Arrábida Natural Park is a fantastic way to get an appreciation of the Portuguese coast. The drive into the area is truly spectacular and you can stop at any number of viewpoints for some gorgeous views of the area. Arrábida Natural Park is a protected area and is fantastic for both hiking and swimming – right up our alley!

We based ourselves in the lovely village of Portinho da Arrábida and can highly recommend Casa da Nazaré as a place to stay. Aside from being one of the only reasonably cheap options, the hosts are wonderful. The window from our room overlooked the small fishing village and sea, which was a great way to wake up in the mornings. There are limited places to eat here (and nowhere to buy food) so definitely bring some supplies.

The beach at Portinho da Arrábida is very beautiful. We went during covid times so it was pretty empty, but it did look like it would get pretty busy in normal times. No surprise really, it’s a great spot for relaxing and swimming.

There is even a bit of history to explore in the hills. This area was inhabited by Franciscan friars between the 16th and 19th centuries. They lived in the convent and meditated in the isolated chapels that you can still see dispersed throughout the hills. You can follow any number of tracks from Portinho da Arrábida into the hills and take a look at these little chapels, as well as appreciating all the views! On one of Andrew’s walks into the hills he even saw a pod of dolphins zooming past.

A nice walk to go on is from Portinho da Arrábida to Praia de Galapinhos, and then over to Praia dos Coelhos. Both Praia de Galapinhos and Praia dos Coelhos are lovely to relax and swim at, but our preference would be to push on to Praia dos Coelhos, it really is a beautiful spot.

And if you would like a short walk in the opposite direction you can head to Praia de Alpertucho which is also very pretty and reasonably isolated. It is also a nice way to see Portinho da Arrábida from a different direction.

We ended our trip in the area by visiting the resort town of Sesimbra. It’s not usually the kind of destination we would go to but Andrew was booked in to do a free diving course. Unfortunately being pregnant meant I couldn’t join the course so had to chill by the Hotel do Mar pool with my book for a couple of days (poor me). Andrew did his freediving course with Spot Freedive who he definitely recommends. His teachers were some of the top freedivers in Portugal (and the world) and really taught him how to relax into it. Sesimbra itself was quieter than usual (due to covid) so I think we enjoyed it more than we usually would, we really liked the food at Sushi Mood (very fresh seafood sushi) and it was nice to stroll along the waterfront. I wouldn’t necessarily go there unless you had a purpose (i.e. diving) but we made the most of it.

Overall we had a really lovely time in the area, it was great to visit beaches that were not packed and to have other things to do, like nice walks, in the area. Cost wise accommodation is quite pricey, but we brought costs down by buying a lot of supermarket food instead of eating out all the time.

Here is a breakdown of our costs for 2 people for 5 days:
Accommodation – E380 (NZ$650)
Food/Drink – E181 (NZ$309)
Miscellaneous – E30 (NZ$51)
Total spent – E591 (NZ$1,010)