Praia Dona Ana — Attraction in Lagos

I used to live right near this beach, but I find it one of the less attractive beaches in the Lagos area. In fairness, every beach along the Ponta da Piedade is not great during high season, imo. I prefer more wild beaches.

It has the benefit of being fairly good sized, so most of the year, you will not be shoulder to shoulder with other tourists.

It is sometimes full of invasive seaweed/algae blooms that pollute half the beach (sometimes more). It smells terrible, is bad for wildlife, bad for human health, and is a symptom of climate change. There's little the municipality can do to stop it, but perhaps more regular cleanup could be an idea. The worst is when it is coating the water and swimming is not possible.

In busy seasons, there is a lot of garbage that is not cleaned up regularly, and people litter everywhere.

During summer, it is totally packed with tourists. Not as bad as some of the smaller beaches along the Ponta da Piedade though. Half of it is comandeered by some private company who charges for sunbeds and you cannot plant a towel or umbrella nearby. Most likely there will be some space at the far end. During winter, it can be nice, but there will always be (loud) tourists on it. If you want solitude, no chance. Some of the small beaches adjacent to it are sometimes empty in shoulder and low seasons, however.

There is never any good surf or waves here. Don't believe anybody who says otherwise. You won't see real surfers use it.

Finding parking in summer is almost impossible unless you arrive very early in the morning. The one parking lot is shared with surrounding businesses, hotels, and people who are walking the boardwalk to Ponta da Piedade. Don't even think of parking at Iberlagos, it isn't possible. There is a parking lot in the abandoned football stadium that costs €2 a day (last I checked). It's about a 5-10 walk down the hill to the beach.

The views looking down on it from the parking lot and the boardwalk on either side are lovely though and worth a few minutes of your time to appreciate.

The water is quite shallow (but cold) so it's good for kids under supervision. It also rarely gets aggressively wavy. It's mostly pretty placid, with tiny waves. (Storms are another issue.)

It's not a bad beach if all you want to do is relax on the sand, have a beer, and maybe dip in the sea a bit. But there's nothing else to do, and the restaurant is not interesting or good, imo. Cash only, and don't rely on it being open (aka using the toilet there). It is closed the majority of the year, only open in...

Incredible beach, beautiful scenery, sadly slowly being ruined over the years. I first visited this beach around 30 years ago when there were still 2 restaurants at the top of the steps, and a lot less sand (recently added) and people. I still remember even as a child the impression such a wonderful place had on me, but every time I come back a little more of the wonder has been eroded along with the ever receding cliffs.

Firstly the whole place is now crawling with the selfie brigade, a particularly irritating segment of the tourist population, only interested in taking pictures of themselves in the places they visit rather than actually enjoying the places. On top of this the 2 old restaurants at the top are now long gone with only one slightly overpriced distinctly average bar on the beach remaining. The street stalls on the stairs are also gone and even the little shop at the top is now ridiculously expensive with half of what they used to sell at twice the price. The sun beds are now €20 a pair which is a lot even in season and according to the lifeguard you aren’t even allowed to play catch with your kids because apparently people will complain about the dust even if you are 20 meters away from the nearest sunbathers. The vibe of this beach is now just one of sadness with couples taking their pictures of themselves and then just sitting in silence as if fun and or conversation have been banned. Personally I would like to see the numbers limited here as they do at some other internet famous spots but I very much doubt this will happen in the near future.

Don’t get me wrong this beach is stunning and worth a visit but I miss the way...

So disappointed. This used to be a world class small beach of such picturesque distinction and has been a family favourite for decades. Why they ever thought that they could improve on nature's beauty is incomprehensible. The natural ecosystem has been destroyed by dumping rocks as seen in the photograph and also apparently more sand, presumably to extend the beach. Criminal. Half the beach is now taken up with sunbeds so it's become just another cash cow. Unfortunately the sand is pretty dirty. I can't remember there being a field of seaweed stretching from high water mark well into the sea. Flies are a scourge. On approach to the beach the massive hotel lies gutted and reminiscent of the grand hotels in Maputo ( formerly Lorenzo Marques ) after the Mocambique war. The public toilet box at the car park above the beach is padlocked but you can access the toilet in the restaurant down on the beach should you want to linger. We didn't. Lagos has increased in size to at least 4 times it's size when we first came in the 1980's. It may be a modern holiday destination now but it is rapidly losing its...