
On your next trip to Aveiro make sure to consider our Aveiro car hire services as your main means of personal transportation. This is a rather small town with about a fifth of its population being provided by the students who attend the University of Aveiro which is one of the country’s most important institutions of higher learning.
Once in the city you will notice that a section of the city features many canals and bridges and the canals are populated by some rather charmingly painted boats called moliceiros which will remind everyone of the world famous gondolas of Venice. This is actually why the city is sometimes called the Portuguese Venice but the comparison is mostly limited to that.
Aveiro is located within a relative short drive from both Porto and Coimbra, both of them popular tourist destinations so you could easily hop in a rental car that you get through our Porto car rental services or our Coimbra car hire office and drive down to Aveiro to see the canals. However the true charm of the town is due to its proximity to the coastline and its wonderful sandy beaches. The coastal beach resorts of Barra and Costa Nova are separated from Aveiro by a lagoon but they are easily accessible by road. In Costa Nova you can see some very cute candy-striped beach houses while in the more commercialized Barra you can enjoy the party atmosphere in a few good bars and nightclubs. Barra is also the home of the world’s third tallest lighthouse. More secluded beaches can be found if you go a bit north to Sao Jacinto and Torreira.
Excluding the beaches and the canals there is one more sight that you may want to visit while in Aveiro, the 15th century Convento de Jesus the interior of which is truly striking. The interior was mostly decorated during the 17th and 18th centuries featuring some Renaissance-style cloisters and wonderful guilded carvings as well as embroidery works from the school of embroidery which used to be housed in the cathedral.
These are some of the main things that you can see and do while in Aveiro but keep in mind that most of them would not be as easy to reach without the help of professional Aveiro car hire services.