Known as the Portuguese Venice, Aveiro is a mid-size city with about 55 000 inhabitants, located in the central region of Portugal.
Aveiro is settled between the sea and the lagoon (ria), crossed by canals that used to be sailed by colourful traditional boats – moliceiros – used to collect seaweeds and algae, which were used as fertilizers in traditional agriculture. Today moliceiros boat trip is one of the main tourist attractions of the city. The city has several art nouveau buildings (an architecture and decorative style most popular at the end of the 19th century) in the city centre.
The Ria de Aveiro coastal Lagoon and its canals, the traditional saltpans, the extensive beaches just a few minutes from the city, make Aveiro a charismatic and charming city. The best-known beaches near Aveiro are the ones of Costa Nova, famous for its colourful stripped houses, and Praia da Barra, where you can admire the highest Portuguese lighthouse. These beaches are located just 10 km from the city center.
Its traditional gastronomy includes traditional pastry made with eggs and sugar – the “ovos moles” (soft eggs), that are sold in wooden barrels or wrapped in a crusty wafer in different shapes. It also includes several types of shellfish, fresh fish grilled or casseroled, and eels, characteristic of this region.
You can venture in city sight-seeing on a bike ride with BUGA, a public service in which you can use bikes borrowed by the municipality for free. Aveiro is a young and dynamic city in a region of great industrial development.
The climate of Aveiro is temperate oceanic, with mild, rainy winters and pleasantly warm, sunny summers.
The best time to visit Aveiro runs from June to September, since it is the warmest and the least rainy period of the year. July and August are the warmest months, but the heat is rarely excessive, and in addition, they are the driest. However, in September too, the rains are still quite rare. In May, you can go, but cool and rainy days are more frequent.
The temperature from June to mid-September, is mild or pleasantly warm. In fact, there are quite cool periods, with highs around 20/23 °C (68/73 °F), and sometimes even lower in June, and warmer periods, with temperatures hovering between 26 °C and 30 °C (79 and 86 °F). Fog can form at night and early in the morning. Sometimes, from mid-June to early September, heat waves can occur, usually of short duration, in which the temperature can reach 36/37 °C (97/99 °F). However, this happens less often than in south-central Portugal. The highest temperature is 39 °C (102 °F), recorded in July 1993.
Even in summer, it’s better to bring a sweatshirt, and maybe a light jacket for the evening.
The sea temperature ranges between 14 °C (57 °F) and 19 °C (66 °F).
Precipitation ranges from 10 mm (0.4 in) in the driest month (July) to 130 mm (5.1 in) in the wettest months (November, December).
Useful links: