Barra beach in Aveiro

Discover Barra and Costa Nova: the beach getaways by Aveiro (Portugal)

Like all residents of Aveiro, Nuno and I spent many summers with our families and friends on the beaches of Barra and Costa Nova. Every year from June to September, these beaches are brought to life by the influx of visitors coming from all its neighboring cities to soak up the sun, boogie-board, and stroll on the boardwalks.

 

promenade at Barra beach

But even when winter sets in, these beaches near Aveiro remain the cheeriest getaways for the local sun worshipers. So there’s still plenty to see during the cold season as well.

Here’s a glimpse of what you can find:

Bus from Aveiro to Costa Nova and Barra Beaches (Updated July 2020)

You can take the Transdev bus (L5951) in the Rossio area or near Aveiro Train Station, which will take you to Costa nova or Barra in 40 minutes.

Ticket cost: €4,92 (round-trip to Barra) and €5,20 (round-trip to Costa Nova)
Bus Schedule: 

Public Bus Aveiro to Barra Costa Nova beach(Click on the image to enlarge)

Keep in mind that your bus stops are called either “Barra” or “Costa Nova” and not “Forte da Barra” which is far from the beach.

 

Weather warning for the Beach

The most frustrating thing about living in Aveiro is the constant stiff wind that won’t quit. That’s why if you’re coming to spend a day at the beach, be sure to get yourself a windbreak. There’s an 80% chance that it’ll be windy and not getting pounded by sand will make your day much more pleasant.
Summer average temperature: 20ºC

Windy beach

Don’t expect warm tropical waters either — it’s the Atlantic ocean.
Sea average temperature: 16ºC

Having said that, there’s still a 20% chance of you having the best beach day of your life, ‘cause when it’s good, oh… it’s gooood.

 

Guide Map

All spots mentioned in this post are marked on the map below by the yellow pins.

What to do in Barra Beach

The beach is divided by a long breakwater: to its right is the laid-back old beach (or meia-laranja). To the left and stretching along 1.5 km is the new beach, frequented by different types of crowds spread throughout its length. Right next to the breakwater is where families and children hang, but if you keep moving you’ll find a younger demographic in the area called “7º ano”.

 

The beach and breakwater of Barra beach

 

The Lighthouse

It’s right here on Barra beach that you’ll find the highest lighthouse of the Iberian Peninsula, and the oldest in Portugal. The view from the top is spectacular and a definite must-see.

 

Barra beach in Aveiro
Barra beach view


Visits to the lighthouse in Barra beach are on Wednesdays. During the summer months from 2 PM to 5 PM, and in the winter from 1:30 PM to 4:30 PM. Free of charge.





Where to Eat in Barra Beach

In Barra, as the commercial and residential areas are right next to the beach, you can easily find many options for restaurants, foods, and drinks. However, these are the ones we recommend:

Miami for great burgers and fries.

 

Miami burgers restaurant

 

For good handmade pizza try Pizzaria Brasão on the main street in front of the lighthouse. Also on that same main street is the hip sushi house Barba Azul.  

If you don’t feel like spending time in a restaurant, grab a quick bite at the supermarket Auto Mercado Gonçalves at the beginning of the breakwater: they sell deep-fried goodies, bread, fruits, and drinks. Grab what you need and have a picnic at the beach!

 

Mini Market Gonçalves exterior
Mini market in barra beach

For an Afternoon Snack at the Beach

Regueifas

Try the Portuguese sweet bread called “regueifa” or a “pão de deus” with sugar and shredded coconut on top. Regueifas are a staple from Barra and have been sold here since we can remember. In fact, a good summer day is not complete without eating one of these.

 

Regueifas and pão de deus


Get yours at the Iracema kiosk, a small wooden stall right at the entrance of the breakwater.

Iracema kiosk

 

Bolacha Americana

Bolachas Americanas, are big wafers sold by a loud gentleman carrying a white can through the beach. He’s a well-known figure in Aveiro and has been selling Bolachas Americanas since he was 12. His name is Carlos, and you won’t be able to miss him if he walks by you.

 

Bolacha americana

 

Tripa de Aveiro

If you haven’t tried a “tripa com chocolate” yet, just do it! Along the main road parallel to the beach, many kiosks sell them with a myriad of fillings to choose from.

 

Vendor making a tripa of Aveiro

 

For more info on other Aveiro delicacies, dishes, or where to eat in Aveiro, read Aveiro Travel Guide: best food, bars, and accommodation.

