CP services from Porto Campanhã south to Aveiro take approximately 50--60 minutes depending on the service. The Alfa Pendular (faster, requires a reserved seat - book at cp.pt) and the CP Urban Porto commuter trains both serve this route. Aveiro station is in the centre of the city, a flat five-minute walk to the canal network.
Aveiro is 70 kilometres south of Porto, and its specific geography - built on the edge of the Ria de Aveiro, a complex coastal lagoon system - makes it as different from Porto's granite hills as it is possible to be while remaining on the same railway line. Everything here is flat. The salt marshes, the canal channels, the Art Nouveau facades: all at sea level, all accessible without gradient.
November in Aveiro: The lagoon has its winter light - grey-silver water, salt flats bare after the summer harvest, the moliceiro boats on the channels but less numerous than in summer. Temperatures are 11--15°C. The city operates at its own pace, quieter than the summer canal tourism season.
Night One: The Canal City
The moliceiro canal cruise departs from the central dock near the Praça do Peixe - flat-bottomed, brightly painted boats with high ornate prows, originally used for harvesting moliço (seaweed) from the lagoon floor and now running tourist circuits through the urban channels and out toward the salt flats. The cruise takes approximately 45 minutes and is entirely passive. In November, with the summer crowds gone, the boat moves at the correct speed through the low bridges and salt-white canal walls.
The Art Nouveau facades of the streets around the central canal are the result of the late 19th-century prosperity that the Brazilian emigrant trade brought to Aveiro - returning emigrants built in the then-fashionable style and the concentration of decorated ceramic-tile facades along the Rua de Barbosa de Magalhães and the canal frontages is the most distinctive architectural feature of the city. Walk the canal promenade from the Praça do Peixe south to the railway station and back - flat, paved, approximately 1.5 kilometres each way.
Ovos moles: Aveiro's specific confection - small pastries of wafer-thin rice-flour shells shaped like fish, shells, and barrels, filled with sweet egg-yolk cream. Intensely sweet and specifically local. Buy them from the confeitarias around the canal dock, not the tourist shops near the station.
Night Two: Costa Nova
Take the local bus line 11 from the Aveiro bus terminal on Rua Clube dos Galitos to Costa Nova, approximately 8 kilometres west on the Atlantic coast. Journey time approximately 30--35 minutes. Buses run roughly hourly; check current frequency at moveaveiro.pt before setting out.
Costa Nova sits on a narrow sand spit between the Ria de Aveiro and the open Atlantic: a strip of road with the lagoon on one side and the beach on the other, lined with the palheiros - traditional fishermen's houses painted in bold vertical stripes of red, white, green, or blue. The boardwalk along the lagoon side is flat timber and concrete; the Atlantic beach on the ocean side is wide, flat sand, and in November entirely empty. Walk the full length of the village and back; there is nothing to climb.
The seafood restaurants in Costa Nova serve the catch from the Ria de Aveiro - particularly the enguias (eels from the lagoon, an Aveiro speciality) and fresh Atlantic fish.
Return to Porto Campanhã from Aveiro station on Day Three.
Where to Stay
The Moliceiro Hotel on the central canal and the Aveiro Palace Hotel near the station are the main options in the centre. Several smaller guesthouses are within the canal district.