Caravelas is a city of about 20,000 inhabitants in southern Bahia, Brazil, a few miles above the mouth of the Caravelas River.

Caravelas was founded in 1581 by Portuguese settlers. It was once the centre of a flourishing whale fishery. It is the port of the Bahia-Minas Railway. Caravelas is the nearest town to the uninhabited Abrolhos Archipelago. The city contains part of the Cassurubá Extractive Reserve, a 100,768-hectare (249,000-acre) sustainable use conservation unit that protects an area of mangroves, river and sea where shellfish are harvested.

The city is served by Caravelas Airport.

See also