What's on in Nazaré, Portugal through the year

Peak crowds — Tow Surfing Challenge window, Christmas and New Year

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), Christmas and New Year (24 Dec – 1 Jan)

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 — Easter week, Tow Surfing Challenge window

• Holiday

  Easter week

  29 Mar – 5 AprEaster & Holy WeekCrowdedClosures

  Good Friday is a national holiday and Easter Sunday a day for family lunches. Many Portuguese take the week around it off, so hotels fill and rates rise for the first busy spell of the year, and some shops and museums close on Friday and Sunday. Source ↗

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 — Easter week, Easter holidays in Portugal

Nothing new starts in April.

Still on: Easter week (29 Mar – 5 Apr)

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 SepReligious feastCrowded

  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 and New Year

• Holiday

  Christmas and New Year

  24 Dec – 1 JanChristmas & New YearClosures

  Christmas is kept at home: from the afternoon of 24 December through the 25th most restaurants, shops and museums close, and 1 January is just as quiet. Restaurants that do open on New Year's Eve usually sell set dinners that book up ahead. Source ↗

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)