Albarquel Beach (Praia de Albarquel) is a

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...

located in

Setúbal Setúbal (, , ; cel-x-proto, Caetobrix) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population in 2014 was 118,166, occupying an area of . The city itself had 89,303 inhabitants in 2001. It lies within the Lisbon metropolitan area. In the ti ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

48km north of

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

. The beach is on a

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

overlooking the

Tróia Peninsula Tróia () is a peninsula located in Grândola Municipality (parish of ), Portugal, next to the Sado River estuary. Tourism is the peninsula's main activity due to its long beaches facing the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic. There is a ferry boat conne ...

and the city. The area is suitable for swimming, boating,

windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing ga ...

, and

kitesurfing Kiteboarding or kitesurfing is a sport that involves using wind power with a large power kite to pull a rider across a water, land, or snow surface. It combines aspects of paragliding, surfing, windsurfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, and wak ...

. In 2020, the Municipality of Setúbal started a program focused on making beaches accessible to everyone. Information on beach plaques is in Portuguese, English, French, and Braille. Solar-powered audio guides are available in Portuguese, English, French, and Spanish to help disabled guests safely move around the area. Other features expected to be introduced are accessible entrances into the water, including mats and walkways; the erection of a

pergola A pergola is most commonly an outdoor garden feature forming a shaded walkway, passageway, or sitting area of vertical posts or pillars that usually support cross-beams and a sturdy open lattice, often upon which woody vines are trained. The ...

made of recycled plastic to provide shade; accessible showers and bathrooms; and beach wheelchairs, one made for walking along the shore and one for venturing into the water. The Municipality also intends to train staff on inclusive practices and has connected with the physiotherapy, nursing, sport, speech therapy, and

Portuguese sign language Portuguese Sign language () is a sign language used mainly by deaf people in Portugal. It is recognized in the present Constitution of Portugal. It was significantly influenced by Swedish Sign Language, through a school for the Deaf that was esta ...

departments at the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal to provide on-site assistance. In 2020, the beach was ranked the #1 most accessible beach in Portugal and received the Praia + Acessível Award which is sponsored by the National Institute of Rehabilitation, the Portuguese Environment Agency, and Turismo de Portugal. Turismo de Portugal's Valorizar Program, which promotes accessible tourism, is helping fund the €400,000 project. In 2021, beach cameras were installed so visitors can see beach conditions ahead of time and to provide additional safety measures. The Municipality also participates in Arrábida Sem Carros, a program prohibiting car access to beaches during peak times to prevent traffic congestion. Public transportation is promoted during these restrictions. A pedestrian walkway between the Albarquel Urban Park and the beach was started in 2019 and finished in 2021, providing another access route. A shared electric bike system was introduced in Setúbal in 2021 as well. Sea life along the beach and in surrounding areas includes

bottlenose dolphins Bottlenose dolphins are aquatic mammals in the genus ''Tursiops.'' They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus definitively contains two species: the common ...

and occasionally sharks, including sandy dogfish, which eats molluscs and fish. Safety of the area is closely monitored by the maritime police. Nearby points of interest include the Albarquel viewpoint (Pau da Consolação),

Arrábida Natural Park Arrábida Natural Park ( pt, Parque Natural da Arrábida) is a protected area in Portugal. Founded in 1976, the park occupies an area of , ( on land and at sea) covering the southernmost margin of the Setúbal Peninsula. One of the park's uniqu ...

, and Figueirinha Beach (Praia da Figueirinha). The 17th-century Albarquel Fort is located in the Natural Park just off the beach; €1.6 million renovations of the long-abandoned building began in 2018 and were completed in 2021. The building sits at the mouth of the

Sado River The river Sado () is a river in southern Portugal; it is one of the major rivers in the country. It flows in a northerly direction (the only major Portuguese river to do so) through from its springs in the hills of Ourique before entering the A ...

and overlooks the beach. A bunker was built during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

behind the fort and is connected by tunnels to the complex in the Natural Park. Also nearby is the Herdade da Comenda and its 17th-century Palácio da Comenda, which overlooks the beach and previously housed people such as

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link E ...

, Queen Dona Maria II, and Count Ernest Armand. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Raul Lino renovated and redesigned the mansion in the Casa Portugesa style. In the early 1960s,

Jackie Kennedy Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A pop ...

lived there with her children following her husband's assassination. The estate sold in 2019 for €16 million after sitting empty for 10 years after the death of its last owner, businessman António Xavier de Lima. As the new owners began renovating the dilapidated buildings and land, the parking lot, picnic area, and cycling and walking paths were closed off to beachgoers. These areas are on private land but had been used publicly for more than a decade. The city council is currently fighting to reclaim the pseudo-public spaces. The development company plans to build an archaeological center on the 600 hectares of land.

References

{{reflist Beaches of Setúbal District