Nature

By diving into the world of Porto Santese nature, you are entering a biosphere reserve comprising more than 1 600 taxa with a high level of endemism, including 15 types of flora that can only be found at Porto Santo.

Our nature guide will provide you with local spots for beach, water, mountain and flat land enjoyment. Benefit from How to Porto Santo nature guide to enhance your Porto Santo stay with active or relaxation nature experience suitable for absolutely any budget.

Many jobs on the island are dedicated to preserving and developing nature-friendly ways of urbanisation and eco-friendly tourism. We are happy to introduce you to the world of local community gatherings to make our beach clean and discuss current issues around sea and wildlife protection where everyone who cares about our nature is welcome.

How to Porto Santo with sports

#activeholiday #PortoSantonature #howtoPortoSanto

There are countless ways to enjoy Porto Santo nature actively: from classical water sports including sailing, diving, kayak to land bound hiking and cycling, or beach runs and sandy dunes yoga just to name a few.

We share our local's and expat's favourite routes for your highlight-of-stay discovery!

Blog updates

open beach with an umbrella in Porto Santo

Hiking routes

Secret beaches

Sea activities

Hidden treasures

Hiking routes

For all our active hikers out there, you are lucky since Porto Santo has plenty of options to accommodate any hiking duration and difficulty with genuine nature preserved and sometimes even no reception as you reach the most deserted parts of our magnificent island.

We provide you with our top four must do hikes to get it started and will update our Blog section for some less conventional or less known routes that we tested first-hand.

Chapel cactus hike

This hike is a perfect introductory walk overseeing Porto Santo from Pico de Castelo. On your way from Capela de Nossa Senhora da Graça to the hill you will encounter huge cactus plants as close as you have ever imagined. Be careful with the spikes, they are supersharp. Depending on your time and availability, you might want to walk through Camacha area on your way back to the city center. It is the most remote area of the island with non-touristic flair, local gastronomy and countryside vibes.

Sunrise green hike

Highest peak hike

Pico do Facho is the highest and most remote hill at Porto Santo, also meaning it is the toughest one to hike. Make sure you have sunscreen and enough food & water since getting up this hill requires time and patience. We recommend picking your route to climb this hill depending on the weather and dedicate a full daytrip to duly enjoy the view and trust us, the view is absolutely magnificent.

Hill hopper hike

Pico Branco and Terra Chã hike is great to start your day with since it offers breathtaking sunrise view. In winter this is absolute paradise of green plants where you can even pick edible mushrooms that we commonly know across Europe. Make sure to prepare your picnic gear as there are multiple spots with great picnic views.

If you are fully ready to hike marathon your way into Porto Santese nature, we have something in store for you: three hill hike encompassing tallest hills of Porto Santo and having in store challenge, endurance, viewpoints, adventure as well as feeling of exhaustion and victory. The three hills include Pico de Castelo, Pico do Facho and Pico Juliana.

Secret beaches

Interested in discovering full beauty of Porto Santo beaches? Want to take a look at beach spots that locals use for a quick suntan session or sunset picnics? Curious about places beyond main tourist line of Golden Beach?

No worries, you are in right hands. In this section we have prepared our top four beaches that we oftentimes hang out at both during workdays and during our weekend getaways.

Important note

Prior to going to the remote beach places, make sure to check out relevant weather conditions such as:

Tidal movements (e.g. highly relevant for visiting natural pools for you to actually be able to see them and not being caught in the middle of the ocean without way back amid rising tide)
Daily rainfall check to minimise dangers it brings making the ground slippery
Strength of winds to ensure beach stay doesn't turn into a sand storm

to be sure you will enjoy the calmness of the beach during your stay.

We recommend you to visit TÁBUA DE MARÉS for convenient updated information at Porto Santo (available in PT only, please use website google translate if required).

Porto de Abrigo Beach

This beach is not even mapped on google as a beach, but it is definitely our top spot for relaxing between working routine when you want your peace of mind. Slightly distanced from the city center and the port, it is an easy to reach and windless relax hub to charge your energy between work, city life and be back to the city center for dinner and drinks with friends and/or family.

Local advice

Avoid walking next to and/or parking next to the rocks because stones might fall down on you and/or break your car's windows.

Porto De Frades Beach

Our Porto De Frades Beach is local's favourite weekend spot for low tide sunny times. You can park your car and walk, finding your spot and picnicking while diving your feet into waters full of facscinating marine anuimals and plants while still seeing sandy shine and tiny shells. The pools have tiny fishes that massage your feet gently, so you can fully enjoy this unique nature connect experience.

Local advice

No reception here means total disconnect from civilisation, just make sure to notify emergency contact you are going to no mobile area and leave your coordinates with them.

Praia do Zimbralinho

For our adrenaline adventure seekers, we suggest you visit this beach, just make sure you come during dry weather and take sports shoes with you to rule out any possibility of falling down. This beach is located below hard to reach incline mountain cliff. Locals love its pure natural beauty and mesmerizing landscape views.

Local advice

Beware of the tidal movement as the coastline gets very small or even disappears completely during high tide.

Porto das Salemas

These natural pools are arguably the most famous on the island with the landscape complexity along with a huge variety of pools casting its breathtaking magic on the visitors. Time to go is -+3 hours from the moment of low tide otherwise the pools simply hide under the powerful ocean water flows.

Local advice

Similar to other steep landscapes, we strongly recommend you wear sports shoes to avoid falling down. There is no mobile reception in the pools so make sure to notify your emergency contacts prior to going to this location.

Sea activities

Porto Santo has various activities, some of which are offered only during high season months and others are offered all year around upon personal arrangements. We will provide you with a local guide to the most useful contacts for most common water activities on Porto Santo Island.

Clube Naval do Porto Santo offers such activities as kayaking, sailing, canoeing, swimming and stand up paddling, Porto Santo Underwater Paradise for mesmerising boat trips that can be arranged personally in small and large groups including such destinations as the uninhabited lighthouse island and Porto Santo Sub - Centro de Mergulho to arrange your diving session whereas you are a professional diver wanting to see sank ships or want to take a beginner class in spots close to the shore of Porto Santo Island.

For first-hand experience review make sure to check out our Blog posts in relevant category.

Important information

Schedule of water activities differs based on weather (e.g. wind speed and wave size), season and group size. Make sure to contact the respective association directly before your planned trip.

underwater photo of turtle in porto santo

Boat tours

Canoeing

Sailing

Waterskiing

Diving

Snorkling

Stand up paddling

Kayaking

Paddling

Hidden treasures

For all the adventure travellers out there we have prepared a couple of examples of what our wonderful Porto Santo Island has to offer: from hills to hidden rock tunnel, we will make sure you are connecting with our island's nature as the locals do.

Please let us know how you find these places and what else you would like to see and we will make sure to update our section and provide you with our first-hand reviews of hidden treasures of our island in our How to PortoSanto Blog.

Important information

Please note that many locations don't have any internet connection or reception for your mobile. We strongly recommend notifying your emergency contacts or local points of contact before going to remote locations of Porto Santo and keeping offline map on your phone.