Just 3 months to go until our Salty Saddles Adventure! Picture 7 days of slow living on Portugal’s Atlantic coast: riding horses along empty beaches, learning or leveling up your surf, sailing the Aveiro lagoon, and enjoying nourishing home-cooked meals by a local chef and sharing it all with a small group of adventurous, like-minded people.
Salty Saddles came out of two people finding each other through the Ocean Nomads network. Carine van den Berg had spent years building a piece of land in northern Portugal. Brianna Brady has been part of the Ocean Nomads team for years and was looking for the right trip to co-host. Carine and Brianna connected and team up for the dream trip!
This September they’re hosting the first Salty Saddles together. Carine made a short video to show you what the land actually looks like.
What a week in Bonanza looks like
Bonanza sits at the northern edge of the Ria de Aveiro, about an hour south of Porto. Praia de Furadouro is a short walk through the dunes. The horses live in a herd on the land. The sailboat that crosses the lagoon is a traditional Portuguese vessel.
You stay in a forest cabin, a yurt, or a bell tent. Compost toilets, warm shower with filtered groundwater, shared kitchen. Off-grid but not rough.
Days are shaped by the tides and weather. Some mornings start with horseback on the beach at sunrise. Other mornings you’re in the surf. One full day is on the lagoon under sail, with a picnic on deck.
Breakfast is made together. Lunch and dinner come from a local vegan Portuguese chef cooking with fresh, seasonal ingredients. One evening you eat out at a local spot in Ovar. Afternoons have space for hammocks, the boulevard at Furadouro, ice cream by the sea.
In Carine’s own words:
“We will have a lot of the experiences of the surroundings as well, to sniff up a little bit of the culture of this region. And we’re going to have enough time to chill in the hammocks and to also just relax, to enjoy this beautiful land.”
Carine, Salty Saddles host
Meet the hosts
Carine van den Berg
Dutch, surfer, eight years in Portugal. Carine started Bonanza the land in 2021 with her partner Ricardo, a surfer, sailor and artist who’s been part of the build from day one. She wanted somewhere people could come and connect with nature in a way that wasn’t packaged. The land is the result. Salty Saddles is what happens when you invite Ocean Nomads onto it.
Brianna Brady
Brianna has been part of the Ocean Nomads team for years. Her first trip with us was a Madeira-to-Canaries crossing; she stayed and grew into our Community Captain and everything support. She’s a lifelong nature and animal lover, splits her time between the ocean, a sailboat, a van, and the places that pull her. Salty Saddles is the trip she’s been waiting to host. So she created it. More about the team.
Salty Saddles is one of the trips on the platform under our powered by Ocean Nomads model. Different from our flagship Twister voyages: smaller, slower, land-based, co-created by people who live the lifestyle and people who live on the land. We bring the community and the infrastructure. The hosts bring the trip.
No experience needed just an open mind and a willingness to try something new.
Come to reset, reconnect with nature, step outside your comfort zone, and leave with new skills, new friends and memories that will stay with you long after the week ends.
Live Q&A on Thursday 2 July
Carine and Brianna are hosting a live Q&A on Thursday, 2 July 2026 at 19:00 CEST. Forty-five minutes. Bring your questions about the itinerary, accommodations, what level of horse, surf, or sail experience you actually need, what the food’s like, what to expect from a week on the land. They’ll answer in real time.
Bonus: anyone who joins the Q&A gets €50 off their booking if they decide to come on the trip.
Email ahoy @ oceannomads.co and we send you the meeting link.
How to join
The week starts Sunday, 20 September 2026. Prices, what’s included, what to bring, and the application form all live on the trip page.
See the Salty Saddles trip page
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