Salvador is an easy city to get around. Picture a wedge thrusting out into the ocean. One side of the wedge borders the Atlantic Ocean, the other side borders the bay (the Baía de Todos os Santos). The two sides meet at Farol da Barra, the skinny point of the wedge.
Perched on a high cliff on the bay side of the wedge one finds Pelourinho, the historic old downtown. This area is also sometimes referred to as the centro histórico, or as the Cidade Alta, the upper town. This is Salvador's chief area of interest. At the foot of the cliff lies Comércio, a modern area of commercial office towers. This area is also sometimes known as the Cidade Baixa, or lower town. Upper town and lower town are connected via a cliff-side elevator, the Elevator Lacerda. Except for the fun of riding the elevator, and visiting a large crafts market called the Mercado Modelo, there's little reason to visit Comércio (the downtown business neighborhood).
About 8km (5 miles) north of Pelourinho, the Bonfim peninsula juts out into the bay. Located on a headland on this peninsula is one of Salvador's most famous landmarks, the Church of Our Lord of Bonfim, source of many reputed miracles. The area between the church and Pelourinho is occupied by port, rail yards, and working-class housing.
Just outside the southern border of Pelourinho one finds the Avenida Sete de Setembro. This is the beginning of a street that will, under various names, travel south to the point of the wedge, turn the corner, and travel out along the Atlantic coast through increasingly upscale beach neighborhoods to the border of Salvador and beyond. At its beginning near Pelourinho, Sete de Setembro is a modern commercial street with many small shops. A little farther south as it enters Vitória, it becomes more residential. A couple of reputable hotels can be found in this neighborhood. Below that, the street drops down to the coast and continues by the ocean until it reaches the point of the wedge at Farol de Barra.
Next to Pelourinho, Barra is one of Salvador's most interesting neighborhoods. It has a number of good restaurants, a few top hotels, and on the point where All Saints Bay meets the Atlantic, stands a tall white lighthouse, called in Portuguese the Farol de Barra. On that same point sits the sizable Forte Santo Antônio de Barra, which also contains the Naval Museum.
As it rounds the corner, the oceanside road changes its name to Avenida Oceanica. (Well, officially it changes its name to Av. Presidente Vargas, but that name is used only sparingly.) The road continues past a number of good hotels to the oceanside neighborhood of Ondina. From here out, road names change frequently, and neighborhoods come thick and fast: Vermelho, Amaralina, Pituba, Costa Azul, Pituaçu, Piatã, Itapuã, all the way to Stella Maris adjacent to the airport. There are pleasant ocean beaches all along this stretch, but only two sights really stand out: a beachside park named Jardim de Alah, and a park and entertainment complex known as the Aeroclube Plaza.
The other main road that you'll definitely use in Salvador is the highway that connects the airport and the rodoviaria, officially called the Avenida Luiz Viana Filho but more generally known as Avenida Paralela. When it reaches the bus station this highway divides into a number of branches, one of which, Avenida Juracy Magalhães, ducks down towards Ondina and the coast before swinging back up to cut across the back of the wedge towards downtown and Pelourinho.
