Portugal's best beach isn't in the Algarve

The best-rated beach in Portugal this summer isn't in the Algarve. It sits a short drive from the city. It's Thursday, 23 July. Thirty degrees. Here's what you need to know.

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PORTUGAL'S HIGHEST-RATED BEACH THIS SUMMER ISN'T IN THE ALGARVE. IT'S NEAR SINTRA.

A new index has named Praia da Adraga the highest-rated beach in Portugal, scoring it 4.8 out of 5 from thousands of Google Maps reviews. It is Holidu's Best Beaches in Europe Index, which ranks beaches by their public review scores, and Adraga came out top of the country, narrowly ahead of Praia de Cacela Velha in the eastern Algarve, which shares the same 4.8 on fewer reviews. The surprise is where it is. Not down south, but on the wild Sintra coast near the village of Almoçageme, about a 35 to 45 minute drive from central Lisbon.

Portugal did well across the board. It placed 10 beaches in Europe's top 25, second only to the United Kingdom, and most of them are in the Algarve. But the single highest-rated of the lot is the one closest to the city.

It earns the billing. Adraga sits at the end of a deep valley, with towering cliffs of black volcanic rock on either side, a natural sea arch, and caves you can walk into at low tide. It lies inside the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park, which has kept it free of tourist development, so it stays wild in a way the built-up Algarve resorts cannot match. Right on the sand is Restaurante da Adraga, one of the best seafood spots on this coast and a destination in its own right. A clifftop trail links it to Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of mainland Europe, about four kilometres away.

There are two things to know before you load the car. First, the sea. This is open, exposed Atlantic, and local guidance treats the currents at Adraga as unsuitable for weak swimmers, stronger and less predictable than at the calmer bays, though there is lifeguard supervision through the summer. Check the flags before you go in. Second, the parking. The small car park at the end of the narrow valley road holds only a few dozen cars and fills fast on summer weekends, and there is no direct public transport, only a bus to the centre of Almoçageme and a walk of a bit over a kilometre from there. Weekend traffic into the Sintra area can push the drive past an hour.

So treat it as a half-day rather than a spontaneous afternoon. Go early, on a weekday if you can, to get a space before the crowd. Time it for low tide if you want to reach the caves, when the sea pulls back and the beach stretches much longer. Bring what you need, because beyond the restaurant, toilets and showers, there's little else. And pair it with Cabo da Roca if you want to make a morning of it.

Bottom line: the highest-rated beach in the country this summer is not a long drive south. It is up past Sintra, wild and free to visit. Get there early to park, and check the surf before you go in.

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Europe is breaking heat records this week, and Portugal is escaping the worst of it. Parts of Spain are forecast to reach close to forty-eight degrees on Thursday and Friday, the peak of an exceptional heatwave across much of Western Europe, but an Atlantic depression parked west of the mainland keeps the Portuguese coast comparatively mild. Lisbon sits around thirty, while the deep interior and the Algarve are the hot spots at between thirty-seven and forty. The standout is the sea, running near twenty-four degrees along parts of the west coast, exceptionally warm for July. The one thing to respect is the sun: the ultraviolet (UV) index reaches 10, the top band, so cover up and reapply. Forecasters expect a small dip over the weekend before the heat builds back next week.

Two of Europe's biggest airline groups are fighting over TAP Air Portugal. Binding bids for the 44.9% stake the state is selling are due by 29 July, and the field is down to two, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa, after IAG, the owner of British Airways and Iberia, walked away over the lack of a clear path to majority control. Another 5% of the airline is set aside for staff, nothing is settled yet, and the government expects to pick a winner in September. It matters because TAP flies roughly half the seats at Lisbon airport, so whoever wins helps shape the routes and fares you rely on to reach the UK, the US and the rest of Europe. A French-Dutch or a German owner would each wire Lisbon into a different network.

Registered unemployment fell for a fifth month running in June. The number of people signed on at job centres dropped 9.9% from a year earlier to 264,517, roughly 29,000 fewer, and couples where both partners are out of work fell 11.4%. One point of precision, because these figures get muddled: this is registered unemployment, the count of people signed on at the state employment institute (IEFP), a separate and larger-sounding measure than the national jobless rate of about 5.6%. Either way the direction is the same, and it is a rare piece of economic news this summer that is not about something getting more expensive.

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PALÁCIO DO GRILO (BEATO) — CORRECTION

A reader, Simon, replied to let us know that Palácio do Grilo closed its restaurant and theatre earlier this year. He was right, and we missed it. The venue's own website still describes it as a restaurant, still shows menus and still has a "book a table" button. Google and TripAdvisor both list it as open. None of that is true any more, and that is how it got through our checks.

What is actually happening to the palace is worth knowing: it is being converted into a hotel. The immersive dining concept that made it one of the most unusual nights out in Lisbon is gone, though private events still run in the space. If you went when it was open, you saw something worth seeing. If you didn't, the building is still there, and whatever comes next will be worth watching.

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