Beaching It

When we traveled to Spain with our friends, we learned that Cecilia was a huge water girl. She can't get enough of it. So, when we were looking for 2013 destinations, we were looking for timeshare properties that were close to the water. I think we were all in denial about how much time we would be spending at the beach. We could have carried on our suit & a cover up & had enough clothes for 90% of the trip.

Our home base was Carvoeiro, Portugal. If you follow Rick Steeves guides, you will note that he is NOT impressed with this town.  Luckily, we all loved it. Our condo was about half a mile from town so we were away from all the crazy touristy stuff, but close enough for good restaurants when we didn't want to cook.

We enjoyed a lot of sangria on this trip! My favorite was sangria made with green wine.  The vinho verde is slightly carbonated which made the drink very refreshing.

From our condo, we could walk to Centianes Beach. 

We packed sandwiches for dinner on the beach one night & I walked by the beach each day on my morning walk. The sand looked like brown sugar and felt very soft under your feet.

The Portuguese coast is full of little beach coves. Benagil beach was another one close to our condo. We watched the sunset from this beach one night but never made it back during the day.

 We were surprised at how unique each beach and town was. We learned that if you see something you like, grab it! Benagil was one of the beaches that offered kayak tours. We thought we would have time to come back & do some paddling, but that did not happen.

The beach isn't as small as it looks in this photo, but I imagine the beach is quite crowded during the day. The mosquitos go crazy on the beach at sunset - we kept forgetting to bring our bug spray with us.

I think our favorite local beach was Marinha beach. The rock formations were really beautiful. 

We spent a few hours one morning at the beach, but it wasn't enough! 

Be warned that the hike down to Marinha beach is fairly steep. Carvoeiro is a favorite vacation spot of British and I can see why. If I lived in Europe, I would definitely try to return to the town as often as possible.