Comporta

Comporta sits an hour south of Lisbon on the Setubal peninsula, where rice paddies and cork oak run down to a long stretch of Atlantic beach. It is deliberately low key: low buildings, sand roads, a handful of restaurants and very little development, which is the whole point and is fiercely protected locally. Horse riding on the beach and the dolphins in the Sado estuary are the activities. The season is the summer, when Lisbon empties into it; out of season it is very quiet indeed.