Varandas da Ria

We spent a little over a week here during a university science conference and a shorter holiday, and I’d definitely recommend it. The cleaning was thorough. Breakfast is available in a separate hotel building about 50 m away, which also has reception with 24-hour service. For a sea view, choose one of the more expensive rooms. The view is over the inner bay rather than the open ocean, but it’s much nicer than the street-facing rooms, which are also quite small. The sea-view rooms are bigger and have large balconies. With binoculars or even a phone, you can spot flocks of flamingos. The hotel is a lovely little three-floor villa with several rooms, on the Costa Nova beach promontory near Aveiro. Around it are colorful, typical Portuguese striped houses and a long promenade by the sea. Right next door there’s an excellent fish restaurant, a fruit and vegetable shop, and a market with fish, cheese, wine, olives, pastries, and other treats. There’s another fish restaurant upstairs, plus a pharmacy and a large parking area. The open-ocean beach is just a few minutes on foot. The beaches are gorgeous, long stretches of sandy, wild-looking shoreline that are still manicured, with restaurants where you can watch amazing sunsets over a carafe of sangria. Aveiro centre and the university are a few minutes away by car, and there’s bus service too.