City canals, gondolas and a lagoon . . . no, it’s not Venice, but Aveiro in Portugal, just half an hour from Porto. Together with lovely dune-backed beaches and historic saltpans, it makes for a great weekend away, yet is somewhere the locals pretty much have to themselves.
A thriving port until the harbour started silting up in the 16th century, Aveiro still uses giant, ornately painted gondolas called moliceiros to ply waterways flanked by art nouveau mansions, former cod-salting works and colourful cottages. I explore on foot instead, wandering the cobbled streets of the old fishermen’s quarter, before grabbing a drink at a canalside bar on Cais dos Botiroes to soak up some late-afternoon rays. And I tick off the 28 art nouveau buildings that form an engaging architectural trail around the town centre.
“The gaudy façades of the beach houses are a riot of candy stripes in red, blue and yellow
I’m staying, however, in a fine example of Portugal’s elegant 18th-century Pombaline style. Bang on the Canal Central, the Hotel Moliceiro is Aveiro’s finest place to rest your head, and from the balcony of my top-floor canalside room I can watch the comings and goings on the water. Just out of view, but only a short walk away, is a patchwork of saltpans. Locals still harvest Aveiro’s renowned flor de sal,by hand, scraping off the finest top layer of salt from the pans as they dry in the breezes wafting from the seashore.
Aveiro’s most upscale culinary spot is Salpoente, carved from one of the red clapboard former saltworks on Cais de Sao Roque. Here, the Portuguese interior stylist Boca do Lobo has created an elegant backdrop for the award-winning chef Duarte Eira’s fabulous small-plate tasting menu. Expect dishes such as fried black cod with langoustine and white-bean cream, matched with wines from the nearby Bairrada appellation.
If you’re not in the mood for haute cuisine, Aveiro has plenty of engaging back-street diners that serve delicious Portuguese classics for far less. The cosy, wood-panelled O Batel (Travessa do Tenente Rezende 21) is a local favourite tucked away on a tiny alley off the Canal Central, which provides a feast of luscious fish soup, stewed octopus and the salt-cod classic arroz de bacalhau.
Advertisement
Aveiro’s most expansive water feature is its magnificent lagoon, which I explore one morning by bike to watch an ancient human tableau play out along its 28-mile length (handily criss-crossed by bridges if you want short cuts). Everywhere people dot vast low-tide mudflats, bent silhouettes foraging for mussels, cockles and clams in the rich silt. Raking and digging, they work the little world at their feet while the lagoon’s giant silver mirror shimmers beneath the enormous sky.
I stop to watch a group of men launching a moliceiro, heading out to gather seaweed to feed local crops and livestock, or to catch fish for simple restaurants such as A Peixaria in the little town of Sao Jacinto, where I roll up for a fine seafood lunch.
Aveiro comes with a side order of satellite settlements that each offer a unique sight. The prettiest is Costa Nova, about five miles away. Squeezed between the calm waters of the lagoon and surf-flecked Atlantic strands, its seafront is overseen by the soaring Barra lighthouse — Portugal’s tallest, and among the world’s top 20. You can visit for free every Wednesday for views that are as breathtaking as the 283 steps I gasp my way up (although there is a lift option).
At Costa Nova’s lively lagoon-side fish market there are trays of slithering eels and pincer-waving crabs (“Boil them with lots of chilli,” the stallholder advises) amid piles of glistening fresh fish that almost make me wish I was self-catering in what must be the prettiest beach houses in Europe, just beside the market.
Dozens of these clapboard beauties stretch along Costa Nova’s palm-shaded promenade facing an arm of the lagoon. Known as palheiros, their gaudy façades are a riot of candy stripes in red, blue and yellow. They’re clearly famous outside Portugal too, because we bump into the teenage pop star Abraham Mateo — who my guide assures me is “the Justin Bieber of Spain” — shooting a promotional video around one.
Advertisement
If Costa Nova is Aveiro’s pretty companion, neighbouring Ilhavo is its bit of rough. However, it’s also home to a brilliant 1930s museum whose stunning 21st-century transformation into an airily seductive modernist marvel earned a nomination for the Mies van der Rohe architecture prize in 2003. The Maritime Museum of Ilhavo uses Portugal’s fishing history as a prism to delve into the lives and culture of generations of locals — particularly the cod fishermen who plied often treacherous seas from the Azores to Newfoundland.
Back in Aveiro, the atmospheric museum offers a view of local history through five centuries of arts and crafts displayed inside a 15th-century former Dominican convent.
After dinner, I wander along the Canal Central to the hip Mercado Negro. By day, this rambling 19th-century townhouse (Rua Joao Mendonca 17) is home to boutiques and Portugal’s hippest barbershop; after dark it morphs into a fabulous drinking den with a top-floor bar spread throughout a warren of period rooms decorated with antique and contemporary design. As midnight looms, I wend my way to a quiet cobbled quay where canal waters twinkle and gondola-shaped boats bob gently — and tourist hordes are conspicuous by their absence.
The budget hotel
Aveiro Rossio Hostel
This cute hostel is a great base for budget travellers. The twin rooms are a tad dated, but the dorms, sleeping up to eight, are bright, if cramped. The living area is übercool, with patchwork sofas. A night’s stay is from €16 (aveirorossiohostel.com).
Advertisement
The luxury hotel
Hotel Moliceiro
The Hotel Moliceiro is an elegant venue with a marble lobby and an opulent bar. The rooms are bright and airy and the deluxe rooms have fabulous views of the Central Canal. B&B doubles cost from €105 a night (hotelmoliceiro.pt).
Need to know
Norman Miller was a guest of Visit Portugal (visitportugal.com). EasyJet (easyjet.com) flies from London to Porto, returns from £65, and it’s about half an hour on the train to Aveiro. Hotel Moliceiro (00 351 234 377 400, hotelmoliceiro.pt) has doubles from £95 a night B&B.