Arrábida Natural Park: a coastal paradise just outside Lisbon
The park stretches along the south coast of the Setúbal Peninsula in Portugal

Chances are you haven't heard of Arrábida Natural Park – but you may have seen it on screen. It was to this coastal park in Portugal that George Lazenby's James Bond travels after his wedding in the 1969 film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". Celebrity endorsements don't get much more glamorous than that, says Richard Mellor in The Times – and nor are they always so well deserved.
The park's forested hills are as verdant and its seas as sparkling today as in the movie, and though Bond's trip there turns sour when his new bride – Diana Rigg's Tracy – is shot dead by Blofeld's henchwoman on a coast road, such mishaps are rare. It's peculiar, then, that Arrábida and its beautiful beaches receive relatively few foreign visitors.
The park stretches along the south coast of the Setúbal Peninsula, where the vast Sado Estuary meets the ocean, roughly 45 minutes' drive south of central Lisbon. It encompasses nearly 70 square miles of land and sea, but there are very few hotels within its bounds.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
I stayed at Casa Palmela, a whitewashed 17th century manor house with 21 "airy" bedrooms, five larger apartments, a "simple" wellness centre, and a good restaurant serving local cuisine with "kitchen-garden produce". Its 75-acre estate, fragrant with rosemary and orange blossom, is a joy to explore by bicycle or on foot, and its concierge can arrange guided days out including horse riding, snorkelling, wine tasting, and boat trips to see the estuary's bottlenose dolphins – one of Europe's few resident pods.
There are vast beaches suitable for surfing on the peninsula's west coast, but those in the park itself are protected coves, good for swimming, with white sand and "aquamarine" waters that "recall the tropics". (Be warned, however: the Atlantic is chilly at these latitudes.)
And there are plenty of cultural attractions nearby, including medieval castles and the city of Setúbal, which has a lively covered market and an exquisite chapel in the Manueline (late gothic) style.
hotelcasapalmela.pt
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Green bean, almond and peach salad recipe
The Week Recommends Thomas Straker's fresh dish is summer in a bowl
-
Mountainhead: Jesse Armstrong's tech bro satire sparkles with 'weapons-grade zingers'
The Week Recommends The Succession creator's first feature film lacks the hit TV show's 'dramatic richness' – but makes for a horribly gripping watch
-
Seeing Each Other: Portraits of Artists – a 'riveting' exhibition
The Week Recommends Pallant House exhibition offers fascinating instances of painterly reciprocity
-
Geoff Dyer shares his favourite books on war
The Week Recommends Out of Sheer Rage author chooses works by Martha Gellhorn, Michael Herr and Dexter Filkins
-
6 sun-drenched homes by the sea
Feature Featuring a large patio overlooking the ocean in Laguna Beach and a marble rainfall shower in Norwalk
-
Garsington Opera opens its summer festival with two 'very different productions'
The Week Recommends A 'fabulous' new staging of Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades and Donizetti's fake-love-potion comedy L'elisir d'amore
-
The Rehearsal series two: Nathan Fielder's docu-comedy is 'laugh-out-loud funny'
The Week Recommends Television's 'great illusionist' has turned his attention to commercial airline safety
-
The Ballad of Wallis Island: bittersweet British comedy is a 'delight'
The Week Recommends A reclusive millionaire lures his favourite folk duo to an island for an 'awkward reunion'