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- Fonte da Telha
Fonte da Telha surf forecast
The long beach under the cliffs at the south end of the Caparica coast, read by Kiwi four times a day. Free, hour by hour, in plain words: the hour worth paddling out for.
When to paddle out at Fonte da Telha
Today and tomorrow hour by hour from 05:00 to 21:00, then every 3 hours for two more days, rated 1 to 5 stars. Green-outlined rows are each day's best window.
08:00–12:00 · offshore
Today 31 Oct
Go 08-12, clean overhead, offshore ENE.
Kiwi's best shot: 08:00–12:00
Every hour, 05–21
Tide and daylight
- High
- 05:43 3.4 m
- Low
- 12:09 1.4 m
- High
- 18:25 3.1 m
- Sunrise
- 07:02
- Sunset
- 17:38
Tomorrow 1 Nov
Go 08-12, clean overhead, offshore ENE.
Best window: 08:00–12:00
Every hour, 05–21
Tide and daylight
- Low
- 00:26 1.6 m
- High
- 06:52 3.3 m
- Low
- 13:29 1.5 m
- High
- 19:47 3.0 m
- Sunrise
- 07:03
- Sunset
- 17:37
Monday 2 Nov
Go 08-12, clean head-high, offshore NE.
Best window: 08:00–12:00
Every 3 hours
Tide and daylight
- Low
- 01:50 1.7 m
- High
- 08:13 3.2 m
- Low
- 14:58 1.5 m
- High
- 21:13 3.0 m
- Sunrise
- 07:04
- Sunset
- 17:36
Tuesday 3 Nov
Worth it 08-12, fair waist-chest, cross-onshore WNW.
Best window: 08:00–12:00
Every 3 hours
Tide and daylight
- Low
- 03:17 1.7 m
- High
- 09:36 3.3 m
- Low
- 16:14 1.5 m
- High
- 22:26 3.1 m
- Sunrise
- 07:05
- Sunset
- 17:35
Forecast point: Fonte da Telha (38.572° N, 9.197° W). Waves = estimated breaking height at the beach. Data: Open-Meteo wave and weather models (CC BY 4.0), corrected on buoys. Generated using E.U. Copernicus Marine Service Information (DOI 10.48670/moi-00043). Surf at your own risk.
Look for east in the wind. Fonte faces west-southwest, so a breeze from the north-east or east blows offshore and grooms the peaks. The summer north wind, strongest in the afternoon, blows from the side instead.
Fonte da Telha, end to end
Almost 3 km of sand between the Fossil Cliff and the sea, in front of an old fishing village. There are no groynes: it is an exposed beach break with lefts and rights over sand, and the sandbanks decide where the peaks are. The council splits the beach into ten concessions, from Terminus in the north to Bambú (Piscinas) in the south; we use their names below. For the town beaches 10 km up the coast, see the Costa da Caparica guide.
Bela Vista and Nova Vaga
KitesurfNext beach northFonte's northern neighbour is kite country: the captaincy's licensed kite zones sit where Nova Vaga meets Bela Vista, and the southern part of Bela Vista is mainly naturist.
Terminus and Americano
Kites nearbyLesson corridorsThe two northern concessions. Two 250 m kite launch zones start just north of Terminus, so expect kites on windy days, and there is a 40 m surf-lesson corridor on that side too.
Pescadores, Centro, Cabana and Rampa
Kiwi's forecast pointBus stopFishing boatsThe village front and Kiwi's forecast point. The 'Fonte Telha (Praia)' bus stop is here, Tiki Surf Academy teaches by the Cabana Beach Bar, and Arte Xávega crews take their tractors onto the sand by the fish market: outside bathing hours, boats, ropes and nets work just off this stretch.
Lareira, Oh Ti João, Sueste and Bambú
Surf schoolsPartly guarded in October 2026The southern concessions, where several schools set up: The Echo Surfers at Kailua (Lareira), Sabura at Areias da Telha (Sueste) and Tiago Pires Surf School at Praia Piscina (Bambú). When the season was extended through October 2026, lifeguards covered only four units: Cabana, Kailua, Areias and Piscinas.
Adiça
No lifeguardsNaturistSouth of the village the beach carries on as Adiça: mainly naturist, with no concession and no lifeguards. One surf directory rates it for intermediates: uncrowded, but with rips, moving banks, no facilities, and either a steep cliff path or a long walk along the sand to get there.
What Fonte da Telha needs to fire
These are the exact rules behind Kiwi's rating for this spot. Every hour of the forecast is scored on all four, then turned into a rating of 1 to 5 stars.
