Where to stay for an amazing beach holiday in South America

These are unusual times, and the state of affairs can change quickly. Please check the latest travel guidance before making your journey. Note that our writer visited pre-pandemic.

Brazil has 4,655 miles of coast, and a lot of it is beach. The best country in South America for silky sand and warm seas, it’s also one where beach and culture are not oxymoronic. To hang with party-loving Paulistas, aim for DPNY on Ihlabela. South of trendy Trancoso, Le Paxa is an understated, barefoot-chic beauty in the village of Caraiva. Uruguay is no longer an upstart beach destination; at José Ignacio, Bahia Vik is a high-modernist estancia for urban gauchos. On the Pacific coast, surf’s the thing and Mancora in Peru is world famous for its breaks; Arennas has the rollers, sea views and the ceviches. South of Santiago de Chile, Alaia is beach style at its very best: low-slung, high-concept, eco-conscientious. Here’s our pick of the best hotels on the beach in South America.

Hotel Alaia

Pichilemu, Chile

8
Telegraph expert rating

This stylish beach hotel is located at Punta de Lobos, one of the most popular surf breaks and summer house locations for the well-heeled residents of Santiago de Chile. The scene here is cool and laid-back; Alaia is one of the few local landmark properties and the best place to eat and drink year-round. The hotel was built to preserve the delicate coastal dunes and ecosystem, and has its own small hydroponic vegetable farm. There are 12 rooms set in wooden cabins, and the overall feel is modernist, reworked to fit the beach setting. Along with the slate-tiled pool, facilities include al fresco yoga and even a skatepark hewn from black rock upcycled after the 2010 earthquake.

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£
167

per night

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• The best hotels in South America

Arennas Mancora

Mancora, Peru

8
Telegraph expert rating

A peaceful, luxurious hotel on Peru’s northern coast. Arennas Mancora has all the right ingredients for a decadent stay, with stylish rooms featuring outdoor terraces, a picturesque location across from the sea and an excellent restaurant. The hotel enjoys a gorgeous setting on Las Pocitas Beach, a great place to be if you’re looking to get away from it all. Private beaches are rare in Peru, and this one is designed to shield guests from the wind. Décor blends in with the natural surroundings; think taupe wooden floors, abundant palm trees and furniture carved from wood.

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£
149

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DPNY Beach Hotel & Spa

Ilhabela, State of São Paulo, Brazil

8
Telegraph expert rating

A beachfront hotel popular with the São Paulo party crowd. DPNY can be found on the island of Ilhabela, which is also popular with yacht owners and windsurfers. The property is suitably funky, with a big pool, spa, romantic restaurant and buzzing bar to accompany its 83 brightly-painted suites. The building looks vaguely Moorish with high archways, distressed pastel-hued walls and palms and plants filling every corner. Breathy bossa and muted club beats play on the beach, where young things study each other over the tops of their mango caipirinhas.

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£
83

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Le Paxa

Trancoso, Bahia, Brazil

8
Telegraph expert rating

With just two palm-thatched and raw wood villas sitting on the edge of a remote Bahian fishing village and opening onto a seemingly endless golden beach, this is a barefoot-chic bolt hole made for intimacy – with nature and each other. There are no televisions – or night-time electricity. Instead, beds face hugh shutter windows that open onto the rising sun and the beach. You sleep and wake to the rhythm of the waves and the movement of the sun and read at night by candlelight. After dark the sky shimmers with stars to every horizon. It’s deeply restful.

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222

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• The world’s 50 best honeymoon hotels

Bahia Vik

José Ignacio, Uruguay

9
Telegraph expert rating

In Uruguay’s boho-chic José Ignacio, the relaxed beachfront sibling to Estancia Vik and Playa Vik (to which guests also have access) offers one-of-a-kind art-filled suites and standalone bungalows, four infinity pools and a buzzy feet-in-the-sand summer beach club for catch-of-the-day, cocktails and showstopping sunset views. Activities run the gamut from paddle-boarding to private cooking classes. In the low-slung stone main building, contemporary design mixes with classic vintage pieces, while floor-to-ceiling windows and a central courtyard framed by mulberry trees brings the outside in.

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227

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Skylodge Adventure Suites

Ollantaytambo, Machu Picchu, Peru

9
Telegraph expert rating

These aluminium and polycarbonate pods that cling to a granite slope above the Urubamba Valley ar…

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£
330

inc. tax
Belmond Palacio Nazarenas

Cusco, Peru

9
Telegraph expert rating

In a restored 17th-century palace and convent, this elegant hotel offers suites set around cloist…

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294

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Tierra Chiloe Hotel & Spa

Castro, Chiloé Island, Chile

9
Telegraph expert rating

A beautiful wooden hotel on stilts – built in the style of the island’s traditional palafito hous…

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£
481

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