I too had never heard about the Azores Islands until about 5 days before I booked my flight there. In hindsight I think it was a United ad that drew my attention to that unknown but quite amazing location, as they just opened a direct 5.5 hours flight from NY to Ponta Delgada (the largest city in the island of Sao Miguel).
After reading a bunch of blog posts and watching traveling vlogs, we decided to go for it.
To drive the point fastest, here are some photos to entice your visit.
Travelers Profile:
We're a family of four, with a 7.5 yo boy and 5.5 yo girl. The parents are in their early 40s. We live in NYC.
So what is this Azores place you speak of?
The Azores are a group of 9 islands in the Atlantic Ocean, located west of Portugal, basically between Portugal and the US (see the face in the middle of the ocean). Most of the islands are volcanic. The largest island is called Sao Miguel (pronounced San Miguel). Sao Miguel Island features volcano craters, lush greenery, geo-thermal activity (small geysers and natural hot springs), waterfalls, stunning ocean views including black sand beaches and cliffs and more. And this is where I stop pretending that I know much about the Azores to educate others :)
My face in the middle of the ocean show the Azores location
What drew me to the Azores?
The features of the island reminded me a lot of what I loved about New Zealand and Iceland.
In short, stunning nature, variety, packed in a small and accessible island. In more details, mixture of:
Amazing nature
Gorgeous views
Uncommon things to see (geo-thermal action, black sand), water access (lakes and beaches)
Good weather (we visited in August when temperatures were 63-81F)
Easy car access to most locations
Small island: 1:30 hours drive from one end to the other
That all made this location interesting for adults AND kids.
Our plan was to be there for a week, landing on Tuesday 9am and flying out on Monday 11am, but sadly United has canceled the flight my husband and kids were scheduled to fly on. So we did Wed 9am to Mon 11am, a total of 5 days, as on Monday morning we headed straight to the airport.
Tips for traveling in Sao Miguel, Azores (in Aug)
Weather 1: Use SpotAzores.com. All sites, blogs and vlogs we read before visiting the Azores said you should start your day by looking at the web cams @ http://www.spotazores.com/ilha/s%C3%A3o-miguel/, see where the weather is good, and head out there.
Weather 2: I was really worried that I’ll be cold and that it’ll rain on me. I was so afraid I under-packed warm weather clothes and over-packed cold-weather clothes. 98% of the time the weather was comfortable and amazing. The one day we actually needed a rain coat, I - of course - forgot those at the hotel. My recommendation: make sure those are in your car at all times, and… enjoy your trip!
Miradors (view points): Every 5 minutes or so you will see a vista point (aka mirador) - they are each different and each worthy. Every time I thought I’ve seen enough and “it’s just another view point” I was delightfully surprised to be at awe with the views.
Cash / Credit: we rarely needed cash. I think all in all, in 6 days there, I used less than 40 Euros. 2 places I visited only accepted Portuguese credit cards and maybe one place required cash.
Day 0 (Tue)
[Due to the canceled flight I had a day alone on the island in which I tried to explore around the hotel to get a hold of what’s going on. ]
Visited 2 black sand beaches - those had lifeguards on site, bathrooms and showers for quick rinse nearby. The water was not too cold, according to some documents they had posted near the beach it was around 23-25C (~75F).
Across from the beach, there was a medium size water park, with an area for babies, and of course slides for older kids (or adults, I don’t judge). It’s 10 EU for kids and 20 EU for adults and had some food options on site.
I strolled down to the marina where I saw some water excursion operators where you could rent kayaks (turns out you can kayak to the islet, which takes about 40 minutes), go scuba diving or whale watching. It was useful information as we went from here later on our trip.
Towards the end of the day I couldn’t help it but drive (only 8 minutes!) to the lovely iconic church that was stunning on its own but also had vast views of Vila Franco do Campo (where our hotel was)
Day 1 (Wed)
Finally picked up the family from the airport. We went to a nearby mall (few minutes driving) and bought child booster seats at the supermarket (18 EU per seat while the car rental company charges 10 EU per day per seat) then we headed back to the hotel. After some fun at the pool, and lunch from a restaurant near our hotel, the kids were exhausted so we rested and later headed to Ponta Delgada to see the city and grab dinner. We went to see the three arches, walked on the boardwalk where we found a small playground and also climbed up a ton of stairs on an amphitheater.
