When to surf · Lisbon and Cascais
Carcavelos in May
Late spring. Smaller, cleaner conditions and water finally past the winter low. One of the best-value months: warm enough, uncrowded, and the schools are not yet at summer capacity.
Carcavelos
Carcavelos is best October to March, when swell reaches the bay and mornings can be clean before the wind. Summer is small and blown out by the afternoon nortada, so it is a dawn-only wave then. The Capítulo Perfeito tube contest waits on a swell somewhere between January and March.
Spring
Spots here
Carcavelos
Carcavelos
Lisbon's home beach and the busiest wave in Portugal on a good day. A wide, forgiving beach break one stop from the city on the Cascais train line, with a fort at one end and peaks spread along the sand.
All levelsAutumn to springParede
A right-hand rock reef on the Cascais train line that sleeps most of the year and wakes up on a big west or south-west swell. A local's wave for experienced surfers, not a learner's beach.
Advanced surfersAutumn and winter, on the bigger swells