Salvador, BR

Chef Dadá's Pelourinho institution, the name most associated with classic Bahian cooking — fish moqueca thick with dendê and coconut, bobó de camarão, and a proper acarajé. The benchmark for the regional kitchen.

Bahian cooking in a serene 18th-century mansion courtyard tucked off the Pelourinho bustle, a calmer and more polished take on moquecas and bobó. The garden setting is the antidote to the square outside.

A laid-back Pelourinho boteco with sidewalk tables, casual moqueca and carne de sol, and live music spilling into the square most nights. The easygoing, beer-in-hand version of the historic center.

A Rio Vermelho kitchen reviving near-forgotten Recôncavo recipes — indigenous, African and backcountry dishes cooked in banana leaf and clay — that you won't find on the standard moqueca menu. The most interesting eating in the bohemian quarter.

Refined contemporary Bahian cooking in a warm colonial house in Rio Vermelho, drawing locals every night with elevated moquecas and seasonal regional plates. The neighborhood's reliable special-occasion table.

Chef Beto Pimentel's cult kitchen out in Cabula, cooking moquecas and stews from fruit, herbs and palm picked in the lush garden that surrounds the tables. A pilgrimage meal that tastes of the exact patch of land it's served on.

The most famous acarajé stand in the city, in Rio Vermelho's Largo de Santana, where the black-eyed-pea fritters are fried in dendê and stuffed with vatapá and shrimp to order. The definitive street-food rite of Salvador.

A glossy contemporary seafood restaurant on a deck right over All Saints Bay, plating modern Bahian dishes with the water lapping below. The city's signature view-and-fine-dining combination.

The city's leading Japanese kitchen, perched at the Bahia Marina with sushi and sashimi built on the local catch and a bay-front terrace. The go-to when you've had your fill of dendê.

An upscale seafood room on the Barra waterfront with big windows over the bay, doing precise grilled fish and shellfish a notch above the beach kiosks. A polished dinner with the lighthouse in view.

A long-running natural-foods restaurant in Barra with a generous vegetarian buffet built on tropical produce — a genuine break from the meat-and-dendê default. Bright, casual, and popular at lunch.

The city's oldest ice cream parlor, on the Ribeira waterfront since the 1930s, scooping tropical-fruit flavors locals have grown up on. A breezy bay-side stop at the tip of the Itapagipe peninsula.

A warm Italian kitchen on the Corredor da Vitória seafront with handmade pasta and wood-fired pizza, and a terrace over the bay. The reliable Italian change-of-pace with one of the best dinner views in the city.

A café in a colonial house in Santo Antônio Além do Carmo, with a back terrace hanging over All Saints Bay and a counter of cakes and good coffee. The quietest, prettiest coffee stop in the old city.

A glass-walled contemporary restaurant on a pier over the bay near the port, plating Mediterranean-leaning seafood and a serious wine list. The city's address for a polished, view-forward dinner.

A big urban park built around a lake, with a paved loop for walking, running and cycling past open-air sculptures by Bahian artists. The city's everyday green escape, flat and easy.

A pocket of Atlantic forest on the city's edge with shaded trails to river pools and small waterfalls, and deep significance as a Candomblé sacred site. A wilder, greener Salvador than the postcards show.

The seafront promenade from the Farol da Barra around the curve of the bay, a flat, breezy walk past beaches, kiosks and the lighthouse. The city's default sunset stroll.

A hilly urban forest reserve above the Itaigara district with shaded walking paths, lookout points and resident marmosets in the canopy. A quick nature fix without leaving the city.

A protected reserve around a giant sacred boulder on the city's outskirts, with forest trails, waterfalls and panoramic ridge views. The most rugged green space inside the municipal boundary.

A car-free island in All Saints Bay reached by boat, with a footpath up to the 17th-century Loreto chapel and quiet beaches on the far side. A day-trip that swaps the city for bay-island calm.