Day 2 (Thu)
We started the day with a short hike (15-20 minutes) down to Lagua Do Congro (Congro Lake). The way down was beautiful and lush with green all around us. The hike down was easy enough that my husband could do it with flip flops. While we didn't swim in the lake (I read that it's safe and allowed), we dipped our feet in while we took pictures and had some snacks.
The hike back up was also fairly easy, and we headed to the other side of the island, towards Porto Formoso. The way there was stunning, shifting the atmosphere from beach-area to mountains and the weather changed to clouds, rain and mist. It felt like we’re driving in a bouquet of flowers, while occasionally someone in the car yells “cows” or “view!”.
We had lunch at a recommended restaurant where we all dared to try Limpets (sea snails) - which we all didn’t care for :)
Limpets - sea snails
We continued towards the only tea plantation in Europe - Cha Ferrara - missed the turn, stopped at a gorgeous vista point (aka mirador) with picnic tables. The kids ran around and enjoyed yelling, uhm, I mean, communicating with the nearby cows.
We strolled around the tea plantain and failed to find any smell of tea when sniffing the bushes. The free tea at the restaurant was delightful and we went back for more.
Later we headed to see more views, to a mirador (vista point) next to a lighthouse, and had steaks for dinner at Associação Agrícola de São Miguel (while the restaurant was nice looking, we felt that we had better steaks). Tired but happy, we drove back to our hotel.
Day 3 (Fri)
The pinnacle of day 3 was a Jet Ski excursion! We booked a guided tour where each parent drove a jetski with a kid (5 and 7 year old) riding along. My husband and I love riding jet skis, and being able to share that experience with our kids made us even more excited. We drove to Ponta Delgada’s marina where the tour took off from. The views were of course delightful. Admittedly I was worried my kid will fall off the jet ski or will freak out - none of which happened. They not only LOVED it but also when given an opportunity to drive it (which they were given) they took the front seat, and - to my complete surprise - were able to press full frothel while keeping the steering wheel straight and taming the beast that jet ski is. We were proud and in shock, and of course had a great time. The place had showers on the marina so we could wash the sea water off of us, and since we forgot to bring someone extra pants, we hit the nearby mall to buy new pants, grab lunch and shop for groceries (which were really cheap).
Given Ponta Delgada is closer to Sete Cidades than our hotel, we headed there.
As we’ve seen in previous days, the driving experience was a great one and it felt like immersing in a flower bouquet. Way before you get to Sete Cidades (remember? Two lakes, one looks green and one blue?) you pass a deserted hotel (we’ll talk more about this) and a mirador (remember? It means vista point).
Sete Cidades
So we took some time to enjoy the views, take photos, raise the drone for extra view points, take family photos and whatnot and then we decided to go and explore the deserted hotel - which we saw a few videos about. We couldn’t skip it, and that was a smart choice.
Let me try to tell you about the hotel in short: The luxury hotel named Monte Palace was opened in 1989 on a hill offering vast views of Sete Cidades and closed only 18 months later. It has been guarded and preserved for many years to prevent people from raiding the place, but eventually, was left unprotected and many people have looted it. Why? From everything we read online, it was the wrong time to open such a luxury hotel in the Azores, simply there was not enough audience for such a thing.
These days the hotel serves two purposes: an even taller view point for Sete Cidades and a super interesting site, like taken out of a zombie movie scene. We walked in despite the warning signs telling us we shouldn’t, and since we were with the kids, I pretended I’m not at all spooked. But I was. I kept waiting for ghosts or zombies to attack me, and I was shocked not seeing rats, cockroaches and the like. Really, you have to go in there, it’s such a unique experience.
