We are just a small group of "gringoes" and "natives" who love this city because of its simplicity and friendly people. Valença is a special place to live and still has many investment possibilities as the price of land and properties is still accessible, with abundant natural water sources and beaches close-by.
After years of roaming Brazil in search for the best place to live I, the head of this well-intentioned team, realized there was no perfect place simply because we all have different needs. Bahia is only for those who want a drastic change in life-style and well, life. North-Americans find it unbecoming or frightening but Europeans seem to feel quite at home in Bahia. So, being of European nature (I was brought up in London, England), I looked here first.
In Bahia, I lived two years in Ilhéus, a year in Itacaré, a few months in Morro de São Paulo and Gamboa, and a few weeks in Salvador. Ilhéus was my favourite as my daughter was born there but the schools and public services are not so good, so I found myself considering new places looking for the right infra-structure to continue raising my family.
Valença is where my husband was born, so I naturally tried here first. I must admit, the first time I came (back in 1999) it turned me off completely. It seemed so crowded, noisy and messy that I just jumped on the first boat and went off to Morro. Now that I am older, I was overwhelmed by the quality of some seemingly silly and obvious aspects of Valença, like schools (!), paving (it may sound crazy but most surrounding towns have none at all), customer services in most shops (a major accomplishment in any Brazilian town), public services (rubbish collection, water and sewage systems, health services, for example, are wonderful!) the growing presence of the middle class (very unusual), etc. Basically it was love at second sight.
Valença needs the support of tourism to grow. We hope that with our help it will develop properly (unlike some tourist towns in Bahia), and therefore be more prepared to receive visitors from all over the world.
The idea of this website first emerged due to the increasing demand for information regarding the Valença region. We, both "gringoes" and locals, realized that tourists had little or absolutely no information on the region they were visiting and basically overlooked or ignored places such as Valença, Guaibim, etc.
The most visited towns or cities in the area have long been saturated and services and accommodation tend to be overpriced, forcing tourists to consider new locations with a better basic infrastructure (banks, hospitals, etc.) that more isolated but famous tourists towns seem to lack or are still developing. Furthermore, if you ever plan on living, investing or opening a business in a town in Bahia, you will eventually have to consider these seemingly unimportant aspects and might even have to move around looking for them. Regarding Valença, we have done all that for you!
Our Objective
The aim of this website is to offer information and advice whether you are planning on visiting, buying property or living in Valença.
Our services
Through our website we offer the visitor the following services (free of charge):
Information - Advice - Guides - Advertising (paid or free) - Research - Aid.
We do not offer help or advice on dating, marriage counselling, escort services, illegal activities or sexual tourism.
How we help our clients
We help our clients (paying or not) advertise their business or service by taking photos, publishing simple, free ads, aiding in the creation of simple economical websites, and by translating e-mails in other languages in case foreigners wish to contact them, amongst many other things. We also created Revista Valença specially for the people of Valença. Our prices for publishing are the lowest in the market and classified ads in the Revista Valença website are free. In the case of properties, we take all the photos ourselves, edit and translate the text to Spanish and English, free-of-charge. To publish these ads is also free. In this way, the people of Valença can sell or rent their properties, or sell just about anything (classified ads), without paying a penny.
How you can help
You can help by sending comments about services you have used, recommendations on hotels and pousadas you stayed at, interesting articles and photos, etc. Any contribution is very welcome and will help lessen our huge workload.
All our information services (route planning, research, etc.) are free but we accept donations. If we have been helpful to you in any way, please consider donating to help us continue our work. Donations can be financial or any other form of contribution. For information on how to donate, please click here or visit our Donations page.
If you would like to send an article or become a contributor, please send us an e-mail with your text attached and the subject line "Article". We also accept and publish comments and rating (1-10) on hotels, pousadas and services. This is very important to us so please send us your opinions.
Thank you for visiting this site and we hope to hear from you soon!
Cipriana Leme
Content Editor