Praia da Arrifana

• In the town ofAljezurAn unspoiled inland town dominated by a Moorish castle ruins. The primary base for exploring the wild Atlantic surf beaches of Arrifana and Amoreira.

Praia da Arrifana is a crescent of sand beneath high dark cliffs on the Aljezur coast, one of the west coast's best-known surf beaches. The enclosing arc of cliff tidies the Atlantic swell into more ordered lines, which has made Arrifana a fixture of Portuguese surfing, and a small fishing harbour shelters at its southern end. On the clifftop above stand the ruins of the Ribat da Arrifana, a twelfth-century fortified Muslim retreat and one of very few of its kind in the country. A steep road and steps lead down to the sand. It suits surfers first, plus walkers who come for the clifftop views and the history.