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We have a trip planned for a week in the Azores towards the middle of this year… our current plan is to focus on Sao Miguel (and possibly explore further on subseqeunt future trips when our budget is healthier).
Interested in peoples experiences and recommendations from their own trips, or anything else that might be of use to us.
I don’t personally know of anyone who has been there, but it’s one of those destinations that I’m confident a few people on this site will have been to.
Absolutely magical place. We went when locked down at in laws in Portugal, during lockdown.
It completely depends what you like and how long you have, as to what I would recommend.
We did 1 night Sao Miguel, 3 nights Sao Jorge, 4 nights Pico (with a day trip to Faial) and 5 nights on Sao Miguel. That was a perfect amount of time on each.
We did everything from going in to the caves, and wineries of Pico, hiking up and sleeping at the top of Pico. On Faial we got the car ferry over, and mostly driving around the island – but there is some stunning scenery on there, with a proper Portuguese farmers lifestyle prominent. It is a popular stopping post on Atlantic sailing trips – so big nautical community too. In Sao Jorge, the scenery is like Jurassic Park – we did some fantastic excursions, including visiting Europe’s only tea plantation. Bit of a hairy landing though over from Sao Miguel!
Sao Miguel is just delightful. So much beautiful scenery and you can drive and hike as much as you like. Wonderful thermal spas – stayed at the Furnas Boutique Hotel, which had its on thermal spa. Really unique location in Furnas – site of the largest concentration of thermal waters in Europe. Many other fantastic locations to stay on the island too.
We went in September. Sea water was warm. They say there are only 2 seasons in Azores – Summer and Winter. Weather can be really changeable on each island – one side could be clear, and the other super foggy.
The food is also great too. Fantastic meats and dairy foods, particularly good cheeses. The islands also have pineapple plantations and honey a plenty. Fantastic portuguese hospitality. I could go on and on…
It’s really popular with the Swiss, Germans, French and of course Portuguese. Didn’t see a lot of Brits. OH is Portuguese, so language wasn’t an issue for us – but recall not everyone spoke English.
Let me know if you have any specific questions on any of this. I would advise if you only have 1 week or less, do just stick to Sao Miguel.
I’ve been to 7 of the 9 islands (Santa Maria and Graciosa are still on my bucket list!) and I agree with everything redlilly has said.
Something I found really useful – especially on Sao Miguel – was an app called Spot Azores which shows you webcams at different points around the island. The weather is so changeable and it’s perfectly possible for you to be in bright sunshine on one part of the island while somewhere a few miles away is suffering torrential rain. I had a list of viewpoints I really wanted to see and so I’d check what they looked like on the webcam in the morning and then yell at my other half “We need to get in the car now, Lagoa do Fogo is out of the clouds!”. It definitely saved us a bit of the disappointment you get when you drive somewhere and don’t get to see the view you expect.
I think if you have a week, sticking to Sao Miguel is perfect. That way even if you have a few days of wet weather, which is possible at any time of year, you should still have enough time to see the places you want to see in the sunshine. I made the mistake of only spending two days on Pico; it rained the whole time and I didn’t get to see half the views I expected.
If you do get the chance to explore further afield, Flores is an absolutely amazing island; the most Jurassic Park of all of them I think 🙂 You can do a day trip by boat from there to Corvo and hike in the volcanic caldera, which is also really cool.
Has anyone been whale-watching there? I am absolutely hooked after our experience with humpbacks and orcas in Mexico (I’d seen pilot whales previously, but they’re basically just big dolphins, so, meh). Also – any tips for the best scuba diving?
I’ve seen that IB flies MAD-PDL which could be a good option for anyone wanting to stick with OW.
Has anyone been whale-watching there? I am absolutely hooked after our experience with humpbacks and orcas in Mexico (I’d seen pilot whales previously, but they’re basically just big dolphins, so, meh). Also – any tips for the best scuba diving?
I’ve seen that IB flies MAD-PDL which could be a good option for anyone wanting to stick with OW.
Yes – we went whale and dolphin watching in Sao Miguel in July 2023 and were lucky enough to see lots of dolphins and a giant humpback whale jumping out of the water! We went with a whale watching company called Moby Dick. There are a few companies that sell tours at the harbour in Ponta Delgada.
We had a great time in Sao Miguel. Visited a number of thermal baths and did some great hikes with amazing views – Sete Cidades is stunning.
Restaurants – if you like steak I recommend Associao Agricola (not sure I have spelt that right!). Also recommend Quinta do Sabores – lovely farm to table restaurant.
We did this trip through BA Holidays with direct flights from LHR to PDL and stayed at the Santa Barbara Eco Resort which is a nice property. They have their own surf school and scuba diving if you are into that.
Thanks, that’s really interesting. There are no direct flights from the north of England so MAD is probably as good a connecting option for us as LHR. I’ll check out that resort.
When we were at the top of Pico, we saw whale watching boats head out from the island. So that is always an option if you want to go further than Sao Miguel.
Reading this stream really makes me long to go back and explore more of the islands. It’s definitely on my hit list for a revisit.
Some brilliant info here. Thanks so much for the responses, gives me something to start with 🙂
I can thoroughly recommend the Terra Nostra Hotel in Furnas. The breakfast is out of this world , and as a resident you get 24 hour access to the gardens so you can avoid the masses.
Hmmm – thought I’d written something but it appears to have vanished!
Have a budget of approx £150pn for accommodation (rules out Terra Nostra which has 3 night min stay unfortunately!)
Plan to hike, visit the springs, visit the vineyard on the north of the island, and generally potter about.
Long story short, thinking of splitting our time between Ponta Delgada and Povoacao. Does that seem sensible? Or given the journey times, just base in Ponta Delgada and stay there so can be more flexible on a day by day basis?
We spent a week between furnas and sao Miguel before flying to flores.amazing place. We flew with EJ to Lisbon then onto the azores. Then flew back with an overnight in faro.
# ponta Delgado and furnas
Thanks.
We ended up booking a few nights in Ponta, and the rest of the time in Ribeira Grande
Thanks.
We ended up booking a few nights in Ponta, and the rest of the time in Ribeira Grande
We stayed in the Santa Barbara Eco Resort there. Stunning beach and coastline.
In that case, as it’s local, definitely head – on time (as it gets super busy) – to this restaurant mentioned up thread…
Restaurante Associação Agrícola de São Miguel
Great meats and amazing wine, at great prices.
I’m 99% certain the answer is no, but my internet is playing up.
Is there a oneworld lounge at PDL?
BA and Iberia only fly there during the summer… so definite no to One World lounge.
There is an ANA lounge that you will gain entry to if flying BA J. Or have Silver, or Gold status etc.
It’s a pretty quiet airport normally, with seats around the airport (including upstairs) in quiet spots.
Thanks. We’re J so at least we know we have an option if we get to airport early. Appreciated!
So, I can’t really add much to what @redlilly , @Pebbles and @FH2 have already said, but thought I’d feedback a bit of our experience.
Did 7 nights. Flew out and back from LHR in Club. Journey out was fine, return was delayed slightly (1 hour) which given the state of the airport @ PDL, made it a bit of a nightmare (small cramped space, and all lounges are now closed so little to do other than sit and wait it out). It also means we didn’t get home till around 2:30am due to various motorway accidents / closures etc.
It’s a fantastic place… especially / moreso if you’re an outdoors person, enjoy walking etc. We spent the first 36 hours without a car in Ponta Delgado and were crawling the walls towards the end of that period. The car (and change of hotel to Riberia Grande) gave us so much more freedom.
The weather was definitely variable (and we were possibly a slight victim of the good weather England had last week, in that a couple of days towards the end of the week were windy and wet!), but generally, it was always 21c, but with a high humidity (90%) making it much warmer. Really felt that humidity on the hikes!
We noticed lots of Americans (but perhaps so because of our common language). It is only a 5 hour direct flight from the states though… there appeared to be regular flights to Boston, New York etc.
We stuck to Sao Miguel and did nearly everything we wanted to however Lagoa do Fogo escaped us, and a whale tour towards the end of the week got cancelled due to rough seas, but did a lot of the other walks (a few ‘Salto’s, Setes Cidades, Lagoa das Furnas etc). Didn’t do the Terra Nostra in Furnas but did do the Poça da Tia Silvina which is worthwhile if you want to briefly try scalding yourself lol
Shout out for the Gruta do Cavao (Lava Tube) cave tour in Ponta. I thought that was interesting, though you need to book in advance by email so a bit of back and forth might be required depending on how late you leave it (the long tour looked really interesting but gets booked up months ahead)
Had a fantastic meal @ https://www.quintadossaboresoficial.com/
Also ate @ Restaurante Associação Agrícola de São Miguel but both our meals seemed over-seasoned… (I’d happily give it another go though as the meat itself was fantastic!)
Oh… shout out for Vulcana brewery (and Azores brewery). The Vulcana one sometimes has live music on in the evening, and the Azores one has a fantastic food truck. Both have beer that costs a few more quid than the Especial lager in bars, but a nice trip out for something different.
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