Praia da Arrifana

A horseshoe bay backed by high cliffs on the wild west Algarve coast, inside the Costa Vicentina natural park. The headland shelters the north end, so the bay offers a gradient: mellow, protected waves near the cliff and progressively more exposed peaks as you move south. On a big clean north-west swell a right-hand point wraps around the headland and runs for a long way. The setting — a fishing harbour under a ruined fort, nothing built on the cliffs — is as much of the draw as the wave.