Clara Ibiúna Resort

Founded as one of three Clara Resorts properties in São Paulo state, Clara Ibiúna took its shape from the forest surrounding it, roughly 72 km from the city. The resort was built into land thick with native trees, with a reservoir at its centre standing in for a beach. Guests take boat rides across the water and paddle it by hand, while pony rides and an organic garden anchor the grounds for younger travellers. Rooms come air-conditioned, with flat-screen televisions and a telephone line, arranged so trees and water are visible from most windows. The kitchen draws daily from its own vegetable beds, feeding a buffet that changes with what has just been picked. A spa run under the L'Occitane name sits alongside a heated indoor pool, saunas and a fitness room, built as a quiet counterpoint to the family activities elsewhere on site. It is full board, with four meals scheduled daily. Courts, equestrian grounds and a helipad round out the facilities list, alongside a hammock lounge strung between trees near the water's edge. You can hear little beyond birdsong and the reservoir lapping at its edge from the terrace. The result reads less as a single hotel than as a working patch of forest, kept in trust and shared out in modest doses across its rooms and paths.