 

Beach bars and Cafes

Along the boardwalks of Barra, you can find several beach bars providing fresh drinks, good music, and bean bags for lounging on the sand.

In Barra, the ones we like best are 7º ano de Praia and Offshore, right next to each other.

 

Offshore bar

 

What to do in Costa Nova

By now, you probably saw one of these colorful striped houses on the internet — they’re in Costa Nova, only a 15-minute walk from Barra beach. Around here, key attractions are organized on a main street parallel to the sea, along with locally owned shops and seafood restaurants.

Striped houses of Costa Nova Aveiro

The beach of Costa Nova

These smaller beaches are a great alternative to the crowded sands of Barra, and perfect for a sunset stroll.

 

Costa Nova beach

 

The Fish Market

On the main street in Costa Nova, is the tiny Municipal Market. Here, the hardworking fishmongers sell the catch of the day like their mother and grandmothers taught them: effusively. It’s a treat to walk through and a great place to get a typically Portuguese gift.

Municipal market Costa Nova
During summer the Fish Market opens from 8 AM to 8 PM.
On winter weekdays opens from 8 AM to 12 PM and it’s always closed on Mondays. On winter weekends opens from 8 AM to 6 PM.

 

A must-eat in Costa Nova (Pastel de Nata)

Don’t miss Café Atlântida and try a pastel de nata — they’re said to be the best in Aveiro. The staff is not super friendly, but the tarts make up for the tartness.

 

pastel de nata atlantida Costa Nova





Beach Bar in Costa Nova

In Costa Nova, we always hang out at Bronze because it has the best terrace and sea view.

 

Bronze in Costa Nova

 

The boardwalks (Costa Nova and Barra)

In the midst of winter on those days when we’re missing summer the most, we often go for a stroll along the boardwalks whilst eating a warm tripa. Walking over the dunes and having the ocean as a backdrop makes them extra scrumptious. You should try it: it’s both soul cleansing and artery-clogging.
Some people use the boardwalks for jogging though.¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Choices.

 

Barra beach boardwalks

 

Other activities

Through the scenic route from Barra beach all the way up to Costa Nova, is an excellent path for running, cycling, and skating. If you don’t have gear for any of that, rent a bicycle on Be Tour at the Memorial Park in Barra beach (between the lighthouse and the ria) for €5 per hour. Only from June to September.

 

Bike rental in Barra beach, Aveiro


Many schools offer lessons in surfing, sailing, kitesurfing, windsurfing, stand up paddle on the ria, and the list goes on.

Surf’aqui – Surf school: with surf lessons, bodyboard, longboard, stand up paddle lessons.

Trilhos d’Água  Diving school: for diving lessons.

Ria ActivaWindsurf and Kitesurf lessons, and bicycle rentals.

 

Accommodation in Costa Nova and Barra

Accommodation at the beach tends to be pricier than in the city, so go enjoy your day by the ocean and return to Aveiro by the end of the day — there are plenty of buses to take you back. However, if you decide to spend the night closer to the beach you have:

Pensão José das Hortas (Costa Nova)

It’s a traditional Portuguese lodging with more than 100 years of history, located on the main street where all the colorful striped houses are.

As it is a family-owned business, it only opens during high season (from June to late September).

Camping (Barra)

If you came prepared, camping can be an affordable option: there’s a camping ground in the middle of the residential area in Barra.

 

If you have any questions, contact us. Nuno and I live in Aveiro and we can help you out! 


Mui Ne sunset

Mui Ne and the Police

After more than 5 hours on a bus, we arrived in Mui Ne at dinner time. The bus company we traveled on (Futa), conveniently dropped everybody at their accommodations—don’t know if it’s company policy or because all hotels are on that main road.

It was weird to travel on a sleeping bus during the day, luckily the WiFi worked just fine.

Looking for transportation to Mui Ne? Check out www.bookaway.com.
To get 5% off the ticket price use the code “gravy5″ at checkout.

As soon as we got our room at the 247 a/c Guesthouse we dropped the backpack on the floor and headed out to hunt for some dinner. Starving and not being fans of seafood, we needed some alternatives.

 

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As we walked along Mui Ne’s main road a nice Vietnamese lady selling kitesurf packages and boat excursions invited us to see her menu. We were hungry and the photos on the menu looked good, so we said ‘yes’.

Let’s just say that we learned something that night: travel agencies are not restaurants.

Two days later we found an open-air food court named Dong Vui Square. A really cool place with a great selection of foods: from noodles to paella.

