- Where
- Atlantic Ocean, 354 km off Brazil
state district of Pernambuco - Coordinates
- 3.8540° S
32.4240° W - Islands
- 21 islands and islets, 26 km²
(Wikipedia) - Protected
- Marine national park, 1988
UNESCO World Heritage, 2001 - Daily tax
- R$ 105.79 a day from January 2026
(as reported by Brasilturis) - Getting there
- Daily flights from Recife and Natal
- Best visited
- Year-round; spinner dolphins at dawn
The little plane came down out of an empty ocean onto an island of green cliffs. From a path along the clifftop I looked down into a bay where grey backs rolled, then leapt and spun in the air for reasons of their own. Out in the turquoise water, dark peaks stood shoulder to shoulder in the surf, like a matching set somebody had put down and forgotten.
The short answer
Fernando de Noronha is an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, 354 kilometres (191 nautical miles) off the coast of Brazil, made up of 21 islands, islets and rocks of volcanic origin with a total area of 26 square kilometres, by Wikipedia’s account. Only the main island, of about 18 square kilometres, is inhabited, with a population estimated at 3,101 in 2020. It is a state district administered directly by the state of Pernambuco, although it lies nearer Rio Grande do Norte. In 1988 about 70 per cent of the archipelago became a national marine park, and in 2001 UNESCO listed it with Rocas Atoll as a World Heritage Site, as a feeding ground for tuna, billfish, cetaceans, sharks and marine turtles, for its high population of resident spinner dolphins, and for the protection of endangered species such as the hawksbill turtle.
Why it's worth knowing
A fee for every day. Visitors pay the archipelago’s Environmental Preservation Tax (Taxa de Preservação Ambiental) for each day of their stay, and it rises the longer they stay: from 1 January 2026, Brasilturis reported, R$ 105.79 a day, R$ 672.85 for seven days and R$ 7,460.56 for thirty. Entry to the marine national park, run by the federal Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), is a separate ticket, valid for ten days, which rose in November 2025 to R$ 384 for foreign visitors and R$ 192 for Brazilians, as travel.com.br reported. The charges are how a small island manages a large number of visitors.
The bay of dolphins. Spinner dolphins come into the Baía dos Golfinhos to rest, and swimming in the bay is prohibited; visitors watch from a lookout on the cliff above, reached by a boardwalk of about a kilometre inside the park. Brazilian press reports, Terra Brasil Notícias among them, cite the Projeto Golfinho Rotador, which has studied the dolphins since 1990, as recording them in the bay on 95 per cent of the days of the year, sometimes in groups of up to two thousand.
The field notes
Found, named and misspelled
By the written record, Wikipedia explains, a Portuguese expedition under Gonçalo Coelho, carrying Amerigo Vespucci, reached the island on 10 August 1503, and in January 1504 King Manuel I granted it as a hereditary captaincy to the Lisbon merchant Fernão de Loronha, whose company traded brazilwood along the coast; “Noronha” is a misspelling of his name that stuck. An island that may be this one appears on the Cantino chart, finished before November 1502, so who saw it first is still argued. Charles Darwin went ashore on 20 February 1832, when the Beagle called to fix the island’s longitude, and found the whole island “one forest”.
Prison, airfield, park
The island held prisoners from the late eighteenth century, and between 1938 and 1945 it was a political prison, Wikipedia records; the prison closed in 1957. In 1942 the United States Army Air Forces built an airport there for the wartime route between Natal and Dakar. The archipelago became part of Pernambuco in 1988, the year its marine park was created. Its highest point is Morro do Pico, a volcanic rock 323 metres high.
The twin peaks from the beach, their columns streaked rust and cream.
Photograph: Danilo de Castro · Morro Dois Irmãos · CC BY-SA 3.0
Dois Irmãos reflected on the wet sand at Cacimba do Padre.
Photograph: Rosana Antunes · CC0
A dolphin surfacing in the Baía dos Golfinhos.
Photograph: CCINTRA · Fernando de Noronha - PE - Baia dos Golfinhos · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Pay the island’s daily fee before you fly, and keep the receipt somewhere you can find it, because somebody will ask.
- Be at the clifftop by dawn, speak in whispers, and let the bay below do all the leaping.
- Photograph the peaks from somewhere new each day. Every viewpoint went onto the list the moment I reached it, and the list now resembles a map of the coast.
