The pool
Atlantic-fed tidal pools carved into the rocks at Praia Grande, on the wild coast west of Lisbon.
The Arribas pools sit on the rugged Praia Grande, where the Atlantic meets the Sintra-Cascais natural park in a long line of dark cliffs and pale sand. Built into the rocks at the southern end of the beach, they fill with each high tide and hold the ocean's coolness through the warmest summer afternoons.
It is a place for swimming laps with a view of the surf rolling in, then walking up to the village for grilled sardines and vinho verde. The water is bracing — this is the open Atlantic — but on a hot August day there is nowhere better in Portugal.
