The Berlengas Grande Island is one of the most inspiring place i have seen in Portugal. Located in the west coast, 10 km far from the city of Peniche where you can take ferry and it takes 45 minutes to arrive.
The Island is a nature reserve for seabirds, actually thousand of birds stay here during migration. For that reason camping is not allowed, but if you decide to visit the island i strongly recommend to sleep here, even for a night, inside of Forte São João Baptista.
The fort has a rich history, once was a monastery, in fact in 1500 the monks decide that was a perfect place to live in austerity through solitude and silence, but soon became victim by many attacks from pirates, monks decide to abandon the monastery. Later with the ruins of the monastery was build the fort, an ideal defensive position from barbary pirates. Now is a basic hostel.
I want to be honest, the rooms are really old, mine has also a broken window, no sheets and beds are full of dust, there is no electricity after some hours and the water as well, but the place really worth it. There is a bar where you can eat, but my favorite place was the roof, is like a huge terrace where you can walk around, lay down during the night under the moon, surrounded only by the sea and and the light of lighthouse. The only sound will be the waves and the birds. Isn't magic enough?
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