What to see on Berlenga island in the five hours the boat gives you
Berlenga Grande is the only inhabited island of the archipelago, a Unesco Biosphere Reserve since 1984 according to the ferry company, and you cover it entirely on foot: no cars, hardly any shade and stairs. Between boats you have about five hours (two or three with the Civitatis ferry). This is what fits.
The beach and the fishermen’s quarter
The boat drops you by Carreiro do Mosteiro beach, a sandy cove between granite walls with the clearest water on the island. Next to it, the fishermen’s quarter, a handful of houses, and above, the restaurant and the campsite. It is where you spend the free time if you do not want to walk.
The fort of São João Baptista
The island’s postcard: a 17th-century fort on an islet, joined to Berlenga by a zigzag stone bridge. You go down to it by stairs and climb back up. Inside there is little more than the walls and a bar, as more than one review warns; what counts is the path and the views. With the two-or-three-hour ferry you have to go “at a brisk pace”.
The lighthouse
At the top of the island, up the track from the quarter. It is the viewpoint: the plateau, the other islets and, if the air is clear, the Peniche coast.
The caves, by boat
Furado Grande, the Blue Grotto, the Elephant cave: only seen from the water. Included in the €35 trip or bought on the island as an extra to the ferry.
The stairs
From the pier to the plateau there are “about 200 steep stairs”, in customers’ own words, and the guided walk is not advised for anyone who walks with difficulty. Water, a cap and closed shoes.