Praia Grande neighborhoods for living or summering: what the 2022 Census shows about each one

By Lucy Home. Published 14/11/2026, updated 14/11/2026.

Showroom living room with an off-white sofa full of cushions, curved green and off-white armchairs and a round glass coffee table

Praia Grande has 32 neighborhoods and two ways of living in them: the way of people who live here year-round and the way of people who come on weekends, on vacation and in summer. That difference shows up in the 2022 Census numbers with a sharpness that surprised me when I opened the IBGE file: in the beachfront neighborhoods, more than half of the homes are in occasional use; in the neighborhoods farther from the beach, almost all have year-round residents. This guide walks through the neighborhoods with that figure in hand and with the history City Hall publishes about some of them. It is not a ranking, because there is no source for a ranking, and because the best neighborhood is the one that matches your routine.

Wide hall of the Lucy Home showroom in Praia Grande, with a beige sofa, coffee table and rug in the foreground and more furniture behind

The Lucy Home showroom is in the Aviação neighborhood, on Av. Presidente Kennedy, which was once called the National Telegraph avenue, according to City Hall.

How to read the numbers in this guide

The data comes from the 2022 Census neighborhood aggregates, published by IBGE, Brazil’s statistics institute. For each neighborhood, the file gives the number of people, private homes, occupied homes, occasional-use homes and vacant homes. An occasional-use home, in IBGE’s classification, is one that is nobody’s main residence and serves as housing only occasionally: the summer house, the weekend apartment, the short-term rental. The percentage I use is occasional-use homes over the neighborhood’s total private homes, my own calculation on the official figure.

The whole is large: adding up the 32 neighborhoods, Praia Grande has 349,935 people and 257,261 private homes, of which 107,402 are in occasional use, 42%. That is what makes the city, at the same time, a residents’ city and a summer city, and that is what splits the neighborhoods into two groups.

The beachfront: where summer homes are the majority

From north to south, in rough order along the beach, with the 2022 Census figure (people, homes and share in occasional use):

Canto do Forte: 24,684 people, 24,079 homes, 52% occasional use. The second most populous neighborhood and the most searched neighborhood name in the city.
Boqueirão: 12,328 people, 13,404 homes, 52% occasional use. City Hall tells that the neighborhood was once called Porto do Rei, was a small village along the road to São Vicente and, in 1909, had the small chapel of Santo Antônio do Boqueirão built by the community.
Guilhermina: 25,798 people, 26,932 homes, 55% occasional use. The most populous neighborhood and the one with the most homes in the city. According to City Hall, Jardim Guilhermina began with a 1925 subdivision by Heitor Sanchez Toschi and the brothers Guilherme and Arnaldo Guinle, and the name honors the Guinles’ mother; the city’s first hotel, the Hotel dos Alemães, opened there in 1928, and Praça de Portugal is there.
Aviação: 15,298 people, 18,527 homes, 59% occasional use. This is Lucy Home’s neighborhood. The name, according to City Hall, comes from the Aero Club de Santos, whose grounds began to be filled in 1927 and which opened in 1936, known as Campo da Aviação.
Tupi: 19,577 people, 22,152 homes, 58% occasional use. Vila Tupi is one of the city’s most searched names.
Ocian: 17,021 people, 22,122 homes, 62% occasional use. City Hall ties the neighborhood’s history to the Ponte Pênsil suspension bridge of 1914, which linked Praia Grande to São Vicente.
Caiçara: 15,964 people, 20,871 homes, 63% occasional use.
Maracanã: 10,720 people, 8,822 homes, 46% occasional use.
Mirim: 6,561 people, 6,777 homes, 56% occasional use. This is where City Hall is based, at Av. Presidente Kennedy, 9000.
Real: 6,016 people, 8,546 homes, 67% occasional use, the highest share among the large neighborhoods.
Flórida: 2,451 people, 3,657 homes, 64% occasional use.
Solemar: 2,444 people, 3,462 homes, 66% occasional use. City Hall tells that the land belonged to Júlio Secco de Carvalho, where firewood was cut for the Sorocabana railway, and that it was subdivided once the forest was gone.

My reading: from Guilhermina to Solemar, out of every ten homes, five to seven stay closed for a good part of the year. That is a fact about the neighborhood and also about the furniture, as I explain further down.

