After one night in Óbidos we got a ride to the bus terminal in Caldas da Rainha where we hopped onto a Rede Expressos bus to Nazaré. Rede Expressos sells tickets, with assigned seats, up to 60 days in advance. If your travel schedule is set, there is no reason not to buy tickets as soon as possible. At least then you don’t have to worry about arriving early to get in line for a bus.
Day trips are different. While in Nazaré we hoped to take a day to visit the monasteries in Alcobaça and Batalha, two of the Seven Wonders of Portugal. Unfortunately, our bus options were extremely limited. The one bus we absolutely had to be on was sold out at least a week in advance. So much for that day trip.
Given our previous luck with the other Seven Wonders of Portugal in the vicinity of Lisbon, we weren’t too upset about missing the monasteries.
Nazaré is a beach town known for surfing and giant waves. Period. The only reasons to come to Nazaré are for the beach or to go surfing. There’s little else here. It is the perfect town in which to relax and do nothing. We enjoyed it quite a bit. It helped that we arrived after the summer beach season. Few tourists were around.
The town is loosely divided into three areas: Praia, along the beach; Sitio, up on the cliff; and, Pederneira, up on the hill. A funicular connects Praia and Sitio, unless it is down for maintenance, as it was during our visit. A second funicular is currently being built to connect Praia with Pederneira.
Praia is a neighborhood of long narrow streets, plenty of restaurants, and the occasional tourist store. It is a perfect place to stay if your primary interest is the wide sandy beach. You are never more than a few minutes from the sand. This is where we stayed.
Sitio is home to Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré (the main church), a small plaza (with a Ferris wheel, no less), a bull ring, fancier neighborhoods, several overlooks, and Forte de São Miguel Arcanjo. The road leading to the fortress is also the gateway to Praia do Norte (north beach), the location of the giant waves that occasionally come from the Nazaré Canyon located just offshore.
Pederneira … well our bus drove through a portion of it on the way into town. I’m sure it is a nice area but since we came to Nazaré for the beach, we didn’t explore inland.
Most of our days in Nazaré were spent doing little other than walking through narrow streets or along the beach. One day we got ice cream. That was pretty much it for excitement.
I guess the main highlight of our time here was finding a grocery store that sold Carlsberg, a Danish lager. It’s not great, but compared to the Portuguese beer options it felt like winning the lottery.
Had the funicular between Praia and Sitio been operating, we might have spent more time in Sitio. Actually, with the funicular being closed the city dedicated a bus to run back and forth between Praia and Sitio. We could have easily visited Sitio several times, but honestly were just too lazy to bother with the bus.
As it was, we only walked up the path leading to Sitio once. We spent the better part of half a day in Sitio, visiting the church, and walking out to the fortress and north beach.
The worst part about walking the path from Praia up to Sitio is realizing that you have to walk all the way back down the cliff on the other side to get to the fortress and north beach. And it’s a pretty steep up and down.
Just as you start the walk down to the fortress you may see a couple of tuk-tuks offering rides for €2.50 per person. The views from the walk, however, should not be missed and the walk downhill is quite easy. We can certainly understand why folks might pay for a ride back up, though we did not.
Entrance to the fortress costs €2 per person. Inside are three small exhibits on the geography of the Nazaré Canyon, surfboards, and photographs of giant waves. But really you are paying to go on the roof of the fortress for the views.
Big wave season officially starts in October but big waves were not to be seen during our visit. The largest waves we saw were about 10 feet (3 meters) high. Large, but not jaw dropping. Several websites offer Nazaré wave forecasts and at least one has a live webcam so you can check out wave conditions before heading to north beach.
After walking around the fortress and then down to north beach, we called it a day and began the long walk back to our Airbnb in Praia, for another evening of Carlsberg beers and a day or so of doing nothing before heading off to Porto.
Garrett and Stephanie
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