Salvador (1) - Location

Salvador´s skyline, view from the Bahia de Todos os Santos (All Saints´Bay)

Salvador is in the middle of Bahia State coastline, at the northeast region of Brazil. 

The airport of Salvador (SSA) is one of the most busy in Brazil, and receives lots of international flights too, from Europe, the US and South America. 

Salvador da Bahia airport - SSA

Salvador da Bahia airport - SSA

But one must pay attention: don´t mix Salvador da Bahia with San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, in Central America. Be mindful of IATA´s code SSA before buying your airticket! It became famous in Brazil the history of an australian couple who was mistakenly sent by their tour operator to El Salvador instead of Salvador da Bahia during 2014 World Cup. 

As Salvador is located in one of the entrances of the Bahia de Todos os Santos (All Saint´s Bay), reaching Bahia´s south coast is harder by car, because cars must turn all the bay around, which is quite big; this turn-around can take very long time. 

Another option for cars is to take the ferry boat from another point of Salvador´s harbor to Itaparica, the island at the opposite entrance of the Bay. This ferry can also be taken by pedestrians, but you´ll need a car or a shuttle at Itaparica. 

The problem is that this ferry gets very, very crowded during carnival, end of the year and other brazillian holidays, making this option unadvisable at these times of the year. 

Aerial view of Salvador

Bahia´s south coast can be easily reached, as an option, through Ilhéus airport, a city 311km to the south. But Ilhéus is a smaller, domestic airport, so to foreigners it can be a bit difficult to get there unless you´re coming from another Brazillian capital.