Praia da Ursa: Hiking to a Secret Beach

I’ve been looking forward to doing a blog post about this for weeks. This was one of the best travel experiences I’ve had in a LONG time. Too often I go off on a lovely city break, sight-see, wander around, and head home. But rarely do I do anything too adventurous or outside my comfort zone. This hike to Praia da Ursa in Portugal is something that pushed me outside my box and I’ll never forget it.

During my recent trip to Portugal, we spent a day exploring Lisbon, a day exploring Sintra, and on our second to last day while we were still based in Sintra, we went on an adventure.

In researching things to do in and around Sintra, we came across Cabo da Roca, a popular tourist spot. It’s known for being the location of the most westerly sea cliffs in continental Europe. In our research we also found out about a secret beach near Cabo da Roca that you can hike to, called Praia da Ursa. The reviews said it wasn’t a long hike but could be steep and tricky. It didn’t sound so bad so we decided we would give it a try!

We took the bus (#403) out to Cabo da Roca in the afternoon, after spending the morning checking out Sintra’s famous castles. We packed our backpacks with towels, flip flops, sunscreen, water, and not much else.

Once we arrived, we went over to take a brief glance at the cliffs at Cabo da Roca. They were really nice, but we were eager to get moving. The instructions to the ‘secret beach’ we had read said to walk 200m down the road and then take the path marked with a pink sign. We found the path we thought it was referring to, but no pink markers. We knew we were going in the right general direction so we kept moving along the paths.

In fairness, the walk was really nice! There were some other tourists walking along these paths as well.

We found this chair just sitting there looking out over the ocean. I don’t know who put it there or how long it’s been there but it’s one very photogenic chair.

We kept on walking, hoping that we were going the right way and wondering if and when we would stumble upon the beach. The stroll was pleasant, mostly flat and over some small sloping hills.

But then out of nowhere we were faced with some treacherous and steep downward climbs so we knew we were getting close. I have a slight phobia of walking/climbing down steep or uneven surfaces. I tried to keep it together and hoped we were almost there. I was comforted in the fact that a couple people had passed us on the trail, moving quickly and nonchalantly. Some were wearing sandals and didn’t seemed to be phased whatsoever by the obvious dangers of the cliff side we were hiking down.

We realised eventually that we had not come the right way. We saw people who had clearly just come from the beach climbing up a steeper, but much more direct hill nearby. We were kicking ourselves but at least we’d know how to get out more efficiently.

We continued on and I could see we were in the home stretch, the beach lay just at the bottom of the hill we were on. There were large jagged rocks to climb over and the soil was bone dry with load of small rocks and pebbles mixed in. It was so slippery and I was terrified. One slip could have been catastrophic. I tried to keep my center of gravity low and crab-walked most of the way down, trying to stay calm, breathe, and maintain my balance with my backpack on my back.

Eventually, shaking and almost on the verge of tears I landed on the soft sand. I turned around to see where we had just come form.

I could barely breathe but I was really proud of myself for pushing on and making it all the way down! I was elated when I turned around and soaked in the beauty of this secret beach. It was almost unbelievable. I think all the adrenaline heightened all my emotions and made my appreciate the beach even more.

It was so gorgeous and peaceful I was nearly in tears. The turquoise water was rough with massive crashing waves. There are rock formations that, apparently, are meant to look like a mother bear and her cub, hence the name Praia da Ursa which means Bear Beach (or something like that).

It’s not a place I would’ve gone swimming, but rather sit back and appreciate the epic power of the ocean and the beauty of the Earth. A little cheesy, but sometimes the natural world just takes your breath away.

After wading into the water up to our knees we sat down and enjoyed some of our snacks and drinks we brought along, including some Portuguese ginja, a cherry liqueur we had tried when we were in Lisbon.

We took so many photos and videos so we could remember this day, but I don’t think we ever could forget it regardless. Praia da Ursa is such a special place.

We were lucky to be there to enjoy the beauty of golden hour, but we couldn’t stay too long. We had another hike to do after all and didn’t want to get caught in the dark.

It worked out well because we got to enjoy the sunset as we climbed back up the steep slope. It was MUCH less scary going up, but it was steep and exhausting! Luckily we had an excuse to stop and turn back to enjoy the view (and catch our breath) as we went. It got more and more beautiful each time I stopped.

We made sure to go back up the ‘correct’ way which was much shorter, although just as steep and slippery. When we arrived at the top we stopped again for a few minutes to appreciate sunset one last time before walking back up the road to Cabo da Roca and catching the last bus of the night back to Sintra.

It’s easy to see why this hike to this secret beach is one of the best things I’ve done in a long time. I conquered a fear and got to enjoy a stunning beach all in one day. And I got to create an amazing memory with a great friend. It really made me want to do more active things like this and more hikes. It’s always worth the hard work in the end, isn’t it? I sincerely hope I get a chance to go back to Praia da Ursa again someday.