Praia da Cova do Vapor

Portugal, Portugal

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Praia da Cova do Vapor is the first beach on Costa da Caparica, located in the small fishing village of Cova do Vapor at the mouth of the Tagus River in Trafaria, Almada, Setúbal District, Portugal, where the Tagus meets the Atlantic Ocean.

It features a vast sandy shoreline divided by a long 450-meter pier (cais) that marks the river bar, with the southern zone known as Praia do Albatroz featuring dunes and a smaller pontoon, and the beach is popular with fishermen, windsurfers, and kite surfers due to strong winds and calm waters.

The village was once a purely fishing settlement but is now a seaside, residential, and suburban beach village with about 350 houses and 200 permanent residents, and the beach offers excellent water quality, Blue Flag certification, lifeguard service in the bathing season, free parking, accessible facilities, and on-site beach bars/restaurants serving grilled fish. At low tide, a sandbank appears where people collect clams (“conquilhas” or “cadelinhas”), and powerful short wedgy waves here attract bodyboarders, with a right and a left break off the rocky groynes, while visitors can see Lisbon and the Bugio lighthouse across the water.