How we check

Beach and place guides

We visit each beach in person and follow the same route a visitor would. On every visit we record:

• where you can park, roughly how big the car park is, and whether it is paid;
• how you get onto the beach (stairs, ramp, tunnel or path) and how easy it is;
• the number of steps where there are stairs, and how long the walk takes;
• toilets, beach bars, showers and lifeguard posts;
• the state of the tide during our visit, and what the beach looks like as it rises.

The date at the top of each beach page is the date of our last visit. When we return and something has changed, such as a closed staircase, new parking rules or storm damage, we update the page and the date.

Planning guides

Planning pages, such as airport transfers, toll roads or monthly weather, rely on official and primary sources: the Portuguese official journal (Diário da República), the national weather institute IPMA, the maritime authority (Autoridade Marítima Nacional), CP for trains and Vamus for buses. Each page lists its sources at the bottom and shows the date it was last updated.

Where our own experience on the road adds something the official sources do not say, we mark it clearly as our observation.

Spotted something out of date?

Beaches change with every winter storm, and timetables change every season. If you notice something that no longer matches what you found, please tell us and we will check it.