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Carcavelos is the largest expanse of sand on the Estoril coast, 1.25 km of shoreline wedged between the Fort of São Julião da Barra, which stands over the eastern end in Oeiras, and Ponta de Rana. Cascais council says its strong swell draws surfers, windsurfers and bodyboarders, and competitions are held here. West of it, the Lisbon to Cascais railway passes small beaches at Parede, São Pedro do Estoril and São João do Estoril. Praia do Tamariz at Estoril is 190 metres of sand in front of the Casino Estoril gardens, beside the train and bus station.

Praia da Conceição sits between the Chalet Faial and the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Conceição, and at low water it joins Praia da Duquesa, so people often cannot say which one they were on. It is only about 110 metres of shoreline. Praia da Rainha, a hidden beach in the centre of Cascais with calm water between the cliffs, is shorter still at about 50 metres. Beaches this short are easy to describe exactly, which helps the odds.

Guincho, reached from Cascais by the N247, lies between the rocky points of Ponta Alta and Ponta do Abano, and Cascais council counts it among the largest beaches in the country, inside the Sintra-Cascais natural park. To the south the wind has built the Guincho-Cresmina dune system, with embryonic, white and grey dunes. The council says world championships in surfing, windsurfing and kitesurfing are held here, and the same wind can blow dry sand over anything dropped on it.

Praia Grande is the largest beach on the Sintra coast, a long stretch of sand with strong swell that Sintra's tourist office calls one of the main places for surfing and bodyboarding, with dinosaur footprints kept in the limestone cliff at its southern end. Praia das Maçãs took its name from apples the Ribeira de Colares once carried down to the sand, and the beach still sits at the mouth of that stream. Praia da Adraga is an almost wild beach known for its stone arch. North of them, Ericeira is a World Surfing Reserve on the Mafra coast, with breaks including Ribeira d'Ilhas and Coxos.

Across the river the sand runs south from Costa da Caparica for kilometres, each stretch with its own name. Fonte da Telha sits at the far end, under the fossil cliff. Further south the Serra da Arrábida drops to sheltered, very clear beaches at Figueirinha, Creiro, Galápos, Galapinhos and Portinho da Arrábida. Sesimbra has two town beaches, Califórnia and Ouro, one bay divided in name by the seventeenth century Fortaleza de Santiago, and Tróia closes the mouth of the Sado.