WELCOME TO NATAL
Natal, the City of the Sun, capital city of the State of Rio Grande do Norte, is a major tourist destination in Brazil. Brazil is a big, peaceful, blessed by Nature country. Read more about Brazil.
Natal and other beaches, like Pipa, are growing more and popular among Brazilian and international tourists. Natal is the safest capital city in Brazil, and one of the Brazilian cities nearest Europe and North America.
Natal is not big; it's not difficult to get yourself familiarized with it.
First off,  Now, scroll the page to the bottom and to the right. Look for the airport icon. Either you arriving to Natal by plane of over land, you will first enter the city via highway BR-101 (to get to the beaches and to return, you will take other roads), represented by the two large black strips; a bit ahead of the airport, the Three Wise Kings under a star welcome you.
Go a few more kilometers down BR-101; the first bridge you see is the intersection to Ponta Negra; you will probably drive across this bridge many times.
Take to the right at the intersection and you will be at Avenida Engenheiro Roberto Freire; follow this avenue all the way down to get to Ponta Negra, the most famous of Natal beaches (Ponta Negra is the name of the village and of the beach; there are hotels in both). On the way, you will see supermarkets (Nordestao and Hiper Bom Preco), two mid-sized shopping centers (Shopping Cidade Jardim and Praia Shopping), and, at the very end, the Ponta Negra Beach with famous Morro do Careca. About 10 km separate the intersection from Morro do Careca.
Still in Ponta Negra: notice the Av. Erivan Franca, which starts right off Morro do Careca; that's the stretch of beach where most of fun happens.
Back to the intersection: if you follow BR-101 straight up, you will see it changing names, first to Avenida Senador Salgado Filho then to Avenida Hermes da Fonseca; drive all the way up and you will reach the beaches of Praia dos Artistas, Praia do Meio and Praia do Forte (look at the icon of the Fortress of Wise Kings, where Natal was founded, right on the bank of River Potengi). Following this way, you will see: Natal Shopping Center and Via Direta Shopping (represented in the map by the two red rectangles across the road from each other), the Machadão stadium, and then a long business street until the beaches.
Notice that, paralalell to Salgado Filho, there is a street called Prudente de Moraes, which also leads to the beach; that's another thorougfare of Natal. Towards the end of this avenue, where the map gets denser, you find the oldest part of Natal, where several museums and monuments are located.
Now, notice that, connecting Ponta Negra and Praia do Meio, there is a 10km road called Via Costeira. By one side of Via Costeira, you find the best hotels in Natal; by the other side, you have Parque das Dunas, a large piece of protected Atlantic Forest.
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