The museum tracing the African roots of Bahian identity, with Candomblé artifacts, textiles and the famous carved-wood orixá panels by Carybé. Essential context for everything else you'll see in the city.

The maritime museum inside the Barra lighthouse, with shipwreck salvage, navigation instruments and the story of All Saints Bay's five centuries of seafaring. A compact, well-told stop with a view to match.

An interactive museum of Salvador's street Carnival — costumes, trio elétrico sound trucks, axé music and hands-on exhibits — with a rooftop view over the bay. The best rainy-day stop, and a hit with kids.

The modern art museum in the restored Solar do Unhão, a colonial sugar estate on the bay, famous for its Saturday-evening 'Jam no MAM' jazz sessions on the waterfront lawn. Art by day, live music and sunset by night.

The country's only professional folkloric dance company, performing capoeira, samba de roda and orixá dances nightly in a small Pelourinho theater. A tight, electric hour of the traditions the city is built on.

A bay-view colonial fort turned capoeira hub, where several academies train and hold open rodas in the courtyard. The place to actually watch the martial-art-dance up close rather than as a street performance.

Salvador's grand performing-arts house at Campo Grande, staging orchestra, dance, theater and major Brazilian music acts. The city's main stage for a dressed-up cultural night.

A schooner day-cruise across All Saints Bay, stopping at islands like Frades and Itaparica for swimming and a beach lunch. The classic way to see the bay that defines the city, with a drink in hand.

The legendary Afro-bloco whose thundering drum corps powers Salvador's Carnival, with open rehearsals and shows in and around the Pelourinho squares. The sound of the city, live and at full volume.

The sea-turtle conservation station beside the Barra lighthouse, with tanks of rescued turtles and exhibits on the bay's marine life. A quick, kid-friendly stop that pairs naturally with the lighthouse.

The UNESCO-listed colonial core, a tumble of pastel 17th- and 18th-century mansions over cobbled hills, alive with drumming, capoeira and baroque churches. The single most concentrated dose of Afro-Brazilian Salvador.

Plain on the outside, then an interior coated almost entirely in gold leaf — one of the most extravagant baroque church interiors anywhere, with a cloister wrapped in blue Portuguese azulejo tiles. The single must-see building in the historic center.

The art-deco public elevator that drops 72 meters from the upper old city to the port in under half a minute, in service since the 1870s. A working piece of infrastructure that doubles as the city's best free viewpoint.

The oldest lighthouse in the Americas, on a grassy point where All Saints Bay meets the open Atlantic, with a nautical museum inside and the city's favorite sunset on the rocks below. Where Salvador gathers at dusk.

Bahia's most beloved church, draped in thousands of colored wish-ribbons and the center of a syncretic devotion blending Catholic and Candomblé faith. The ribbons tied to the railings are the city's signature talisman.

The sky-blue church in Pelourinho built over decades by enslaved Africans for their own brotherhood, since they were barred from the city's other churches. Its history makes it the most moving stop in the historic center.

The crafts market in a grand old customs house by the port, stacked with Bahian handicrafts, instruments and souvenirs, with capoeira rolling in the square out front. Touristy but the building and the rooftop bay view earn the stop.

A lake ringed by towering sculptures of the orixás — the deities of Candomblé — rising straight out of the water on platforms. A striking, distinctly Salvadoran landmark most visitors never reach.

A black-water lagoon ringed by blinding white dunes out in Itapuã, the landscape that inspired generations of Bahian songs. The contrast of dark water and pale sand is unlike anywhere else in the city.

The colonial neighborhood just beyond Pelourinho, less restored and more lived-in, lined with antique shops, guesthouses and a fort overlooking the bay. Where to wander when the main historic center feels staged.

A small point on the Itapagipe peninsula with a whitewashed chapel and a wide-open view across All Saints Bay — one of the city's classic sunset spots, far from the tourist trail. Best paired with the Bonfim church nearby.