MonumentReserva Natural das Ilhas Berlengas

The Berlengas archipelago is composed by 3 islands. The main island is around 1500 meters long and 800 meters width and it is considered a natural reserve since September 1981.

To go there you need to get a boat in Peniche, the ticket is around 17€ for the round trip, if you want to stay there the price is around 11€ to go and 11€ to came back. There are 6 different boats that can take you there on a trip that takes between 30 to 40 min.

If you have lucky and the ocean is calm, probably there will be just a few persons to get sick because even with the ocean calm, the boat swings a lot.

Since the island is a natural reserve it is only allowed to walk in the trails and despite this is a fantastic place to snorkeling and diving, it is not allowed to do any type of fishing. It is also not allowed to take to the island any type of animal. If you like to do snorkeling this is probably the best place to do it in all Portugal; it's a fantastic place to do it, but the water is so cold that I could only stay 1h, after that I have to leave the water to unfreeze my bones.

One of the nicest things to do on the island is renting a small boat on the island for around 3€. These boats take around 10 persons and you can go to places that you couldn't go by foot like get inside the caves and take fantastic photos of the island.

The island is very small so, it is possible to visit everything in one day but you can stay there as long as you want in one of the only 3 places to stay.

The 3 places are, the restaurant Mar e Sol has 6 rooms, on the camping that has capacity for around 40 tents and on the S. João Baptista Fort that has capacity to 50 persons, I strongly advice to not stay here, this is manage by an association and you have to take everything including your one sheets.

Another important information is that if you stay in the camping you only have potable water until 10:00h a.m. after that if you want to take a bath it is with salty water so, it's the same as taking a bath in the sea since the water is salty and cold, there isn't hot water. Related to the restaurant Mar e Sol, we don't know how it works since we stay on the camping. If you stay there is also important warning that due to tourism and lack of resources everything is very expensive.

Since the ocean is very strong during the winter, the island is only accessible during those months. In the winter the island is only accessible for the local fisherman that due to the bad conditions only stay there during some days.

This island is also the home of a huge community of seagulls; they are so many that feels that Hitchcock take from here is inspiration to the movie Birds, its almost impossible to escape to their ""gifts"&q uot; launched from air :-)