Portugal / Leiria
Nazaré
Nazaré is a coastal resort area in Leiria, Portugal. Its longest mapped beach (Praia da Nazaré) stretches about 1.5 km and has a sand surface. The sea averages 18.7 °C in August, its warmest month, and 14.0 °C in February; it never reaches 21 °C on average.
Average sea surface temperature by month. Current month outlined.
The sea peaks at 18.7 °C in August. Most swimmers find water below 20 °C cold; a wetsuit is common here.
OpenStreetMap shows no lifeguard station within 1 km. Seasonal lifeguard posts are often unmapped, so check on site.
Services in the resort
- 175Restaurants, cafés & bars
- 12Public toilets
- –Showers
- 1Drinking water
- 49Car parks
- –Lifeguard stations
- 58Hotels & guesthouses
- 12Grocery shops
- 1Water-sports spots
- 29Bus stops (1.5 km)
- 6Pharmacies & clinics
- 18Cash machines
- 10Viewpoints
Food and drink mapped within 1 km: 129 restaurants, 19 cafés, 21 bars and 6 fast-food outlets. Accommodation: 58 hotels and guesthouses.
Counted within 1 km of the beach (bus stops 1.5 km) from OpenStreetMap features and Overture Maps places, release of 2026-10. Unmapped does not mean absent.
Bathing water quality
The official EU bathing-water site “Nazaré”, 500 m from the beach centre, was rated Excellent for the 2025 season. It was Excellent in 11 of its 11 classified seasons since 2015.
- 2015Excellent
- 2016Excellent
- 2017Excellent
- 2018Excellent
- 2019Excellent
- 2020Excellent
- 2021Excellent
- 2022Excellent
- 2023Excellent
- 2024Excellent
- 2025Excellent
Source: European Environment Agency, EU Bathing Water Directive assessments · national site profile. Classes are based on four seasons of bacteriological sampling.
Month by month
October at Nazaré
Beach-day index 5.5/10 · Portugal median 6.6
| Measure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sea °C | 14.5 °C | 14.0 °C | 14.2 °C | 15.0 °C | 16.2 °C | 17.7 °C | 18.3 °C | 18.7 °C | 18.6 °C | 17.7 °C | 16.5 °C | 15.3 °C |
| High °C | 13° | 14° | 17° | 19° | 22° | 25° | 27° | 27° | 26° | 22° | 17° | 14° |
| Low °C | 6° | 6° | 8° | 9° | 11° | 14° | 15° | 15° | 14° | 13° | 9° | 7° |
| Rain mm | 108 | 78 | 84 | 77 | 51 | 23 | 8 | 14 | 38 | 112 | 118 | 95 |
| Cloud % | 63 | 58 | 62 | 57 | 53 | 52 | 44 | 40 | 46 | 57 | 60 | 62 |
| Wind m/s | 2.9 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 2.9 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 2.9 | 2.8 | 2.5 | 2.7 | 2.9 | 3.0 |
| Daylight h | 9.7 | 10.7 | 11.9 | 13.2 | 14.3 | 15.0 | 14.7 | 13.8 | 12.5 | 11.2 | 10.0 | 9.4 |
| Record high/low | 20°/-2° | 22°/-2° | 26°/-4° | 29°/4° | 33°/5° | 36°/9° | 37°/11° | 38°/11° | 36°/10° | 32°/6° | 25°/1° | 20°/-1° |
| Beach index | 2.5 | 2.8 | 2.7 | 3.5 | 5.4 | 7.4 | 8.0 | 8.1 | 7.9 | 5.5 | 2.9 | 2.7 |
Long-term monthly averages: air from NASA POWER (2001–2020), sea from NOAA OISST (1991–2020); records are the extremes of 2001–2020. How the index works.
When to go
The beach-day index peaks in July–September; August scores 8.1/10 with highs of 27 °C, sea at 18.7 °C and 14 mm of rain.
In August that is 0.4 points above the median of the 344 beaches in Portugal covered by this atlas.
Across the year the sea averages 16.4 °C, cooler than 67% of the coastal beaches in the atlas.
November is the wettest month (118 mm) and July the driest (8 mm); the yearly total is about 810 mm.
