side of the road — putting us at real risk of being robbed.

Talking to other passengers on the bus, we learned they’d picked up their first customer at 8:30, making it impossible to leave anywhere near on time.

If you look this company up online, you’ll find plenty of similar complaints. Check out Tigre Turismo’s reviews on Google Maps for yourself.

We arrived 10 minutes before our flight and barely made it, only because we were traveling light — but two other couples missed their flight.

So here’s the tip we really want to emphasize: come back a day early to catch your flight with peace of mind. Flights in this region are absurdly expensive — rebooking would have cost us R$2,800 per person for the next available flight.

We don’t know what happened to the other couples, only that we made our flight and it took off — though missing it would have been a real problem for us, both for work and financially.

Learn more about our trip in Barreirinhas and São Luís.