Beach bumming at Pipa Beach

Summary
Pipa Beach was only a small fishing village until it was discovered by surfers in the 1970s and has now developed into a bit of a party mecca for travelers. Well worth a visit if in the nearby area but, and I’m going to be a bit harsh here, I think the beach is not as pretty as people lead you to believe – its more of a long large beach perfect for surfing and kite boarding. You can actually find beaches to the south of Recife that are prettier and far quicker to get to than the 4 hours of so drive up to Pipa. So, my suggestion is if you’re keen for surfing / kite boarding and laid back partying, head for Pipa. If looking for beautiful beaches, stick to around Recife area
Experiences nearby

The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone