Liquiçá

Liquiçá is a coastal town an hour west of Dili on a road that runs the whole way with the sea on one side and dry hills on the other. Its Portuguese church and administrative buildings survive from the colonial period, and the church was the site of a massacre in 1999 that is marked with a memorial. The beaches west of town are among the best on the north coast, with dark sand and clear water and almost nobody on them. Fishing villages along the road sell their catch directly from the boats. The whole stretch is an easy day trip.