Bento Gonçalves → Mostardas

Bento Gonçalves → Mostardas

Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2027 · Distance: ~204 mi · Driving time: ~5h 45m (excluding stops) · Open in Google Maps

Road surfaces
Asphalt · 199 mi · 98%
Unknown · 3 mi · 1%
Paved · 2 mi · 1%

After two nights in Bento Gonçalves, the route leaves the Serra Gaúcha behind and turns south toward the coast. The change is dramatic: vineyards and steep valleys give way to the broad lowlands around Porto Alegre, then to the enormous lagoon-and-coastal landscape of southern Rio Grande do Sul.

Leaving the Serra

The morning begins with the descent from Bento Gonçalves and the Serra toward Porto Alegre, fuel taken along the way at Novo Hamburgo. The change comes quickly — hills and vineyards flatten out as the route nears the metropolitan region, with no need to rush the transition before the day's first real stop in the capital.

Porto Alegre

Mid-morning brings the route into Porto Alegre for a stop at the Mercado Público, the oldest working public market in Brazil. Built between 1867 and 1869 on landfill reclaimed from the Guaíba, its neoclassical halls have survived four fires, more than one demolition threat, and — most recently — the catastrophic 2024 flood that put the ground floor under a metre and a half of water, its worst inundation on record. Brass plaques at the entrance now mark that high-water line beside the one from the historic 1941 flood it surpassed, a quiet monument to a building that keeps coming back. Fully reopened and renovated since, today it holds over a hundred stalls selling the food culture of Rio Grande do Sul — regional meats and cheeses, spices, sweets, and the erva-mate that fuels the region's chimarrão habit. A couple of hours is enough to wander the market, take in the surrounding historic center, and stop for a coffee or something small; this is a glimpse into everyday Porto Alegre rather than a formal meal.

A short walk away, the Praça da Matriz — officially Praça Marechal Deodoro — gathers the city's grandest buildings around a single square: the Palácio Piratini, seat of the state government since the early twentieth century; the neo-Romanesque towers of the Catedral Metropolitana; and the Theatro São Pedro, a 700-seat house from the 1850s that's stayed in continuous use for over 150 years. It's a compact, walkable cluster — the political, religious, and cultural heart of the city in a few square blocks — before the route leaves and heads south.

Arrival: Mostardas

The day's destination is Mostardas, reached in the late afternoon on the narrow isthmus — the only one of its kind in Brazil — separating the Lagoa dos Patos from the open Atlantic. Settled by Azorean families from the island of Pico in 1773, the town sits in a landscape defined by wind, dunes, and enormous sky: it's possible to watch the sun rise over saltwater and set over freshwater lagoon on the same day. Just south, the wetlands of the Parque Nacional da Lagoa do Peixe pull in migratory birds from as far as Alaska and Patagonia, flamingos among them, arriving after journeys of thousands of kilometres. After the mountains and wine country left behind this morning, arrival here feels like a different Rio Grande do Sul entirely — and with plenty of daylight still in hand, it's a natural place to camp for the night before the route continues down the coast.