What's on in Nazaré, Portugal through the year

Peak crowds — Tow Surfing Challenge window, Christmas holidays in Portugal

Nothing new starts in January.

Still on: Big-wave season, Praia do Norte (15 Oct – 15 Mar (usually)), Tow Surfing Challenge window (15 Oct – 15 Mar (usually)), Out of season in town (1 Nov – 31 Mar)

Peak crowds — Tow Surfing Challenge window, Carnival holidays in Portugal

Nothing new starts in February.

Still on: Big-wave season, Praia do Norte (15 Oct – 15 Mar (usually)), Tow Surfing Challenge window (15 Oct – 15 Mar (usually)), Out of season in town (1 Nov – 31 Mar)

Peak crowds — Tow Surfing Challenge window, Easter holidays in Portugal

Nothing new starts in March.

Still on: Big-wave season, Praia do Norte (15 Oct – 15 Mar (usually)), Tow Surfing Challenge window (15 Oct – 15 Mar (usually)), Out of season in town (1 Nov – 31 Mar)

Busy — Easter holidays in Portugal, school holidays in 6 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in April.

Shoulder season — school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in May.

Busy — Summer holidays in Portugal, school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it

• Season

  Beach season on the main praia

  15 Jun – 20 Sep · usuallySea warm enough

  The sheltered town beach is a different ocean from the one round the headland: striped tents, sardines drying on racks, and water cold enough that most people go in twice.

Busy — Summer holidays in Portugal, school holidays in 7 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in July.

Still on: Beach season on the main praia (15 Jun – 20 Sep (usually))

Peak crowds — Portuguese August, Summer holidays in Portugal

• Season

  Portuguese August

  1–31 AugSchool holidaysCrowded

  This is a domestic resort before it is an international one, and in August it fills with families from Lisbon and Leiria. The funicular to Sitio queues down the street.

Still on: Beach season on the main praia (15 Jun – 20 Sep (usually))

Peak crowds — Romaria de Nossa Senhora da Nazare, Summer holidays in Portugal

• Festival

  Romaria de Nossa Senhora da Nazare

  5–10 SepMajor festivalCrowded

  The town's pilgrimage week up at Sitio around 8 September: processions, folk dancing, a fairground and bullfights in the square-shaped arena on the cliff. Source ↗

Still on: Beach season on the main praia (15 Jun – 20 Sep (usually))

Busy — Tow Surfing Challenge window, school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it

• Season

  Big-wave season, Praia do Norte

  15 Oct – 15 Mar · usuallySurf season

  Atlantic storms funnel down the Nazare canyon and the tow-in crews chase them from the lighthouse headland. Six to ten genuinely enormous days a winter, and no way to book them in advance.

• Festival

  Tow Surfing Challenge window

  15 Oct – 15 Mar · usuallySurf seasonCrowdedBook early

  The big-wave contest is called on 24 to 48 hours' notice when the forecast clears about twelve metres, so the town can go from empty to sold out inside a day between October and March. Source ↗

Busy — Tow Surfing Challenge window, school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it

• Season

  Out of season in town

  1 Nov – 31 MarOff-season shutdownClosures

  Half the seafront restaurants shut while the surf crowd is here for the waves rather than the town. Rooms are cheap, the wind off the Atlantic is not gentle, and the fish market carries on.

Still on: Big-wave season, Praia do Norte (15 Oct – 15 Mar (usually)), Tow Surfing Challenge window (15 Oct – 15 Mar (usually))

Peak crowds — Tow Surfing Challenge window, Christmas holidays in Portugal

Nothing new starts in December.

Still on: Big-wave season, Praia do Norte (15 Oct – 15 Mar (usually)), Tow Surfing Challenge window (15 Oct – 15 Mar (usually)), Out of season in town (1 Nov – 31 Mar)