Day Trips · Peniche

A Day in Peniche

40 minutes from Nazaré · Where the Atlantic wraps around almost every side

Let’s leave Nazaré for the day...

It’s only about a 50-minute drive, but Peniche has a completely different feel.

Nazaré faces the ocean...Peniche feels like it’s sitting right in the middle of it.

The town stretches out along a rocky peninsula with the Atlantic wrapping around almost every side. It was actually once an island, until sand slowly built up and connected it to the mainland.

Let’s start down by the harbour, grab a table outside, we’ll order some grilled sardines, fresh fish, and a cold bevy…then sit back and the smell of the ocean drifting through the streets...now that’s Peniche.

Now let’s walk over to the fortress built in1558 and completed in 1645 to protect from pirates and maritime invaders.

The enormous stone walls were built to defend this stretch of Portugal’s coast....but its story does’t end there.

Fun fact

Between 1934 and 1974, the fortress became one of Portugal’s most feared political prisons during the Estado Novo dictatorship. Today, the fortress is home to the National Museum.

Alright... let’s keep walking.

We’ll wander through the old streets past the small shops, white houses and neighbourhood cafés back to the car and head around the outside of the peninsula toward Cabo Carvoeiro, where the road hugs the coastline with the ocean right beside us.

Every few minutes there’s another little place where you’ll want to pull over, step out and just look. When we reach the cape, we’ll walk over toward the lighthouse.

This is the western edge of the Peniche peninsula and for centuries Cabo Carvoeiro has been an important landmark for ships travelling along the Portuguese coast.

Now look down at those cliffs…thousands of years of the ocean carving the rocks into strange shapes, caves and enormous stone walls and just offshore is the Nau dos Corvos. The name means Ship of the Crows because from the right angle, the rock looks like an old sailing ship pointed out toward the Atlantic.

Here’s what’s super cool...

we’re heading to Baleal to finish our day. Baleal was once another small island, but today it’s connected to the mainland by a narrow strip of sand with beaches on both sides. Beaches like Baleal, Lagido and Supertubos have helped turn this old fishing town into one of the best-known surfing areas in the world.

My favorite Part of the day...

Let’s just take off our shoes, watch the surfers catching the last waves of the day, find a quiet spot in the sand and open that bottle of wine, taste a little cheese... some bread... maybe a few olives we brought with us and watch the sun setting turning the Atlantic into a sea of gold.

Honestly... a day trip doesn’t get much sweeter than that.