There is a whole coastline up here, and most of it is empty. That simple fact sits behind everything we do at Yuna. While much of Portugal’s summer crowd heads for the Algarve and packs onto the same warm southern beaches, the north stays green, quiet and wide open. We think that is worth talking about.
We came for the wind
Most people who know us know the wind brought us here. We came to kitesurf, and the Nortada, the steady north wind that fills in on most summer afternoons, is as reliable as any in Europe. It is the reason we first fell for this coast.
What we did not expect was how much else that same wind gives. The salty Atlantic air that lifts a kite also keeps the hills green and feeds the vines. It is part of why the north is so lush, and part of why the wine here, the light and crisp Vinho Verde, tastes the way it does. One wind, and somehow it hands you the sport, the landscape and the glass at the end of the day.
The south fills up
We have nothing against the Algarve. It is beautiful, and it is no secret, which is rather the point. We drove south ourselves this April and loved every minute of it, the open roads, the light, the quiet towns. But that was April. We would rather not find out what those same places feel like in August, when the same stretch of coast takes the lion’s share of the country’s holidaymakers and the heat sits heavy over all of it.
Room, and a kinder climate
Northern Portugal has miles of Atlantic coastline, and you can still find a beach almost to yourself. Long sweeps of sand backed by pine and dune, where the loudest thing is the surf. Space to walk, to swim, to lay out a kite without asking anyone to move their towel.
The Atlantic keeps our summers honest, too. While the south bakes, the northern coast stays fresh, cooled by the same sea breeze that makes the kitesurfing so good. Days are warm rather than punishing, the nights actually cool down so you sleep, and you can walk at midday, ride all afternoon and sit out comfortably in the evening.
The warmth of the north
The people are part of it. Northerners have a reputation across Portugal for their warmth and their hospitality, and in our experience it is more than earned. There is a generosity in how you are welcomed here, in the villages, the markets and the small family restaurants, that quietly becomes one of the best things about being in the north.
Come, but come gently
Here is our hope, said plainly. We hope the north never gets the big tour buses, the party boats and the tacky sprawl that can swallow a place whole. The way to keep it is to let it stay as it is, and to fit ourselves around it rather than the other way round. We are guests here too, and we try to travel that way.
So come, but come gently. Skip the big groups. If you go up to the Santa Luzia sanctuary, go at sunrise or sunset, or out of season, when it belongs to almost no one. Eat at the small, family-run places rather than the ones built for crowds. Learn a few words of Portuguese, take an interest in the culture, and leave a place as lovely as you found it. None of this is hard, and all of it helps the north stay north.
What “stay north” means
Stay north is more than our tagline, and more than a point on the map. North, to us, is a direction. A way of keeping your own bearing, choosing the quieter path, following the wind rather than the crowd. You can carry it anywhere.
It is becoming a small thing of its own, too. Stay North, Stay Yuna is turning into T-shirts soon, printed here in Portugal, so you can take a little of the idea home with you.
We chose to build here, a few minutes from the beach near Viana do Castelo, because we think this is one of the quietest and most rewarding coastlines in western Europe, and because we would rather share it, gently, than watch it stay hidden. If that sounds like your kind of summer, our two homes, Yuna One and Yuna Two, are ready when you are.
