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Beach guide

Vigário beach, Câmara de Lobos

The earliest opening of any staffed beach on Madeira’s south coast — weeks before Calheta — free, pebble, and holding no Blue Flag.

Checked against the portaria and the municipality’s own pages on July 26, 2026.

What it actually is

Surface
Pebble (calhau)
Municipality
Câmara de Lobos

A pocket of shore beside the working fishing harbour Churchill painted, reached through a cut in the rock. The boats are still boats, and the beach is still calhau.

No Blue Flag for 2026. A flag is an application as much as an award, so a beach without one has not necessarily failed anything.

What the state says about it

Annex IV of Portaria n.º 204-A/2026/1 lists it as a designated bathing water, with a 2026 season running May 1, 2026 to September 27, 2026.

It appears in the “praia de banhos” column, which is how the annex records that assistance to bathers is assured.

Neither of those is our judgement. It is which column the beach appears in.

Portaria n.º 204-A/2026/1 · Diário da República, 1.ª série, n.º 84, Suplemento · Anexo IV

What it costs

Free. There is no entry charge.

All fourteen beaches, compared

Getting there

It sits in the concelho of Câmara de Lobos, which is how the portaria files it.

We print no bus route for this one. Route numbers are published here only for the four destinations checked against the operator’s own guides, and this is not among them.

Getting around without a car