Nazaré has become a popular tourist attraction, advertising itself internationally as a picturesque seaside village
Located on the Atlantic coast, it has long sandy beaches (considered by some to be among the best beaches in Portugal), with lots of tourists in the summer
In November 2011, surfer Garrett McNamara, who resides in Hawai'i, surfed a record-breaking giant wave: 78 feet (23.8 m) from trough to crest, at Nazaré
Such very high breaking waves form due to the presence of the underwater Nazaré Canyon.The canyon creates constructive interference between incoming swell waves which tends to make the waves much larger.
In August 2012, a freak wave killed a 5 year old British girl and her grandfather walking along Salgado Beach
The town consists of three neighbourhoods: Praia (along the beach), Sítio (an old village, on top of a cliff) and Pederneira (another old village, on a hilltop). Praia and Sítio are linked by the Nazaré Funicular, a funicular railway.
According to the Legend of Nazaré, the town derives its name from a small wooden statue of the Virgin Mary, a Black Madonna, brought by a monk in the 4th century from Nazareth, Holy Land, to a monastery near the city of Mérida, Spain
On October 28, 2013, Carlos Burle surfed another wave that is currently being scrutinized as possibly the largest wave ever ridden