Nazaré

Nazaré is two towns stacked on top of each other, and the funicular that connects them is as much a part of the visit as either half. Praia, the beachfront town at sea level, is a working fishing settlement of net-mending and sardine stalls, only lightly touched by tourism until the 19th century when piracy risk finally eased enough for people to live down on the sand. Sítio, the clifftop settlement above it, came first and stayed defensible, and it's from its lookout points — particularly the Miradouro do Suberco beside the old fort — that Nazaré's real claim to fame is visible: Praia do Norte, where an underwater canyon funnels open-ocean swell into some of the largest rideable waves on the planet. The Nazaré Canyon focuses and amplifies incoming swell in a way few other coastlines can match, and it has produced several official world records for the largest wave ever surfed, most recently German surfer Sebastian Steudtner's 26.2-metre ride in October 2020. Watching a big-wave session from the clifftop, when conditions align, is free and genuinely spectacular, but it's also seasonal and unpredictable — the giant swells that make Praia do Norte famous roll in through the cooler months, while summer sees the wave flatten out into an entirely ordinary, swimmable beach. Either version of Nazaré is worth the trip, but they are different trips, and it's worth knowing which one you're booking before you go. The fort at the point, housing the Farol da Nazaré lighthouse, doubles as a small museum on the canyon's wave science. There's no direct train from Lisbon, so a direct intercity bus is the practical option, and the extra distance compared with the coastal towns closer to Lisbon is the main reason Nazaré sits lower on this list.