Beaches & Coast
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.
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Porto Moniz is the north-west corner, volcanic pools in the Atlantic. There are two areas. The main complex, with changing rooms, is the one in the postcards and it charges a small entry. Confirm the current price at the gate. The pools by the old fort, further along, are rougher and usually free, with no lifeguard.
Open more than one picture. The natural pools camera is the complex. The Porto Moniz camera is the wider view. The harbor camera shows the sea state beside the town. If the harbor is white water, the pools are not a swimming plan even if Funchal is flat. That difference is the point of the swell note.
The drive from Funchal is slow, tunnels and cliffs, about an hour by the faster inland road and longer along the coast. Seixal is the stop on the way if you want black sand instead of the complex. Porto da Cruz is the other north-coast pool town, closer to the east.
Related Articles
- 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.
- 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.