Regions/Ericeira/Solo, female-friendly
Solo & female-friendly surf camps in Ericeira
The one Portuguese surf town where not having a car costs you nothing
The practical problem with a lot of Portuguese surf camps for a solo traveller is that they sit outside a town. You are driven to the beach, driven back, and your options for the rest of the day are whoever is in the house. Ericeira inverts that. The camps are in or immediately beside a working town of around 10,000 people, so an afternoon on your own means a walk to a cafe on Rua Prudencio Franco da Trindade rather than waiting for the van. For a first solo surf trip that difference matters more than anything in the brochure.
- Walk everywhere - no dependence on camp transport off-session
- Direct bus from Lisbon airport, about 75 minutes
- Solo travellers are the majority in most Ericeira camps
- Women-only weeks run several times a year in shoulder season
Who else will be there
Ericeira camps skew heavily solo. In shoulder season a typical house is two-thirds people who arrived alone, usually mid-twenties to mid-forties, and the structure of the day does the social work for you - you surf with the same group each morning and eat with them each evening. You do not have to be an extrovert for this to work, which is the usual worry.
Several operators run women-only weeks, generally in May, June and September. These book out earlier than standard weeks. If you want one, start looking three to four months ahead rather than three to four weeks.
Rooms, supplements and safety
Shared dorms are the default and are usually four to six beds, single-sex by request at most camps but not automatically - ask, do not assume. A private room typically adds 200 to 400 euros to the week. A handful of camps charge a single supplement on private rooms; most do not, and it is worth comparing on that line because it moves the total more than the nightly rate does.
Ericeira is a small town with an ordinary level of street life and no particular reputation for trouble. The walk from the town centre back to most camps is short and lit. The genuine hazards here are surf hazards - rock shelves at the reef beaches, and rip currents at Lizandro when the swell picks up - which is an argument for surfing with the camp rather than paddling out alone on a day off.
Common questions
- Will I be the only person travelling alone?
- Very unlikely. Solo travellers are the core market for Ericeira camps, and in shoulder season they are usually the clear majority of the house. Summer weeks see more couples and pairs of friends.
- Can I get a single-sex dorm?
- Usually yes, but it is a request rather than a guarantee at most camps and it depends on who else is booked that week. If it matters to you, tell us when you send your brief and we will only put forward camps that can confirm it rather than hope for it.
- Is a women-only week worth it over a mixed camp?
- It depends what you want from the week. Women-only weeks tend to have a slower, less competitive feel in the water, which some people find makes a real difference to how fast they progress. Mixed camps in Ericeira are not an intimidating environment either. Both work; the women-only weeks simply sell out sooner.