Praia do Pedrógão
30 min · 35 kmThe nearest stretch of Atlantic: a long dune-backed beach with a small resort behind it, a lifeguard in season and enough space that August never feels full.
The coast
Half an hour to the Atlantic
This is not the Algarve. The coast west of the villa is long, flat, dune-backed and backed by pine forest, with beaches wide enough that even in August you can put your towel down away from everyone else.
Nearest first
Where to swim
Praia da Vieira
30 min · 35 kmThe next beach north, at the mouth of the Lis. A working fishing beach as well as a swimming one, so there are boats drawn up on the sand and somewhere decent to eat what they landed.
São Pedro de Moel
35 min · 45 kmPine forest comes down almost to the sea here, and the beach sits in a cove below the village. The prettiest of the nearby beaches, and the one worth the extra ten minutes.
Praia da Nazaré
45 min · 60 kmA town beach with the headland at one end, sheltered enough for swimming in summer. Combine it with the clifftop lighthouse and lunch in the old town.
Worth knowing
The Atlantic is not the Mediterranean
The water on this coast is cold — properly cold in May and June, and merely brisk in August. Children tend not to care. Adults tend to swim once, decide the pool was a good idea, and go back to it.
There is surf, and a strong undertow on the open beaches. Swim between the flags where there are lifeguards in season, and treat any beach without them as one for walking rather than swimming.
The upside of an ocean coast is space and weather: big skies, long sunsets, and enough wind that the hottest afternoons are bearable at the beach when they are not anywhere else.
Ocean in the morning, pool for the rest of the day
4 ensuite suites · sleeps 8 · private pool · the whole house, never shared
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