PTNazare, Portugal
The winter swell at Nazare
The largest waves ever surfed, from a clifftop fort above them.
Watch it live firstWhen the light is best
July, August, May
Computed from five years of daily cloud, rain and temperature at 39.61, -9.09. Some cloud is what makes a sky burn, so this is not the same as the driest month and often disagrees with one.
- Cloud then
- 39%
- Wet days
- 3
- Daytime high
- 23°C
When to actually go
The giant swells run October to March and arrive with two or three days of warning. Everything else here is a quiet beach town.
This is the window for the reason you are going, and it is a different question from the light. Where the two disagree, this one wins. An empty river under a perfect sky is still an empty river.
- Nights
- 4
- Getting in
- Lisbon, then ninety minutes north by road
- From, per person
- $1,900
Why here
An underwater canyon runs almost to the beach at Praia do Norte and focuses Atlantic swell into waves that have no equal anywhere. You watch from the fort on the headland, which is close enough that the ground moves. The town itself is an ordinary Portuguese fishing town for eleven months of the year, which is part of the pleasure.
What you actually do
- The Forte de Sao Miguel Arcanjo, directly above the break
- The funicular down to the old town and the seafood
- Alcobaca and Batalha, two of the great monasteries, within an hour
- Obidos, walled and absurd, on the way back to Lisbon
However many of you
On your own
A cheap, easy solo trip. You can be on the clifftop from Lisbon in a morning and back the same night if the forecast turns.
Two to six
Rent a car and stay in the old town. Four people, one apartment, and total freedom to chase the swell up or down the coast.
Seven or more
Take a whole house in Sao Martinho do Porto nearby and drive in. Nazare's own accommodation is small and fills the moment a swell is forecast.
Book it
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