Swell
From the west, 9 s or longer
The forecast point faces west-southwest (the line in the dial). Swell from 225° to 295° reaches the beach in full, and Kiwi scores it highest from about due west. Most guides favour west to west-southwest here. North-west swells reach Fonte differently from the town beaches, and sources disagree on whether that makes it bigger or smaller, so check a cam on big north-west days.
Wind
Offshore from the east-northeast
Wind from about 35° to 105° blows offshore and holds the faces up; guides name north-east to east-northeast as the offshore here. Under 6 km/h Kiwi calls it glassy. Light shades on the dial are cross-offshore: still fine.
Tide
Mid
Kiwi's rating prefers mid tide. Guides disagree: some say low tide only, others low to mid, others all tides. The banks change often, so watch how they handle the tide on the day.
Size
Best at 1.1 to 2 metres
Waves start to work from about 0.6 metres. Above 2 metres Kiwi's score starts to drop, and over 2.8 metres Kiwi says stay out. One local guide calls waist to head high ideal.
Kiwi's shortcut: a westerly swell with some period, a north-east or east wind and mid tide. When those three line up, the green-outlined rows show up in the table above.
The best months to surf Fonte da Telha
We replayed Kiwi's rating on every day from January 2025 to October 2026 and counted how often Fonte da Telha's best window reached 4 or 5 stars.
Sep · Oct · NovThe sweet spot
September and October were Fonte's best months in the replay: the best window reached 4 or 5 stars on 38% and 40% of days, and about 74% of days had a session worth 3 stars or more. November gets bigger and wilder (23%).
Mar · Apr · MayA second season
Spring runs autumn close: 35% of spring days made 4+ stars and 55% had 3 or more, as the swell drops from about 2.4 m in March to 1.5 m in May at the best window.
Jun · Jul · AugSmall and friendly
Summer is small but often rideable: 58% of summer days had 3 stars or more, good for learning with a school. Go early: the best window started before 11:00 on 93% of summer days.
Dec · Jan · FebMostly too big for Kiwi
Kiwi's rating marks most winter days as too big here: the typical size at the day's best window was 3.7 m, and only 13% of days made 4+ stars. Guides disagree: surf-forecast.com and a local surf guide call winter the best season.
Before you go
New banks, new rips
After the 2025/26 storms, the coordinator of Âncora, Fonte's lifeguard association, said the seabed had changed from Fonte to the Lagoa de Albufeira and two permanent rip currents had formed. His team made 12 rescues in the first weeks of the 2026 season (Lusa, June 2026). Older guides and peak names may be out of date: watch the water before you paddle out.
Lifeguards cover the whole beach from 1 June to 30 September. Adiça, to the south, is never guarded. Emergencies: 112.
Two captaincy rules
The Lisbon captaincy's surfing edict (06/2020) covers Fonte. You may surf only from sunrise until half an hour before sunset, and not at all while IPMA has an orange sea warning out (recognised pros, high-performance athletes and licensed lessons are exempt from that ban).
Lessons may only run in 16 numbered corridors along the beach, with at most six students per coach in the water.
You share the water
Kitesurfers launch from zones just north of Terminus and towards Adiça; from 1 May to 15 October kites elsewhere must stay more than 150 m out off guarded beaches.
Arte Xávega, the beach-seine fishing on Portugal's intangible heritage list, works off the village. In the bathing season it is not allowed on concession beaches between 10:30 and 18:30, so expect boats and nets early and late in summer, and at any hour in the off season.
Getting there without a car
- Ferry from Cais do Sodré to Cacilhas (about 10 min), then bus 3012 to the beach (55 min, 26 trips each way on weekdays).
- Fertagus train to Pragal, then the same 3012 from Pragal station (about 43 min).
- Already in Costa da Caparica? Bus 3030 runs down the beach road to Fonte in about 26 min (12 trips on weekdays, 9 at weekends).
- Bus 3521 comes from Cruz de Pau via Aroeira (35 to 45 min). No bus to Fonte starts in Lisbon itself.
Driving and parking
About 23 km and 25 minutes from central Lisbon without traffic, over the 25 de Abril bridge (the toll is charged only on the way back into Lisbon). One road leads down to the village, and the council says jams are common in the bathing season: Almada's parking company counts more than 1,000 cars here on peak summer days. Parking nearby is paid in summer.
In May 2026 the council announced barriers with plate cameras, overflow car parks in Aroeira and a shuttle. We could not confirm that it is running, so check before you drive down on a summer weekend.
Surf schools
Schools whose own websites place their lessons at Fonte da Telha, in no order: Tiago Pires Surf School, Tiki Surf Academy, Sabura, The Echo Surfers, PURE Beachfront Surf Camp.
Crowds
Sources split. Some call Fonte busy, above all at weekends; others sell it as the quieter option south of town. Almost 3 km of beach spreads people out, and in summer expect lesson groups in the corridors.
