Uxua Casa Hotel & Spa

Character and identity

Set inside the Quadrado, Trancoso's candlelit colonial square in southern Bahia, Uxua is a nine-casa hideaway built from upcycled fishermen's houses and the hands of local Pataxó and Afro-Brazilian artisans. Dutch designer Wilbert Das opened it in 2009 as an antidote to fast fashion, and every casa is genuinely one-off: truck-bed headboards, branch shower heads, polished concrete bathrooms, ginger lilies in the corners. Chef Guillermo Lozano cooks Bahian seafood and farm produce in an open-hatched kitchen; the Vida Spa works with Atlantic Forest botanicals and Pataxó healing traditions. Service is warm, hug-first guesthouse hospitality led by host Carlos França.

Who's it for

Bottom line

What you're paying for is authorship: a designer-owned, artisan-built compound where nothing is generic and the sense of place runs deep, from the Pataxó cushions to the agroforestry farm supplying the kitchen. Book Casa do Lago if you want a showstopper with a snorkelable carp pond, or Casa da Arvore for tree-house romance. Aim for shoulder season either side of the Brazilian summer high.