Tiny houses in Brazil

Petrópolis was built as Emperor Pedro II's summer retreat, a cool-climate escape from Rio's heat that later grew into a proper town, still lined with 19th-century mansions and, at its edges, the wooded hills of Itaipava, where mountain chalets and cabins now cater to weekenders escaping the city just over an hour away.

Chapada Diamantina, deep in the interior of Bahia, is a different kind of Brazil entirely: a national park of table-top mountains, canyons and waterfalls that once drew diamond prospectors and now draws hikers, with caves, natural pools and one of the country's most dramatic trekking landscapes.

Our verified stays are a handful of Petrópolis-area cabins and chalets, some with pools and saunas, plus a single tiny house in Chapada Diamantina — genuinely small and purpose-built, unlike the larger mountain houses near Rio. December to February is Brazilian summer and the busiest, hottest season in both regions; April to September is drier and cooler, generally the easier stretch for hiking in Chapada Diamantina. Our verified selection here is still small, spread across two very different parts of the country.