After Sardinia and Greece, we are working on two more kite travel guides this year. Besides Croatia, our kite travel guide for Portugal is also in the works. We were in this great country in 2012 and have and will now look more closely at Portugal.
The most western country in the EU
In the summer of 2021, we went to Portugal. To the country that we visited in 2012 on our first trip together for 6 months and where our journey began. This has been going on for nine years now, taking us to a wide variety of kitespots in and around Europe.
A country where the heat amplifies the wind through thermals and provides ideal conditions, and you almost always kite on the water with north wind. Except when it gets too hot, then the thermals are counterproductive. Sometimes the rain-bringing south wind hits the coast, but always with water from above and mostly gusty.
Even in summer, the further north you go, the cooler it is on the west coast. That’s why you should pack warm clothes so you won’t freeze during the night. Also, especially in the summer months, it is often foggy in the morning. But as soon as you go inland the sky is clear and it’s hot.
Nevertheless, we fell in love with this great country again and hope that this time it will not be nine years again until we travel to Portugal again. We like the north the most and immediately felt at home again, even though there were 9 years in between.
Portugal in numbers
Portugal has a total area of 92,212 km² and with its coastline of 832 km belongs to the small countries. But these 832 km have it in them. Thus, cliffs alternate with miles of sandy beaches, forming a beautiful coastline for many water sports. The most western place of the mainland is Cabo da Roca.
Portugal has 10,280,000 inhabitants and the capital is Lisbon. The highest mountain of the mainland is the Estrela with 1,993 m. On the Azores you can still find the Ponta do Pico with 2351 m. In winter you can also ski in Portugal, in the Serra da Estrela ski resort, on almost 6km of slopes. The largest lake is the Alqueva reservoir with about 250 km² in the southeast of Portugal. The longest river is the Duoro, it flows with about 320 km within Portugal.
The best time to visit Portugal
Portugal, especially in the Algarve, is a popular destination for wintering. But you have the better wind conditions from April to October. Then the prevailing wind is the north wind and it is thermally amplified. Also in the Algarve it is the north wind, which is diverted around the Cap near Sagres and from about Faro, again meets the south coast.
The kitespots
We traveled the entire coast of Portugal, talked to many kite schools and locals and were able to learn a lot. As soon as there is a kitespot description for one of the kitespots in the KITEblog, it will be linked here.
Kitespots in Portugal
- Moledo
- Viana de Castello
- Esposende
- Óbidos
- Peniche
- Guinchio
- Alvor
The arrival
How we discover Portugal? Of course with our old man, the Wohnix. He is now 35 years old and will hopefully accompany us on our travels for even longer. After we remodeled it a bit inside last year it is like a Tinyhouse, with everything you need and a nice big kitchen. 🙂
No matter where you start your journey, you always have to go through France and Spain first. Unless you’re from Spain. After that it will be decided where you start. Sometimes it stays with these countries, or you drive through Switzerland or Italy. We started from Munich to Bregenz, once across Switzerland and then through France and Spain to the Algarve. What is your favorite route to Portugal?
On the spot
In advance, we have already planned kitespots that we wanted to visit or already have. We always learn more from the kite school or other kitesurfers on site. We also learn about special highlights of the environments, get tips and get all the info about the respective kitespots. This year we were in Croatia from the end of May to the end of June. In July and August we did research in Portugal and in September/October we will go to Croatia again. So there will be two new KITE travel guides in the near future. More about this then in our KITEshop.
We are always on the road with our camper and can test and try everything perfectly. Here we are always happy to receive tips, great pitches and great experiences from you. What places, kitespots and sights can you recommend? We look forward to your tips. Feel free to comment, email, join our group: Kitesurfing in Portugalor any of our social media channels.
Stay in contact
We will include your tips and routes in our kite travel guide. If you want to support us additionally and stay up to date, subscribe and like our social media channels on
so as not to miss anything. Or you can subscribe to our newsletter or join our WhatsApp group.
If you are on Facebook, be sure to join our group: Kitesurfen in Portugal to exchange ideas with us and other Croatia newbies or pros.
The Kitetravelguide
After our trip, the new kitesurfing travel guide will be created: Kitesurfing in Portugal. At the moment it is still open how many spots will make it into the detailed kitespot description and which ones we will list for self discovery. But the basic structure is taken from kitesurfing in Greece.
We had a great kite trip through Portugal in the summer and are still accompanied by the impressions. It was great to meet great new people again and to discover this great country intensively.
To stay up to date, just join our Facebook group: Kitesurfing in Portugal.
Vê você!
See you!
