Beaches & Coast
Porto da Cruz pools, before you swim
Alagoa and the pools under Penha de Águia are a different north-coast day from Porto Moniz. Two cameras cover them.
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Porto da Cruz sits under Penha de Águia on the north-east coast. It is closer to Machico and the airport than Porto Moniz is, and it has its own pools and the dark sand of Alagoa. The surf here can be messy. A calm postcard from the south coast does not apply.
Use both pictures. Alagoa is the beach and the bay. The pools camera is the bathing area toward Maiata. If either frame is white water against the rock, leave the swim for another morning. The same north-coast rule is in the swell note.
Porto Moniz is the longer drive and the larger complex, covered in the Porto Moniz note. If you are already in the east, Porto da Cruz is the pool check that does not require crossing the island.
Related Articles
- Porto Moniz pools: which camera, and when not to drive
The main pools and the free ones by the fort are different places. The north-coast swell closes both.
- Seixal: black sand, and the two cameras
One frame is the surf, one is the beach. Neither one is a flag system. If the shore is white, do not swim.
- When the north coast is too rough to swim
A flat morning in Funchal can still be a closed pool in Porto Moniz. Open the coast that faces the swell.