São Domingos Mine is a village and mine in the south of Portugal, very close to the Guadiana valley natural reserve.
We had been there a couple of times to visit both the village and the mine but this weekend what made us go there was the beach. We got a small kayak and we decided the best place to test it out would be this quiet lake.
The kayak is a portable air two-seater from decathlon, (link here) that we got loaned by Lukas grandfather and we really wanted to know how good it was and if it was worth the money.
Mina de São Domingos
Given that we had zero experience with kayaks we choose this super quiet beach in the countryside where you can relax and enjoy nature.
If you don’t know this place and you are looking for an inland place to relax with your family look no further, this is the place.
There is an outdoor cafe that also serves as a restaurant, the beach is quiet wit
- free sunshades,
- free parking,
- bathroom,
- lifeguard,
- massage area,
- canoe rental,
- super warm water,
- and plenty of silence and nature.
- Really what else could we want?
If a beach is not your thing you can also check out the mine and easily imagine you went to Mars for the holidays, wait for the sunset and even with a smartphone you will be the king/queen of Instagram.
Kayak
The small two-person kayak was perfect, a lot easier to fill up than we thought and the only issue was the missing seat for Lukas. He was sitting between us and it wasn’t very comfortable at times, plus he really wanted to have his own seat. The positive side of this was that we could keep him close and watch over him.
The kayak is faster than we thought and quite comfortable, the experience is good and you can see things from a different perspective, quite cool.
These inflatable kayaks are superb because they save a lot of space and are easy to carry, but we were already dreading the deflate and store part of the day. It’s a pain and you do have to wait until it’s dry and it seems to take forever, but it’s actually better than we thought.
Location
Not far from Mértola or Serpa.