Sao Jacinto

Portugal is known for its beaches, especially in the south.  We wanted to avoid those crowds so we headed north.  I spent weeks looking for a beach that wasn't built up yet was accessible by public transportation and near a town with hotels and restaurants.  This was not easy, but I finally settled on  Sao Jacinto, a small town with one of the biggest and uncrowded beaches I have ever seen.  Backed by dunes,  the expanse of sand is huge.  It is very easy to get to by taking the #13 bus for 2.5 Euros.  The bus takes about 15 minutes and takes you to the ferry dock for a 5 minute 2.5 Euro ride across the water to Sao Jacinto.  The bus and ferry schedule can be found online and at the tourist office, they aren't very frequent so time your visit.

This Northern Atlantic is so cold it's like taking an ice bath.  We jumped in to say we did, but could only stand it for a few seconds.  We spent several hours reading, sleeping, and getting a sunburn.   

It was definitely worth coming to Averio to have access to this beach, which was one of the cleanest beaches I have ever seen and hands down the cleanest beach I have been to outside of the US.  No trash, no broken glass, even our stuff felt extremely safe to leave while going for a walk.  Everyone was doing it.  Refreshing.

Today we are packing up and heading up to Guimaraes where we have an apartment for 5 nights.  We take a train to Porto-Campanha and then connect to a train out to Guimaraes.  This should only take a couple of hours and be pretty efficient.  We have 2 day trips planned but otherwise will be wandering, reading, shopping, and eating at a relaxed pace.