Refúgio Na Serra Boutique Hotel

Restaurante Paraguassu, named for the river that carves through the Chapada, sits under a flamboyant tree whose canopy turns scarlet each spring and does most of the restaurant's decorating for free. Chef André's tasting menu, called Conexões, is the reason people who've never heard of Mucugê suddenly have opinions about it. Elsewhere, a walled garden runs to a firepit terrace, the Praça de Fogo, for evenings that start with caipirinhas and end later than planned, and a small spa handles the yoga and the massages.

Thirteen rooms split across six categories, from simple garden bangalôs to the one-off Suíte Master, all thirty-five square metres of it, with a king bed, a private veranda built for parties and a floor-to-ceiling glass wall that turns the mountains into wallpaper. The three Suíte Design rooms go higher and quirkier still, chalet-style ceilings above an unusually theatrical aquarium-style bathtub. Whichever you book, ask about the Suíte Jardim Suspenso; there's only one, and it hovers over the garden like a treehouse for adults.

Chapada Diamantina National Park starts more or less at Mucugê's edge, so mornings mean trailheads, not traffic: waterfalls and caves around Andaraí, the ghost-town diamond ruins at Igatu, or the longer trek into Vale do Capão if you've got the legs for it. Back in town, visit the cemetery everyone's been telling you about, then follow the hotel's tip and detour to Adamas for chocolate or Uvva for wine, proof that Bahia's sertão grows more than diamonds and sempre-viva flowers.