- Swim where the signs say you may, and nowhere else. Some bays are kept for the dolphins, and the signs mean it.
- Water is precious on an island. Use it sparingly, take your litter back to the mainland, and find out who cooked your fish, so you can thank them by name.
Morro Dois Irmãos. A pair of peaks standing together in the sea off the main island, their name Portuguese for “Two Brothers Hill”, pictured in Wikipedia’s article from Baía dos Porcos. Wikipedia describes the whole archipelago as the visible top of a range of submerged volcanic mountains, and these two peaks are part of what still stands above the sea.
Tally, in the marginAll week I waited for either of them to edge ahead of the other, as matched things nearly always do. Neither moved an inch, and I have begun to suspect that this is the entire arrangement.
Getting there
How to get there. By air: Wikipedia notes daily flights to Fernando de Noronha Airport from Recife and Natal on the Brazilian coast. Pay the Environmental Preservation Tax online in advance through the island administration’s official site, or before boarding, as Brazilian travel press describes, and buy the marine park ticket from ICMBio.
When to go. Year-round; the dolphin lookout is best at first light. Wikipedia notes that the islands keep UTC−2 all year.
What to arrange ahead. Flights and a bed, then the daily tax for the exact number of days you will stay, and the park ticket. Some beaches and bays inside the park have their own access rules; read ICMBio’s current ones before you plan a day.
Safety. The State Department rates Brazil Level 2, exercise increased caution, for crime and kidnapping (advisory dated 29 May 2025, read on 4 October 2026). Its do-not-travel areas are the zone within 160 kilometres of Brazil’s land borders, informal housing developments, and Brasília’s satellite cities at night; the archipelago, 354 kilometres offshore, is in none of them. Its country-wide advice includes avoiding beaches after dark and taking extra care when hiking in isolated areas. The hazards here are the place’s own: sun, surf and currents.
Mark this place
Common questions
Where is Fernando de Noronha?
Fernando de Noronha is an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean 354 kilometres (191 nautical miles) off the coast of Brazil. It is a state district of Pernambuco, although it lies nearer the state of Rio Grande do Norte, and only its main island is inhabited.
How do you get to Fernando de Noronha?
By air. Wikipedia notes daily flights to Fernando de Noronha Airport from Recife and Natal on the Brazilian mainland. Visitors pay a daily environmental tax and buy a separate ticket for the marine national park.
How much is the Fernando de Noronha tax?
From 1 January 2026 the Environmental Preservation Tax was R$ 105.79 a day, rising the longer a visitor stays (R$ 672.85 for seven days), as Brasilturis reported. The Fernando de Noronha marine park ticket, sold by ICMBio, is separate: R$ 384 for foreigners and R$ 192 for Brazilians, valid ten days.
Can you swim with the dolphins at Fernando de Noronha?
Not in their bay. Swimming is prohibited in the Baía dos Golfinhos, where spinner dolphins rest; visitors watch from a clifftop lookout reached by a boardwalk of about a kilometre inside the Fernando de Noronha marine park.
What is Morro Dois Irmãos?
Morro Dois Irmãos, Portuguese for “Two Brothers Hill”, is a pair of peaks standing together in the sea off the main island of Fernando de Noronha, an archipelago of volcanic origin; Wikipedia’s article on the islands pictures them from Baía dos Porcos and calls them Two Brothers Rock. It is not the hill of the same name in Rio de Janeiro.
Why is Fernando de Noronha a World Heritage Site?
UNESCO listed Fernando de Noronha with Rocas Atoll in 2001 as a feeding ground for tuna, billfish, cetaceans, sharks and marine turtles, for its high population of resident spinner dolphins, and for protecting endangered species such as the hawksbill turtle, Wikipedia records.
Why is it called Fernando de Noronha?
After Fernão de Loronha, the Lisbon merchant to whom King Manuel I granted the island as a hereditary captaincy in 1504, Wikipedia records. “Noronha” is a misspelling of his surname that displaced the island’s official name, São João.
Did Charles Darwin visit Fernando de Noronha?
Yes. HMS Beagle called at Fernando de Noronha on 19 and 20 February 1832 to fix the island’s longitude, and Darwin went ashore for the day, writing that the whole island was “one forest”, according to Wikipedia.