It is a well-known tourist destination, known for its curving white sand beaches backed by commercial development, which extend southward to Nova Guarapari and Meaípe.

[4] It also contains the 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) Paulo César Vinha State Park, which protects an area of dunes, lagoons and marshes along the Atlantic shore.

Along a roughly 500-mile (800 km) portion of Brazil's Atlantic coast that runs from north of Rio de Janeiro up to the region south of Bahia, the sands of old beaches are naturally radioactive.

Sea waves pound coastal mountains rich in monazite, a phosphate of rare earth metals containing uranium and thorium.

[11] In the Guarapari city, radiation levels are far lower: a study among 320 inhabitants showed an average received dose of 0.6 μSv/h, corresponding to 5.2 mSv per year.