Ponte Palace, Entrance
OK, so… after all that, we started driving down, it was about a 20 minutes drive to reach the tiny road where the two lakes connect. Being down there after spending so much time watching from atop was really nice, and we also enjoyed running after geese on the shore of the lake. It was 8:30pm and we had about an hour drive, so we hit the road back to our hotel.
Day 4 (Sat)
This day focused on a whale watching 3 hours excursion (we booked with this company). We never did such a tour and once again I found myself proud and surprised by my children’s ability to sustain and enjoy things I wasn’t sure they would. The tour we chose conveniently took off from near our hotel, so that was easy, and after a debrief explaining to us how important the ocean is for our lives and the whales, we took off on a very fast Zodiac boat, albeit not so comfortable to sit on for 3 hours. Anyways, of course we were all excited when it started, and the guides were very nice trying to keep us interested. We spotted several dolphins and sperm whales and about 1.5 hours into the tour I (and the kids) were ready to go back to the shore. My 5 year old surpassed my wildest expectations when she somehow managed to catch a nap on that boat :)
Just before we went back to the shore, we went to Ilhéu de Vila Franca do Campo, took a quick look at the bay and surrounded the island to enjoy its views.
After a rest at the hotel, we decided to take advantage of the long days (late sunset) and headed out to view Lagua do Fogo from Miradouro do Pico da Barrosa. If I recall correctly you can actually hike to that small piece of beach you see in the photo, but it was too late in the day for us to even consider that.
From there we continued driving to Caldeira Velha which is a really nice park with several natural hot springs.
Sadly for us they already “closed” the natural springs for cleaning (they can control the water coming in and out so they can actually clean them!) and we were also told we needed to book a time slot online to come in. We were still able to walk the park and enjoy it, and even dipped our feet in the water.
We drove to get dinner nearby, of course occasionally stopping at vista points to enjoy the gorgeousness of the Azores.
Day 5 (Sun)
Day 6, the last day before we said goodbye, focused on the Furnas area - the geothermal area of the island. I have to admit, that despite watching videos and reading about this place, I was able to enjoy it and as the day ended, I regretted not having more time to spend here.
Our first stop was at Miradouro do Pico do Ferro - overwatching Lake Furnas. Here too you can hike down to the lake, but as we left our car it started raining on us, and we are not the kind of ppl who hike in the rain :)
We continued to Miradouro Vista do Vale and from there drove to Furnas. We noticed a playground in the center of the city, so we stopped to play, walk around and grab some food. We ended up spending about an hour there, watching fish tanks, a man made waterfall and playing in the playground.
We then drove to Terra Nostra, circled the place 3 times until we found a parking spot, and went into the park.
We learned from a vlog that if you spend more than 25 eu in the hotel restaurant you get free entry to the park, and… we were hungry… so we tried to get a table. Sadly they just closed lunch and took their break before dinner seating.
We paid (in full), got into the park and looked for a spot to change our clothes. It was lightly raining and we made a mistake standing for a long time in the line, while there were more stalls, had we walked a bit further into the park. We enjoyed the smaller hot springs despite the rain. (Notice there are also 2 hot springs, so if the first one is full, just walk a few more steps to the 2nd one). We then went to the main pool, famous for its yellow/orange color and enjoyed that for a while.
We asked one of the guards to recommend a local favorite restaurant and he recommended Cafe Adelino. We appreciated the nearby ocean views and even a short but stunning hike.
We didn’t plan to go back to Furnas, but our path back to the hotel took us there, and how lucky was that? On our way back, we actually saw the real geothermal activity: steam and bubbly hot water coming out of the ground. We enjoyed exploring that area, running around, looking at awe at the steam and, even touching the water. One thing that stood out to me was how easily accessible “nature” was, in a very different way than how I experienced it in the past - behind ropes (in the US and in New Zealand).
On our way home we saw a few more vista points, you can’t drive around without stopping at one. And we said goodbye to the Azores’ beauty and nature.
Bottom line, you should go travel the Azores, before they become even more mainstream. Happy to answer questions and share our experience.
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