France

After a couple of days in the Spanish Basque Country I decided to cross the border to France. It was total of 3.5 hours driving from Bilbao to Biarritz but I had to take a few stops to surf in Zarautz, eat in San Sebastian and check out the Boardriders shop.

Biarritz

I made it to the Grand Tonic Hotel at night, the location was incredible, about 200 meters from the beach and walking distance to the center of the city. There is a restaurant right in front of the Sainte-Eugenie church, Le Tandem, a restaurant I have being going to since the first time I visited Biarritz, I love the moules-frites (mussels and fries)they serve there, of course I had to go there the first night of my trip. Another thing that I really like about this restaurant is the fact that they play live soccer games on their TVs. That’s the reason why I went 3 times to eat there during the same week.

The next morning I had breakfast at a coffee shop in front of the ocean. Then I went for a surf at La Grande Plage, it was suprisingly good for a summer session, usually the southwest of France gets some flat spells during this season that can only be broken by a storm.

Biarritz is a bit more on the luxurious side than Hossegor, but still has a fair amount of surf shops, including Rip Curl, Deus ex Machina, Picture and Last Age Concept, this last shop makes some very cool boardshorts with a creative Velcro closing mechanism. If you need sunscreen I definitely would suggest to go to the EQ Love shop.

Other stuff you can do here apart from surfing and eating is visiting the aquarium and Cite de l’Ocean a museum of the ocean, I’ve gone twice already, it’s not your typical museum, it is very interactive, activities like surfing simulator or a 4D parasailing simulator over the French Basque Country.

Hossegor

45 minutes away is Soorts-Hossegor, the “Surf City”, for those who have been to Huntington Beach, this city has better waves and shops that Huntington, the amount of shops and barrels you can get in the same day is unthinkable. Some surf spots I would recommend to surf 100% are La Graviere (the Quiksilver Pro France runs here), Les Culs Nus, Capbreton, La Santocha and if you are feeling adventurous drive up to Moliets-et-Ma. Moliets is famous for its surfcamps and is a long stretch of beach where you just have to search for a good sand bank and get surfed out with a minimum crowd.

There are many surf shops in the center of the city like Hurley, Quiksilver, Billabong, Globe and all the standard ones, but if you drive for a bit inland you’ll find an industrial village where you can find all the hidden gems: Euro Glass, Wasted Talent Boutique, Chipiron Surfboards, Burton, La Centrale, the biggest Carhartt shop I have ever seen and many more, the great thing about this place is that you can also find outlet shops from the big brands you saw in the city center.

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Portugal

I flew from San Diego to Lisbon, with a layover in London. I had been a bunch of times to Portugal before, but I keep returning because it’s one of my favorite countries to go to. The trip had a good balance between surfing and tourism.

Lisbon

The first three day took place in the capital, I stayed in the Cr7 Pestana Hotel, the location of it was perfect, right in the center, about 100 meters away from Praça do Comercio, I was lucky enough to watch the sunset there the first day of the my stay. Apart from watching the incredible sunset that day, I also went out for dinner in one of the most creative restaurants I had yet to see, Bairro do Avillez, it was separated in three section where you could sit, with different menus each.

The second day I got a tram that took me around the whole city, it’s a cheap and typical way to discover Lisbon, 3€. The ride was about an hour long so after that I went to have lunch to the Timeout Market. After that I went for a walk to see the Elevador de Santa Justa (picture below) and the shops around it.

My last day in Lisbon I went up to the Alfama, a great view of the city from the heights and a must go for anyone that visits it. I had lunch in a small restaurant that didn’t look great from the outside, but the food was surprisingly good. After lunch I got on the road direction to Cascais.

Cascais

Cascais is 30 minutes away from Lisbon, it is a luxurious town with lots of crazy surf spots. I stayed another 3 days here at the Eurostar Cascais, but since I arrived late the first day, I went straight to dinner. The next day I had early breakfast from the hotel buffet and drove down the coast to surf the famous Caracavelos beach break. Conditions were really fun for the 3 days I surfed there glassy and punchy A-frames all over the beach. Another thing to highlight from my stay there was the large amount of scenic places, the Castle at the beach (Museu Condes de Castro Guimarães), Boca do Inferno, Forte da Cruz and a long etcetera of things you can only experience by going there. If you decide to go to Cascais I would also recommend to drive 30 mins inland to Sintra and visit the craziest castle I have ever seen, Palacio da Pena, built in the XIX century but very modern and colorful for its time.

Peniche

I got on the road again and drove north to Peniche. On my way there I took a stop in Ericeira to check the waves and some surf shops. I was very impressed by 58 Surf Shop, I have seen surf shops all over the world but this one was by far the best and most complete I have seen. Peniche is famous for hosting an event from the World Surf League, I was lucky to arrive at the time the competition was on, it was great seeing the best surfers in the world performing so good, it opened my eyes once again on how good these guys really are. The waves where epic Supertubos does justice to its name by throwing some thick barrels, and when the conditions there got unsurfable, Baleal provided some long glassy walls and Praia da Cova da Alfarroba acted like a mini Supertubos. It is really just a surf town, I would only recommend going here if you are into surfing.

Porto

On my way to Porto I stopped in Nazare. Regardless of your background or interest in surfing I suggest this stop. The biggest waves in the world break here, it’s a humbling and impressive experience seeing the mountain of waves being ridden. On your visit there you have to check the light house out, a museum of the wave itself. I stayed in the same hotel chain I stayed in Cascais, Eurostar. The Eurostar Porto Centro was right in the center of the city which made it easy for me to move around. The great thing about this city is that it is neighboring to Villanova de Gaia another slightly more modern city which makes your visit feel like you are getting 2 cities for the price of one. Porto is a historic city therefore there are more things to see than I can mention, but I would make sure I visited the Ponte Dom Luis I, Palacio da Bolsa and Catedral do Porto. A restaurant that I really liked was Taberninha do Manel, amazing food and typical desserts which they are famous for.

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