I love river beaches but occasionally I do love to visit a coastal beach and fill my nostrils with the aroma of the salty ocean, watch the waves crash against the shore and fight with the wind playing havoc with my fine hair. Our nearest beaches are located in Figueira da Foz area. We like to visit different beaches so we decided to take a drive to Mira Beach which is located between the city of Aveiro and the town of Figueira da Foz and surrounded by pine forests. Mira beach is beautiful with a gorgeous fine sandy beach with sand dunes. Directly behind the beach is a stunning lagoon known as the Barrinha which would be perfect for paddle boarding and there are multiple paddle boats for hire. Somehow we managed to miss the rain showers and were the only ones on the beach back in mid June! I think the lifeguards were a little bored and watched us tentatively as we walked out on the rock pathway towards the ocean. Luckily accident prone me didn’t fall in and give them a life saving job to do (ha ha).

There is a beautiful wooden walkway and the Rota das Dunas trail PR5 MIR is a 17.5km circular walking trail which I might return and complete one day when I have some energy. We had a lovely stroll along a bit of the walkway then visited the lagoon, ate a splendid picnic with sea views then stopped at a cafe for Portuguese cake followed by bikini shopping in Coimbra with my fashion guru daughter Teanna not hubby (ha ha).