Santa Teresa: Culture, Coffee and Waterfalls

Santa Teresa combines a historic center with coffee experiences, rural routes, and waterfalls. Its varied attractions give your trip its own rhythm: you can focus on history and regional products, or put landscapes and trails at the heart of your visit. Families will find ideas for different discoveries to enjoy together, without having to limit their stay to just one kind of outing.

Discover the history of the town center

The historic center is home to preserved mansions, centuries-old churches, and buildings that tell the story of the first colonists. One notable example is Casa dos Lambert: it was the first house built in Santa Teresa by brothers Antônio and Virgílio Lambert, in 1875. In 1985, the Conselho Estadual de Cultura listed the building as a heritage site. Casa dos Lambert thus links a specific building history with the later recognition of its cultural value.

If you are interested in architecture and local history, the houses and churches in the center can be the cultural focus of your trip. For a different emphasis, there is the Museu de Biologia Professor Mello Leitão. Its grounds cover 77,000 m², and its facilities include scientific collections, laboratories, animal and plant breeding facilities, exhibition pavilions, an auditorium, a workshop, and a library. The range extends from exhibitions to scientific and practical facilities.

Coffee and regional products

Café Zanotti offers a coffee experience called Raízes e Gerações do Café Zanotti. It includes a visit to a coffee plantation, information about the history of Café Zanotti, and a live roasting demonstration. During tastings, you can sample specialty coffee prepared using a V60 or French press, accompanied by homemade treats from the farm. The experience brings together the coffee’s origins, preparation, and flavor.

Wine and sparkling wine are also among Santa Teresa’s culinary highlights. On weekends, Cantina Mattiello offers tours showcasing its wines and sparkling wines. You can book an appointment via WhatsApp or through the website; the cantina also sells regional products. Casa dos Espumantes is considered a pioneer in producing sparkling wines from Espírito Santo. If these products are of particular interest to you, you can make these stops a focus of your visit.

Rural routes and waterfalls

The Circuito Turístico Caravaggio follows 14 km of the Estrada do Caravaggio. Its attractions include cantinas, restaurants, farms, parks, and guesthouses. The route passes through an area with a variety of rural and culinary stops. When choosing what to visit, consider whether you are more interested in food and local products or in the range of stops along the route.

Other routes offer different highlights. The Rota Vale do Canaã combines agritourism and rural tourism, and the businesses there welcome tourists. The Circuito Aparecidinha features sport fishing, rural tourism, wineries, religious architecture, and hiking trails, and runs toward the Destacamento de Controle do Espaço Aéreo in Santa Teresa (DTCEA-STA). This gives you a choice of themes, depending on whether you are interested in outdoor activities, agriculture, or architecture.

At Cachoeira Strutz, there are two waterfalls and a short trail where visitors can walk among additional waterfalls. This offers a specific alternative to routes that focus on businesses and a variety of stops. When planning your trip, you can weigh up whether you would prefer to include a rural route with several themes or an outing featuring waterfalls and a walking trail.

Forest reserve in the municipality

The Reserva Biológica Augusto Ruschi lies entirely within the municipality of Santa Teresa. It protects 3,598.41 hectares of dense montane and submontane ombrophilous forest ecosystems in the Atlantic Forest biome. The visitor reception hours are Monday to Sunday, 8:30–11:30 a.m. and 1:00–4:00 p.m. If you want to give greater priority to nature and forest conservation, this reserve is a distinct point of interest in the municipality.

Santa Teresa can therefore be explored through a range of interests: historic buildings, coffee and regional products, rural routes, or nature. A vacation rental is one accommodation option for your stay in Santa Teresa.

Discover more places

More places to discover: Cariacica, Rio Bananal, Vila Velha, Aracruz, Tirol, Itaipava, Afonso Cláudio, Iúna.

For the broader travel overview: Espírito Santo.