Daylight runs from 9.4 hours in December to 15.0 hours in June; in mid-August the sun rises at 06:47 and sets at 20:34 local time.
Orientation, sun and shore
The shore faces west (265°). Open water fills about 33% of the horizon close by, which makes it an open stretch of shore.
The sun sets over the sea in every month; in mid-June it goes down at 21:04 local time on a bearing of 302°.
Straight out to the west there is open water for more than 2,000 km, so the beach is exposed to long ocean swell.
About 1 km offshore the sea is roughly 134 m deep and 179 m at 3 km, so deep water starts close to shore. Behind the beach the ground is about 16 m above sea level 500 m inland and 80 m at 1.5 km.
Within 1 km, the land is 44% built-up land, 24% grassland and 16% bare ground, sand or rock (satellite land-cover map, 2021): an urban beach. Water makes up 45% of that circle.
- Built 44%
- Grass 24%
- Bare 16%
- Tree 14%
Land cover: ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m). Orientation from OpenStreetMap land polygons sampled in 36 directions; depths and heights from the GEBCO 2020 grid (about 450 m cells), indicative only.
Getting there
| Airport | Code | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lisbon Humberto Delgado Airport Lisbon | LIS | 90.9 km | south |
| Cascais Airport Cascais | CAT | 99.9 km | south |
| Aerodromo Goncalves Lobato (Viseu Airport) Viseu | VSE | 161 km | north-east |
Straight-line distances from the beach; road distance is usually 20–40% longer.
Local transport: 29 bus stops within 1.5 km, rail station Centro (280 m), rail station Sítio (450 m) and 49 mapped car parks within 1 km.
6 towns and villages of 1,000+ people lie within 10 km (about 34.2K residents); within 30 km there are 30 (about 311.4K).
Photos
From above
Reference
Praia do Norte (‘North Beach’) is a beach located in Nazaré, Portuguese Oeste region, which due to its giant white breaking waves is famed for its surfing conditions. Nazaré's waves were listed on the Guinness Book of Records for the biggest waves ever surfed and have also been featured multiple times on the Billabong XXL awards in the categories of Biggest Wave and Ride of the Year.
Wikidata item Q10353058.
Around the beach
Viewpoints
- Miradouro de São Brás 500 m NW
- Miradouro do Sítio da Nazaré 550 m W
Attractions & museums
- Oasis Mini-Golf Nazare attraction 310 m SW
- Surfing Nazare attraction 460 m S
- Museu Dr. Joaquim Manso museum 640 m NW
- Mercado de Peixe Seco museum 830 m S
Nature
- Forno de Orca cave entrance 1.2 km W
Diving & boat hire
- E-Motion Nazaré 290 m SW
When people look it up
The EN Wikipedia article was read 42,657 times in the 12 months to August 2026. Interest peaks in December (4,784 views), 2.0× the quietest month.
Map
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Data on this page
- Air temperature, rain, cloud, wind, humidity: NASA POWER climatology 2001–2020, 0.5° grid.
- Sea temperature: NOAA OISST v2.1 monthly normals 1991–2020, nearest ocean cell 5.3 km away.
- Beach outline, surface, rules and public facilities: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), feature r6143763; restaurants, cafés, bars and lodging: Overture Maps places (CDLA-Permissive-2.0).
- Water body, status and length: Wikidata (CC0).
- Towns and time zone: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Airports: OurAirports (public domain). Sunrise and sunset: NOAA solar equations.
- Photos: Wikimedia Commons, author and licence under each image.
- Satellite view: Copernicus Sentinel-2 (ESA), scene S2C_29SMD_20251010_0_L2A.
- Orientation: OpenStreetMap land polygons (ODbL). Depth and terrain: GEBCO 2020 grid.
- Bathing-water quality: European Environment Agency (site PTCX9F).
- Settlements: GeoNames places with 1,000+ inhabitants.
- Land cover: ESA WorldCover 2021, 10 m (CC BY 4.0).
- Search popularity: about 390 Google searches a month for the name (KeywordTool, October 2026).
Data compiled 2026-10-13. Something wrong? Report a data error.