Esteiro Beach or ''Praia do Esteiro'' in

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

, meaning

tidal creek A tidal creek or tidal channel is a narrow inlet or estuary that is affected by the ebb and flow of ocean tides. Thus, it has variable salinity and electrical conductivity over the tidal cycle, and flushes salts from inland soils. Tidal cree ...

, is a beach on the southwestern coast of

Póvoa de Varzim Póvoa de Varzim (, ) is a Portugal, Portuguese city in Norte Region, Portugal, Northern Portugal and sub-region of Greater Porto, from its city centre. It sits in a sandy coastal plain, a cuspate foreland, halfway between the Minho River, Minho ...

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 ...

, bordering the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. It is adjacent to Aver-o-Mar and the beach has medium to fine sand, with a recovering grey dune ecosystem. The foredune had coastal windmills, some are preserved including the Luisa Dacosta windmill, a famous landmark, and another windmill was currently recovered. Luisa Dacosta was a Portuguese writer from

Vila Real Vila Real () is the capital and largest city of the Vila Real District, in the North region. It is also the seat of the Douro intermunicipal community and of the Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro historical province. The Vila Real municipality cover ...

who lived and wrote the most relevant part of her work in her windmill where she lived. Luísa visited

since a child for the beach. But she got in love by the beach on the side of the resort, Aver-o-Mar, almost a desert at the time, where she took roots, and her heart was soon divided by the austere Serra do Marão and the coastal rocky outcrops, the Penedaria da Beirada. Esteiro is located in the right bank of the small tidal channel, known in Portuguese as Esteiro, the other bank is known as Fragosa Beach, with the Penedaria da Beirada and Forcada Islet rocky outcrops. Due to small size, the estuary can be easily crossed during most of the year.

References

{{coord missing, Portugal Beaches of Póvoa de Varzim