Aveiro

Overview

Aveiro calls itself the Portuguese Venice, which is an exaggeration the town admits to: three canals cross the centre, painted moliceiro boats that once harvested seaweed for fertiliser now carry visitors up and down them, and the buildings along the water are art nouveau from the boom years around 1900. Behind that is a working town of 80,000 with 12,500 university students, a lagoon 45 km long where salt has been raked since Roman times, and the beaches of Barra and Costa Nova five minutes away by car.

It grew rich on salt and cod, went into decline when the lagoon silted and the harbour closed, and came back in the 19th century when a local parliamentarian, José Estêvão, got the canals reopened and the railway built. Its sweet is the ovos moles, egg yolk and sugar in wafer shells; its saint is Joana, the king’s daughter who joined the convent here in the 15th century; and its real draw, as the Wikivoyage entry says, is cheaper food and rooms than the south with the same sand. It is on the fast line between Porto and Coimbra, and works as a day from either or a night on the way.

Neighbourhoods

The old town and the fish market

The Bairro Antigo between the Canal Central and the Praça do Peixe is the quarter to base in: the art nouveau facades, most of the restaurants and bars, the fish market with its restaurant upstairs, and the hotels facing the canal. Everything is flat and five minutes apart.

Downtown and the station

The Avenida Dr. Lourenço Peixinho runs from the canals to the station, the modern building beside the azulejo-covered old one, and with the Rua dos Combatentes is the main shopping street; the Forum Aveiro arcade by the canals is the mall in the middle of town, and the underground car parks are here.

The salt warehouses and the university

The Canal de São Roque, north of the centre, has the old salt warehouses, now bars and venues, and the salt pans begin beyond it; the university campus, with the Mercado de Santiago produce market next door, is on the south side of town.

Barra and Costa Nova

The beach towns are their own world in summer, with campsites a short walk from the sand, seafood restaurants, beach bars and a good deal of nightlife on the sand at Barra; out of season they are quiet and windswept.

See & do

The canals and the centre

The Canal Central runs through the middle of town under the Ponte das Pontes, with the moliceiros moored along it and the tourist office on its bank; the boats run 45-minute tours from the central quay through the three canals and out to the salt pans. The art nouveau houses are along the Rua João Mendonça and around the fish market, the Casa do Major Pessoa the best of them; the Praça do Peixe, the fish market square, is the working heart of the old quarter and its nightlife.

The Museu de Aveiro, in the former Convento de Jesus on the Avenida de Santa Joana, holds the carved tomb of the princess who died here in 1490 and was made a saint, and is the one museum to see; the cathedral opposite, a baroque church in an unusual Portuguese style, and the 18th-century Carmelite church of São João Evangelista on the Praça Marquês de Pombal are the others.

The salt pans and the lagoon

The Ria de Aveiro covers about 75 km² of lagoon, marsh and salt pans, one of the last untouched coastal wetlands in Europe and a bird haven, still worked for flor de sal by hand. The Marinha da Troncalhada eco-museum on the road to Barra shows the raking, sells the salt and runs tours to meet the marnoto, the salt worker, and to watch the birds in the protection zone; kayak trips on the Ria and the Vouga leave from town.

The beaches

Barra has the lighthouse at the harbour mouth and the surf schools; Costa Nova has the striped wooden houses of the fishermen along the lagoon side and the ocean on the other; São Jacinto, across the lagoon by the ferry from Barra, has dunes with four walking trails through the pinewoods and lakes, and Torreira beyond it. Surfing, windsurfing, kitesurfing and sailing are all rented and taught at Costa Nova and Barra, and the autumn and winter winds are the good ones for the boards.

Food & drink

Ovos moles are the town: sweet egg yolk cooked with sugar and piped into thin wafer shells shaped as fish, shells and barrels, sold in every pastelaria, with pão de ló, the soft sponge cake, beside them. The savoury table is the lagoon’s: eels, cooked in stews and fried, the speciality of Angeja up the Vouga; fish and shellfish at the market restaurants and at Barra, Costa Nova and Vagueira; and from inland the leitão, roast suckling pig, of the Bairrada villages with their wines.

The restaurants concentrate between the old quarter and the fish market, from snack bars and specials of the day at €5 to the fish restaurant in the market building itself; the malls have food courts, and there are vegan places by the Rossio. Salt from the pans is sold at the eco-museum and the regional shops, and Vista Alegre porcelain at the factory, from cheap to serious.

Nightlife

For a town its size Aveiro goes out hard, which is the university’s doing. The Praça do Peixe is the bar square, free entry everywhere, open until 03:00 in winter and 04:00 in summer; the Alboi, the Rossio and the salt warehouses on the Canal de São Roque are the other strips, with live bands, DJs and cheap drinks at €4 or €5. Clubs run Friday and Saturday from 01:00 to 05:00 or later, women usually free and men around €5; the locals’ favourite is out of town at Quintãs and can turn tourists away at the door. In summer Barra beach has bars on the sand until dawn.

When to go

June to August. Beach season and the busiest months, driest in July and August, with the beach roads jammed at weekends and the campsites full; the lagoon is warm and calm and the canals are crowded with moliceiros.

April to May, September to October. Mild, humid and quieter; the salt harvest runs through the summer into September, and the students are back in October.

November to March. The rainy season, with strong coastal winds that the windsurfers and kitesurfers come for; the town is wet but open, and the first sea dip of the year on New Year’s morning draws hundreds into the Atlantic for a T-shirt.

Getting there

By train. Aveiro is on the Linha do Norte, with Alfa Pendular and Intercidades trains stopping at the station on the edge of the centre: Porto in around 40 minutes, Coimbra in about half an hour, Lisbon in about two hours; the Porto suburban trains also end here.

By road and coach. The A1 passes the town, the A17 comes up the coast from Lisbon via the A8, and the A25 runs east to Vilar Formoso and Spain; the coach terminal on the Rua Artur de Almeida Eça has Rede Expressos services to Portuguese and Spanish cities. Porto airport is the nearest, under an hour by car; the aerodrome at São Jacinto is for private pilots.

Getting around

On foot in town, by bike to the beach. The centre is flat and small, and Aveiro Bus’s thirteen lines are of little use to a visitor except for the Transdev services to Barra and Costa Nova, hourly, which are worth a multi-trip pass if you are staying in town and using the beach. The BUGA free bikes and the cycle paths cover the rest; street parking is metered and scarce, and the underground car parks at the Forum and the Avenida Lourenço Peixinho are the answer for drivers. The ferry from Barra crosses to São Jacinto.

Where to stay

Aveiro has one hostel, on the Rossio, three-star hotels ten minutes from the centre at around €30 to €60, and four-star hotels on the canal, by the station and by the Fonte Nova at €70 to €130, one with the view of the fish market, one with a spa and pool. The campsites at Barra and Costa Nova are a short walk from the beach, secure and busy in summer, when advance booking is needed. Prices are lower than Porto’s or the Algarve’s for the same standard, which is part of the point.

Practical info

The tourist office is on the Rua João Mendonça by the Canal Central, a few doors from the moliceiro quay. The regional bus stops are by the main canal near the boat jetty, and if in doubt any shop near the station will point you to the estação dos autocarros regionais. The Beirão people have a reputation for hospitality towards anyone polite, and English is common among the students. For money, plugs and pharmacies see the Portugal guide.