Water and wetsuit
About 14 to 15 °C in late winter and about 18 °C from late summer into October. Surf-forecast.com suggests a 4/3 mm suit with boots in late February and a 3/2 or a long-sleeve shorty in August.
The water quality is rated well: Fonte holds the Quercus 'Qualidade de Ouro' award for 2026. It is not a Blue Flag beach.
Webcams and IPMA
KiwiSurf has no camera of its own yet. Public cams at Fonte: Surftotal, Playocean and MEO Beachcam (north, south). IPMA, the national weather service, also runs a beach forecast for Fonte da Telha, and its warnings are the ones that trigger the captaincy's surf ban.
The cliff and the village
The Fossil Cliff behind the beach has been a protected landscape since 1984. It is called fossil because the sea no longer reaches it; its layers are about 15 million years old, and collecting fossils or plants is banned. The pine forest on top, the Mata Nacional dos Medos, is a botanical reserve.
The village began as a fishing community in the late 19th century, according to Portuguese Wikipedia. Its future is under discussion: the government's coastal programme to 2040, published in July 2026, plans dune restoration and the removal of structures from the coastal strip here, with no dates yet.
Where the numbers come from
The method
Kiwi starts from Open-Meteo's wave models (at Fonte da Telha: ECMWF WAM, Météo-France and Open-Meteo's own best-match blend; the GFS wave grid has no sea cell here) and corrects them with a model trained on past forecasts against Instituto Hidrográfico buoys, before anything else happens.
Then each hour at Fonte da Telha is scored on the four rules above (swell, wind, tide, size) and calibrated so that 4 stars here mean the same as 4 stars at Caparica or Guincho.
What we can prove
Measured on 30 days the model never trained on (29 September to 28 October 2026) at the offshore buoys. Not every week is better: in the last 7 days of that test, with big October swells, waves were 6% worse.
Kiwi has no buoy at Fonte da Telha, so the size at the beach is our model's estimate, not a measurement. See the full accuracy test.
Fonte da Telha surf questions
What is the surf like at Fonte da Telha today?
Kiwi's 07:56 run gives Fonte da Telha 4/5 stars today: Go 08-12, clean overhead, offshore ENE. Waves 1.5–2.2 m, 12 s swell from the WNW, wind offshore ENE 10 km/h, tide high falling. The table above has today and tomorrow hour by hour from 05:00 to 21:00 and the two days after every 3 hours.
Is Fonte da Telha good for surfing?
Yes, when the banks are in shape. It is an exposed beach break with lefts and rights over sand, almost 3 km long, so there is usually room to find a peak. In Kiwi's replay of 2025 and 2026, September and October were the best months, with 4 or 5 stars on 38% and 40% of days.
Is Fonte da Telha good for beginners?
On small days, with a school. Several schools teach here in licensed corridors, and summer is the gentlest season (58% of summer days had 3 stars or more). Guides disagree on the level: solid winter swell is for experienced surfers, and the lifeguards reported two new rip currents in 2026.
Is Fonte da Telha bigger or smaller than Costa da Caparica?
Sources disagree, and it depends on the swell direction. Kiwi forecasts both every day, so compare them in the morning call, or read the Costa da Caparica guide for the town beaches.
What wind and tide work best at Fonte da Telha?
A north-east to east wind is offshore here, and under 6 km/h it is glassy. On the tide, guides disagree (low only, low to mid, or all tides); Kiwi's rating leans to mid tide.
Is there a webcam at Fonte da Telha?
How do I get to Fonte da Telha by public transport?
Is there parking at Fonte da Telha?
Yes, near the village, and it is paid in summer. One road leads in, so summer weekends bring long queues. In 2026 the council announced barriers and overflow car parks in Aroeira with a shuttle; check before you drive.
Are there lifeguards at Fonte da Telha?
From 1 June to 30 September along the whole beach. When the season was extended through October 2026, only four units in the south (Cabana, Kailua, Areias and Piscinas) were guarded. Adiça, south of the village, never has lifeguards.
Can you surf Fonte da Telha in winter?
Yes: the council says people surf here all year. Kiwi rates many winter days too big here, so watch for the smaller days between swells, and bring a 4/3 mm suit with boots. Remember the captaincy rules: no surfing under an orange sea warning, and only until half an hour before sunset.
What is the water temperature at Fonte da Telha?
About 14 to 15 °C in late winter and about 18 °C from late summer into October. In summer the north wind can pull cold water up along the coast, so it can feel colder than the season suggests.
Is Fonte da Telha a nudist beach?
Its neighbours are. Almada council describes Adiça, south of the village, and the southern part of Bela Vista, to the north, as mainly naturist beaches.
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