Mui Ne Beach

The next morning, after a bowl of fruit and muesli—which reminded us of our breakfasts in Ayutthaya—we went off to the beach. Or tried to at least.

From the terrace where we had breakfast, we could see the water peeking from between the houses. Even though it was right there in front of us, reaching it was a pain in the ass. Here’s why: along that main road we mentioned before, all sorts of buildings and private properties form a barrier between people and the beach.
To reach it we had to trespass private property, and like Bonnie & Clyde, we did. Later that day we found a “legal” crossing near the local market.

Mui Ne is a fishing village and the small round boats that look like plastic kiddie pools anchored in the open sea prove it.

 

Mui Ne beach

Mui Ne Fishing Village

 

The coastal strip of sand stretches for several kilometers and is lined with tall coconut trees. The water is blue and the sun shines all year round. The beach has the potential to be in any travel catalog if it wasn’t for all the garbage scattered everywhere. So after a chat in the sand, we left.





Palm trees at Mui Ne Beach

 

To explore more of Mui Ne, we rented a scooter.
The more west we got, the cleaner the beaches and the ocean.

 

Mario swimming

 

Learning to ride bikes in Kampot and understanding the convenience of driving, gave us the audacity to think that ‘from now on scooters are the way to go‘. So we rented one directly from our guesthouse for 80,000 Dongs (€ 3,20) for a whole day.

We rode to the actual fishing village of Mui Ne that appeared to have more boats than people. Unfortunately, besides a beautiful view from the high points, there’s not much to do around here. We stopped for lunch and took some photos.

 

Boats in the see

 

Running on the floor of the restaurant was a big rat looking for food, completely unfazed by humans—we named it Bertha.
Bertha looked strong and healthy, so the food had to be good.

 

Problems with the po-po

After lunch, we hopped on the bike and headed towards the White Sand Dunes of Mui Ne. Halfway through, two police officers pulled us over.

 

 

A very friendly officer holding a booklet approached us and asked for our international driver’s license, which we didn’t have. However, we anxiously flaunted our regular Portuguese ones, but by now, we knew we were in trouble.

He looked at us, frowned condescendingly, and flipped through the booklet showing us a bunch of gore illustrative images of what can happen to tourists driving without an international driver’s license. His portfolio included:

• Amputee tourist
• Tourist blood
• Reckless tourist speeding
• Tourist in a wheelchair
• Drunk tourist getting drunker planning to drive afterward
• A WordArt clock representing the short life of tourists that drive outside their country

Finally, he pointed to the page where the traffic fines were. According to him, it said we had to pay 1,200,000 Dongs or he would have to arrest us.
We didn’t have that amount of money, so he flipped the page again to a clause saying we had to pay  800,000 Dongs—which we didn’t have either.
Nuno and I were frantically searching for money in our wallets, pockets, and backpack. All we managed to put together was 300,000 Dongs and a pre-diarrhea feeling.

Seeing how upset we were, he grabbed the money from our hands, smiled, and said:

 – Shhh. Ok, ok. I am your friend… You can go now. No more police ahead.

That was the moment we realized what had happened: we got scammed by a police officer. How nice!
We turned around and headed back to our guesthouse.

 

Getting over it

After doing the conversion from Dongs to Euros we realized that he ‘confiscated’ just €12, but it could have been much more.

To take our minds off what had happened, we went hiking in the Fairy Stream near the Mui Ne main road—as you may have noticed, almost everything extends along this road.

 

Walking the fairy Stream in Mui Né

Fairy Stream

 

It is a small stream of freshwater where you can walk on and enjoy the surroundings. There are red dunes, rock formations, trees, ducks, and cows walking around.

 

A cow eating a bush at the Fairy Stream

IMG_0767

 

There’s no entrance fee around here, but rumor has it that some crafty locals might try to charge you for it. Also, if you get there by bike you will be charged for parking. To avoid it, park further from the entrance and walk there.

 

IMG_1842.jpg

 

As a maritime zone, Mui Ne is slowly attracting upscale tourists to all the fancy resorts by the sea. It might not have much to explore, but it offers you good weather and a relaxed environment. Especially if you don’t find any police.

 

Mui Ne travel expenses (Daily average for 1 person)

Breakfast: € 1,85
Lunch: € 1,64
Dinner: € 3,31
Water: € 0,19
Coffee: € 0,57
Accommodation: € 3,50
Scooter: € 3,20
Half tank of fuel: € 1,18

If you have any questions or some extra info everybody can benefit from, please leave it down in the comments!