The Azores are a set of 9 volcanic island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean that belong to Portugal. They are actually the top of the Mid-Atlantic Mountain Range (the same as Iceland) and the most westerly point in Europe. They are also more or less halfway between England and Canada so made a great destination to explore with both my English and Canadian friends. We decided to meet there a 10 day trip to explore 2 of the 9 islands, keep reading for our itinerary and my suggestions…

Day 1 – Ponta Delgada

We arrived early in the morning on the first day, but the Brits were not arriving till later otherwise we would have gone straight to the next island. We only had one night in Ponta Delgado, the main city of the Azores, so we spent most of the day walking around exploring the city and grabbing an extended lunch. Ponta Delgada is a beautiful black and white city, but we didn’t find that it had all that much to do without a car. When the Brits eventually arrived we all went out for dinner and drinks downtown at Taberna Acor which introduced us to the concept of meat on a rock. Apparently it was delicious, but I can’t comment seeing as I’m a vegetarian so I ate cheese and wine instead (a common theme for me on this trip).

Ponta Delgada

Day 2 – Terceira Island

We took a morning flight to Terceira, the second most populous island, and were met at the airport by our Air BnB hosts with our rental car. After settling in to our beautiful accommodation on the edge of Angra do Heroísmo we immediately decided we needed a swim. We headed down to the closest swim spot that our hosts recommended – Silveira. It was not the most spectacular swimming spot we went to on this trip, but we desperately needed to shake some hangovers and it had a nice pier to jump off of. Hangovers (mostly) gone we decided it was time to hike Monte Brasil in the centre of town. This hike was only meant to take about 2 hours, but of course we got distracted and ended up walking down every detour we could find. It was a beautiful and easy hike with a pretty sunset view. Watch out for the excessively friendly deer that roam freely. Our accommodation was a little far from downtown so we decided to cook dinner at home.

Accommodation – Lost in Terceira 

Monte Brasil

Day 3 – Terceira Island

After a late start we decided to head up to Santa Barbara view point, the highest on the island. It was covered in clouds (apparently it almost always is) but was still a beautiful drive up and a fun place to walk around though the very moist plants. Next up was a dive and snorkel with Octopus divers. We had some beginner divers with us so we did an easy dive right off the port to a small ship wreck. The dive was pretty decent, but not spectacular.  The highlight was a large octopus :). Then we explored Angra do Heroísmo, a UNESCO city and grabbed some food.

Santa Barbara

Day 4 – Terceira Island

We took full advantage of the car and did a big drive around the island today. The first stop was Miradouro da Serra do Cume a view point with fantastic views of the green patch work fields, its worth the visit just to see how windy it was. Next we drove around the island to Praia dos Biscoitos, which was a great swim spot with a little cliff jumping and 1euro sangria. Next up was the volcanos and caves! We visited 3 different sites that are located within a 10minute drive of each other. Algar do Careão is the biggest cave / volcano which is apparently the only volcano you can go inside of in the world. Its pretty touristy, but worth it. We also went to Great Natal a small cave which we really enjoyed. We also went to Furnas do Enxofre which is a free board walk park where the ground smokes, it was pretty hard to fine, but was quite pretty.

Day 5 – Terceira Island to São Miguel

We caught a morning flight back to São Miguel, sorted out or rental car and settled into our Airbnb in Rabo de Peixe. Our first stop was of course a swim spot, Ponta da Ferraria. It is a hot spring that flows into the ocean so you can swim in warm ocean water. There is a pool at the top that you have to pay for, but if you walk down to the coast you can get into the water for free. Its was a little crowded and there weren’t that many spots to sit, but its a pretty cool spot to swim and walk around and explore the rocks. We also went to the Sete Cidades, two lakes that merge into one and it one of the most famous spots on the island. There is a hike here, but it was starting to rain so we just made a quick stop and headed back home. Dinner was spent at our Airbnb and watching the sunset with more then a little bit of wine.

Ponta da Ferraria

Day 6 –  São Miguel

Today we spent most of the day at Islote de Vila Franca, a small island with a nice beach off the coast. We bought a frisbee and our lunch and caught the hourly ferry to the island, there is nothing on the island so you have to make sure that you bring everything you need for the day there. Islote de Vila Franca is used for Red Bull’s cliff jumping, so we had been hoping to find somewhere to cliff jump but we unfortunately couldn’t fine any.  A large part of the afternoon was spent hiding from a massive rain storm in a cafe in Vila Franca do Campo.

Islote de Vila Franca

Day 7 –  São Miguel

We had a busy day planned today so after an early night we set off to do some canyoning at Parque Natural da Ribeira dos Caldeirões. This was one of the only organized tours that we did on this trip and we were glad we did, there was lots of cliff jumping and rappelling down waterfalls. We had a picnic lunch and spent an embarrassing amount of time playing king of the castle on a rock in the middle of the ocean. We then went to one of the hot springs by Lagoa do Fogo, but just for a short time as we needed to make our dinner reservation for the volcano stew. Lagoa do Fogo is famous for having restaurants that cook their stews using the volcanic heat of the land by burying massive pots. Make sure that you make a reservation as the restaurants need to know how much stew to bury.

Day 8 –  São Miguel

Today we sent off two members of our group and continued exploring with just the three of us. We started at the Salto do Cabrito waterfall, which we had tried to get here earlier this week, but got lost. It was worth the second try! Once we found the large green pipes we followed them down to this waterfall and had it almost to ourselves. Its quite cold, but is a beautiful swimming spot. In the afternoon we headed to the hot springs at Centro de Interpretação Ambiental da Caldeira Velha. I think we all preferred this hot springs then the ones that we went to earlier this week at Lagoa do Fogo.

Day 9 –  São Miguel

Our final full day in São Miguel we decided to do a hike and settle on Lagoa do Fogo, a nature reserve at a volcanic crater lake. The hike was alright, but we had expected to be able to swim in the lake which we could not. We also had a feeling that we might have done this hike incorrectly.

Day 10 –  São Miguel

Our finial day in São Miguel and we still feel like we’ve missed so much of the island, for such a small island there is so much to see. Today mostly consisted of packing, a large breakfast and then catching our flight.