My Escapes Portugal Another Lovely Trip to Portugal! Costa da Caparica Impressions of Costa da Caparica

Impressions of Costa da Caparica

So, I finally got there and I was burning with curiosity to see how Europe's biggest sandy beach looks like.
And, I wanted to take a curious stroll to see the town as well.
At the end, instead of being amazed, I felt slightly disappointed.

I heard people verbalize about how awesome, spectacular Costa da Caparica is... So, without wanting, that created a false image about it in my mind.

Upon seeing it, Caparica had left me with some slight bitter taste...

It is unique, it is beautiful - don't get me wrong, it's not terrible, just not as special as some inflate it.

First of all, don't expect a bustling mega paradise, this ain't Copacabana, nor is it Benidorm or Tenerife...

As my last year's experiences at two of Benidorm's and two of Alicante's beaches were still pretty much alive in my veins, I didn't expect Caparica would so much less bustling, so run-down.

The beach itself is beautiful.
The sand is clean and there's very little garbage thrown around. So, from the nature's point-of-view, it's nice and rather quiet.

But it's not well-maintained, but quite run-down... of course, that too has a beauty in it. But still, more felt wrong.

There weren't so many people. Which is not bad, but it felt almost forgotten. As if people would have stopped coming out here for some reason.

Many houses were deserted, some semi-demolished. Still, there were plenty of beautiful vacation homes (as you can see on my photos).

Many of the buildings seemed deserted. I expected much more dynamism in late June.

Not many good places to eat wither. And, most of them were selling the pretty basic junk food, fast food meals... kebab, pizza. One could eat seafood in plenty of places as well.

While at the beach - as I said: the sand was clean and fine, but the water was terribly ice-cold.

I know it's the Atlantic, but where does the current bring it from, Iceland?

So, I liked it - for a few hours. But I was about to spend my next two days at Costa da Caparica... and I wasn't too enthusiastic about that.

I had my two nights pre-booked, but I've already seen almost anything I wanted to see during these roughly 3 hours.

In conclusion - it's a nice beach. But not when compared to the ones at Costa Blanca - for example. It's still unique, because of its natural features and it's very quiet.

If I had to go there again - alone again - I wouldn't spend more than a day at Caparica...

If you want really beautiful beaches in Portugal, then find them at Algarve or Porto Santo.

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