When planning our summer vacation, we had four criteria. We wanted somewhere we could escape the miserable heat in Montpellier. The place also had to be affordable. (That ruled out the French Riviera.) It also had to be reachable by car and plane. Lastly, we wanted a site located on or near the water.
Póvoa de Varzim in Portugal met all four criteria. I could take a short flight direct from Carcassonne, France, to Porto, Portugal. From there, Póvoa de Varzim was barely 20 minutes away. I planned to meet up with my extended family (my son, his wife, and my grandson), who would leave ahead of me by car and take a few days to camp along the way.
When we arrived, my daughter-in-law’s parents joined us with another teenage grandchild. Finally, my grandson’s girlfriend, visiting her grandparents in the area, joined us. Altogether, there were eight of us.
The condo we rented could not have had a better location. From our fifth-floor balcony, we looked out over the Atlantic Ocean. Every morning, we watched workers patiently set up dozens of cabanas. And many evenings, we watched the slow setting of the sun.
The view was rivaled only by the absolutely perfect weather. In the daytime, the temperature would reach the mid to high 70s or low 80s, perfect for going to the beach, and nighttime temperatures dropped to the 60s, perfect for sleeping.
I was delighted that almost everyone in the shops, markets, and restaurants I visited spoke English. Their friendliness toward visitors was even more impressive, especially given that tourists are not always welcome in some parts of Europe.
Barcelona, Amsterdam, Mallorca, and Venice are just a few cities that have complained of overtourism. But we encountered no such negativity in Póvoa de Varzim. The reception was friendly, helpful, and responsive.
We had rented a large three-bedroom, three-bath unit, anticipating the extended family who would be vacationing together. What we didn’t anticipate were all the problems with the unit.
One bathroom didn’t work at all; another had no hot water. The kitchen was poorly equipped with limited dishes and cookware. Plus, it had no hot water. The dishwasher broke down, and only two burners on the stove worked. There was no laundry machine, and at one point, there was no running water. Fortunately, that got fixed quickly.
All of us knew that travel always involves dealing with the unexpected. Consequently, we took the limitations of the condo in stride. We felt like we were camping out in this luxuriously spacious apartment, and we let nothing interfere with our enjoyment of the extraordinary view or our enthusiasm for our vacation on the water.
We had so many ways to entertain ourselves. Renting a cabana on the beach was a regular favorite. Shopping was fun, given the bargain prices. (I bought a dress and a pair of shoes.) I visited a block-square fish market and wandered around, trying to figure out what the fish were. Most of them were unknown to me.
My favorite shop was one for people who love to sew. I had already found a fabulous fabric store where I purchased sardine-printed cotton for aprons. Then I hit the jackpot—a store with hundreds of trims and 20,000 buttons on display with another 80,000 in storage. Talk about being in sewing heaven!
A 17-mile car trip to Porto was an incredible highlight of our trip. We took a boat cruise up and down the harbor to take in the centuries-old architecture and colorful tiled buildings behind the open-air market lining the inlet’s banks. We also sampled the Port wine and a concoction of Port wine and tonic water.
Portugal has been named one of the best European countries for US citizens to retire in. The ranking was based on several factors: medical care, climate, safety, cost of living, quality of life, and political stability.
Now that I think about it, perhaps I shouldn’t recommend Portugal. I don’t want Portugal to be overwhelmed like the other places I mentioned.
On our last night in Portugal, we dined at the most unusual restaurant I’ve ever eaten in. The setting was a library. Paperback books were on sale in the waiting area. Ceiling-high shelves of books surrounded the dining area. Everywhere I looked, I saw books; even the kitchen looked like the checkout counter at the local library. The décor and the wait staff uniforms were black-and-white, and the menu offered excellent choices at modest prices. The experience was everything one could want for the last night of a vacation.
Cover photo by Wendell Adriel on Unsplash