Praia Grande

The main beach of the Sintra coast and the one everything else is measured against — an exposed sand-bottom beach break with several peaks, breaking both ways, consistent enough to work in any month. It has hosted the Sintra Bodyboard Pro Fest since 1996, the longest uninterrupted stop on the bodyboard world tour, which tells you what it does when it gets big: the inside goes square and heavy. Low to mid tide spreads the peaks along the beach; high tide pushes everything into a shorebreak.