A new 115-mile trail in Brazil links two national parks across three biomes

Brazil has just put a new long-distance walking route on the map, and it is aimed squarely at travellers tired of jostling for permits on better-known South American trails. The Caminhos da Ibiapaba Trail stretches roughly 115 miles along the Ceara-Piaui border, connecting Ubajara National Park and Sete Cidades National Park through some of the country's most distinctive landscapes.

The trail crosses three biomes — Caatinga dry scrub, Atlantic Forest fragments and Cerrado savanna — which is unusual for a single hike. Walkers pass through the Gruta de Ubajara, a network of caves with stalactites estimated at hundreds of millions of years old, and emerge later at Sete Cidades, where wind-sculpted sandstone formations rise out of the plains like an open-air gallery.

Rather than push hikers into a single multi-week expedition, the route is broken into 13 day-length sections. That makes it easy to attempt one or two segments on a long weekend, or to chain several together for a slower, more deliberate journey. Lodging and food stops along the way have been mapped, photographed and given official identification plaques, an effort designed to spread tourism revenue to small communities far from Brazil's coastal hotspots.

The trail launched in early 2026 as part of a broader push by Brazil to expand its long-distance network. Promoters describe it as a slow-travel alternative to the Inca Trail or Patagonia's W Circuit, both of which have struggled with permit bottlenecks and over-visitation. Here, hikers are more likely to share the path with local residents heading to market than with international tour groups.

For travellers planning a 2026 trip, the practical appeal is real: clear signage, modest accommodation, and the chance to walk through landscapes most foreign visitors never see. The Caatinga in particular — semi-arid, biodiverse and almost entirely absent from Brazil's tourist brochures — rewards anyone willing to swap a beach week for a slower set of footsteps.