Natal is a medium-sized city of about 600,000 people, built on the banks of the “Rio Potengi” (Potengui River), and founded sixty years later than planned, after the Potiguar Indians stifled the first Portuguese landing on the coast in 1538. They continued to hold the invaders off until 1598, when the Portuguese built the star-shaped fort by the river – the city’s most enduring landmark.  

Natal is at the heart of one of the most spectacular strings of beaches in the Northeast coast of Brazil. In fact, one can rent a beach buggy in Genipabu, just north of Natal, and drive along 250km of dunes uninterrupted until “Areia Branca”, practically on the border with Ceará, the next state.  

Natal, the City of the Sun, is a major tourist destination in Brazil and a place blessed by mother nature. In beaches, like Pipa, where its popularity is growing more every year among Brazilian and international tourists they say that foreigners that come tend to never leave. Natal is one of the Brazilian cities nearest Europe and North America.