The residents’ neighborhoods

Away from the beach, the neighborhoods where almost every home has a year-round resident (2022 Census, people and share in occasional use):

Vila Sônia: 24,064 people, 3% occasional use. The third most populous neighborhood in the city.
Sítio do Campo: 18,491 people, 3%.
Ribeirópolis: 18,194 people, 6%.
Esmeralda: 15,184 people, 6%.
Melvi: 15,115 people, 8%.
Nova Mirim: 15,101 people, 4%.
Antártica: 14,385 people, 5%.
Tupiry: 12,185 people, 2%.
Anhanguera: 11,356 people, 4%.
Quietude: 9,973 people, 4%.
Glória, Princesa, Santa Marina, Cidade da Criança, Imperador, Andaraguá and Militar complete the group, with fewer than 6,000 people each; Serra do Mar and Xixová are forest areas with little or no population.

Together, just the first eleven hold more than 170,000 people, almost half the city. This is the Praia Grande of people who work, study and host the family here all year.

What this changes when furnishing

This is where I come in. A house that stays closed part of the year and a house with people in it every day ask for different furniture:

On the beachfront, furniture has to withstand a closed house. High humidity and sea air, with nobody to open a window, take a toll on foam, wood and hardware. The guide furniture that lasts at the beach lists what to check on the spec sheet, and the beach house: what to do when you arrive and when you leave gives the routine.
On the beachfront, the living room changes size. Two people in winter, ten in summer: a modular sofa and a long table solve it, as I explain in a living room for hosting the family in summer.
An occasional-use home can become income. Anyone who rents by the season furnishes differently, and the guide furnishing a seasonal rental apartment in Praia Grande covers that.
In a residents’ neighborhood, furniture is for daily use. Foam density, fabric with a cleaning code and a sofa the whole family sits on every day, as in the guide questions to ask before buying a sofa.
For anyone buying from São Paulo, the guide how to buy furniture for the beach apartment while living in São Paulo explains what can be settled remotely and what calls for a visit.

The avenues that tie it all together

City Hall also tells the history of the roads. Av. Presidente Kennedy, where Lucy Home is, was the National Telegraph avenue, a path of cast-iron posts to maintain the telegraph line that ran from Rio de Janeiro to Rio Grande do Sul, and took its current name in honor of the American president assassinated in 1963. Av. Ayrton Senna, the gateway to the municipality, was the Caminho do Rei and later Av. Tupiniquins. Av. Presidente Castelo Branco was the Beira Mar avenue, which people called “the beach avenue”. Av. Marechal Mallet was opened from 1902 to give access to the Itaipu fortress.

Come visit the store in Aviação

The Lucy Home showroom is at Av. Presidente Kennedy, 3870, Aviação, Praia Grande, with sofas, tables, armchairs and TV units set up to see and sit on. Delivery and assembly are included, and anyone living in São Paulo or on the Baixada schedules the date. If you are still choosing a neighborhood and do not have a floor plan yet, message us on WhatsApp and tell us what you are looking for; room planning is at no cost. See also the showroom page and the sofas page.

Frequently asked questions

What are the neighborhoods of Praia Grande?

The 2022 Census neighborhood aggregates from IBGE list 32 neighborhoods in Praia Grande, among them Guilhermina, Canto do Forte, Vila Sônia, Tupi, Sítio do Campo, Ribeirópolis, Ocian, Caiçara, Aviação, Esmeralda, Melvi, Nova Mirim, Antártica, Boqueirão, Tupiry, Anhanguera, Maracanã, Quietude, Mirim, Real, Glória, Princesa, Santa Marina, Cidade da Criança, Flórida, Solemar, Imperador, Andaraguá, Serra do Mar, Militar and Xixová.

Which Praia Grande neighborhood has the most residents?

According to the 2022 Census, Guilhermina, with 25,798 people, followed by Canto do Forte (24,684) and Vila Sônia (24,064). In number of homes, Guilhermina also leads, with 26,932, but more than half of them are occasional-use homes.

Which is the best neighborhood in Praia Grande to live in?

I do not rank them, because there is no public source saying which is best, and the answer depends on what you are looking for. What the Census shows is the difference in profile: the beachfront neighborhoods have between 46% and 67% of homes in occasional use, and the neighborhoods farther from the beach have almost only year-round residents. That figure, plus your own routine, decides.

Where is Lucy Home?

At Av. Presidente Kennedy, 3870, in the Aviação neighborhood, with delivery and assembly included across the Baixada Santista and a scheduled delivery date for anyone who lives in São Paulo or the region.