[slideshow] If you’ve seen the most recent Twilight film, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, you’ll recognize the paradisiacal house where Edward Cullen and Bella Swan spent their honeymoon in Brazil. And for the right price, you can vacation there too.
Called Casa em Paraty (pronounced par-a-chee), the house along Brazil’s Costa Verde was built by owner Icaro Fernandes in 2004 as a private residence. It was only after a friend of a friend asked to rent the beach house while Fernandes was away skiing did he consider renting it out. Even then, Fernandes first talked it over with his wife and children, and subsequent renters have generally been limited to couples and families with references.
As can be expected, Casa em Paraty has experienced a new wave of popularity since the release of the latest Twilight movie. “I received 89 e-mails in one day,” Fernandes says. “A lot of people come by just to take pictures.” The Breaking Dawn scenes at Casa em Paraty were filmed in November 2010 over the course of about a month. Fernandes says the production team showed up 10 days before the film’s stars, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, who were in his home for four days. “I have a girl who is 14,” Fernandes says, “and she’s a fan of the films, so she was really excited.” After the stars left, the director and crew stayed 10 more days to finish filming, though Fernandes says they left his home in better condition than when they had arrived.
To rent the Twilight honeymoon house near Rio de Janeiro, you’ll have to plunk down $4,000 per night on a regular day; holidays will cost you $6,000 and New Year’s Day will cost $9,000. But you’ll be pleased to know that the home is more spacious than it appears in the film — about 1,200 square meters (about 13,000 square feet) in all. In early December, seven lucky couples who won a contest from Volvo will spend two nights apiece at Casa em Paraty, living out their dreams. But if you’ve got the cash, you don’t need luck to make your Twilight dreams come true. Just do Fernandes a favor: Don’t destroy the bed.
Photos courtesy of Fabrizio Fasano, Ulysses Fernandes and Iain Kemp.
