The city of Areia Branco has a potential of beautiful and different beaches, in its 42 kilometers of extension, from the bar of the river Mossoró. The meeting of the river and sea, that is its urban beach, is the preferred one and the most frequented by the population of the city for the variety of options that it offers, with baths in salty water swimming pools, next to the river, or the open sea, with strong waves, ideal for the practice of surfing and kite-surf.

Separating this difference is the lighthouse, which informs navigators the cliffs that protect the land from the force of the meeting of the waters of river and sea.

The best bathing in the sea happens in the evening after five. It is in Upanema that the sun falls to the sea and the waters are silver-plated as the sun starts to go down on the horizon and then colored in the end, producing a rare spectacle, which compensates for the lack of the ocean sunrise that is common to the beaches located on the eastern potiguar coast.

Areia Branca is best known by its economy directed toward the extraction and industrialization of salt and by its island port, where practically all the national salt production passes, both for internal consumption and exportation. As well being known as the "city of the salt", it now has everything necessary to be transformed into a regional tourism center. The beach of Upanema could adopt the slogan "This sun is worth gold" with this new tourist reality.

The tourist investments have already started to consolidate Upanema as one of the "points" of the Costa Branca. The beach already makes use of bars, restaurants and inns that, with the incentive of the City hall, are if adjusting to the new reality and is enabling them receive the visitors from Rio Grande do Norte, the neighboring state of Ceará and the Europeans tourists from Natal.

A test of this new reality is the Hotel Costa Atlantico, a new enterprise of the group led by entrepreneur João Sabino, who used to his advantage a concession of the State Government to exploit the old and inadequate structure of a hotel kept for a mining economy company, already extinct, since the 80s, making use of 24 apartments and a small restaurant. In three months, after receiving the concession, the Group Sabino Palace, adapted the 24 apartments to a new standard of service, constructed 12 more, now offering 36, and it endowed the facility with beautiful lobby, reception, area for events, a great restaurant, as well as the aquatic and leisure park.

With a population of approximately 25 thousand people, Areia Branca appeared in 1860, when some fishing colonies started to populate a known region known as Areia Branca, on the island of Maritacaca. In the period of 1877 to 1879, when a long drought was registered, the region received many sertanejos that, in order to stabilize the new lands, were dedicated to the activity in the fields. Fishing and agriculture had started to stimulate the town.

Areia Branca belonged to the city of Mossoró, until on 16 of February of 1892 it was separated from that city, but only on 24 of October of 1927 was it raised to the category of city.

The beach of Upanema is at the entrance of the Areia Branca island. For who leave from Natal, the way is by the BR-304 until the entrance of Mossoró, and then head for BR-110. This is a distance of 327 kilometers. For who that leave Fortaleza, they have two options. The first one is, after to crossing the Ceará border / Rio Grande do Norte is to follow in direction of Grossos and to make the ferry crossing, of the river Mossoró, or optional, to pass on to Mossoró and to follow the BR-110.

The distance from Fortaleza is of 287 kilometers. At the edge there is three inns, the Tombo do Ar (84 3332.3414), the Divaldo (84 9978.9152 and the Brisa do Mar (84 3332.2508), as well as the Hotel Costa Atlantico (84 3332.4400