Vacation to Azores, Portugal
An island-hopper's guide to the Azores Islands, Portugal
Until recently, even seasoned travellers would are already hard pushed to discuss the Azores on the map. But finally the entire world is getting out of bed to the allure these nine volcanic islands, scattered like stepping stones inside the mid-Atlantic. Whether you're watching the sunrise sneak up Pico's perfect cone, tearing around a crater lake with a mountain bike or holding your breath like a whale surfaces through the deep blue, using rumbling mass of beauty, are surely among Europe's last great island adventures.
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- Pico
- Terceira
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Dry-stone walls hemming in patchwork fields and much more cows than people - on Terceira's backroads, you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd been teleported on the Yorkshire Dales. But the illusion is short-lived since you round a bend as well as the Atlantic appears piercingly blue within the horizon, the meadows cave in to primeval laurisilva (laurel) forests freshly minted for Middle-earth, and also the volcanic Serra de Santa Bárbara massif looms on the west. Begin your discoveries the place that the great Portuguese navigators did: Unesco-listed Angra do Heroísmo, the Azores' oldest city, that has a formidable 16th-century fortress along with a pristine Renaissance old town. Descend to your island's core at Algar do Carvão, a 90m-deep volcanic chimney, then head northwest past postage-stamp vineyards to Biscoitos to swim in lava-rock bathing pools, sheltered through the crashing Atlantic.
- Faial
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You can't really say you've been to your Azores until you've bounced along the choppy Atlantic within a semi-rigid boat, the wind with your salt-entangled hair, waves tossing you against side to side. And all suddenly of silent exhilaration because you first glimpse a whale: the blowhole of your migrating blue or humpback, or even the smooth, torpedo-like form of the surfacing sperm whale, mostly sighted in Azorean waters. Faial is certainly one of the best islands to hook onto a whale-watching tour, including those run from the inimitable, bandana-clad
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Norberto (www.norbertodiver.com). Whale-watching excursions depart through the marina in Horta from April to October. Here you'll also find Peter's Café Sport (www.petercafesport.com), the jolly, flag-bedecked haunt of yachtsmen since 1918. Pop in for any G&T or possibly a plate of just-caught limpets. Upstairs is usually a one-of-a-kind scrimshaw museum, a nod for the island's former whaling industry. At the region's western tip is Capelinhos, the final volcano to erupt from the Azores in 1958, now an eerily beautiful, ashen landscape that falls abruptly on the ocean.
- Flores
- São Miguel
If you might have time for under one island, go with the biggest. São Miguel packs the very best bits from the Azores into one enticingly volcanic bundle. The southern capital Ponta Delgada, can be a graceful black-and-white affair, with mosaic cobbled streets meandering to a marina lined with fish restaurants. Base yourself here and day-trip to island hotspots like Furnas, in which a placid crater lake contrasts with spluttering caldeiras (hot springs) and smouldering fumaroles. Here, cozido, a fun meat and vegetable stew, is slow-cooked a metre deep for seven hours inside soil's geothermal heat; do it at Tony's Restaurant. You can float in brackish thermal waters for the 18th-century Terra Nostra estate nearby, now a botanical wonderland of ferny groves and gardens nurturing azaleas, camellias, hydrangeas, ginger lilies and cycads. When the fog peels back from Mirador do Rei lookout, the vista of Sete Cidades is staggering. Local lore has it the twin crater lakes were formed through the tears shed by way of a pair of star-crossed lovers: a green-eyed princess plus a blue-eyed shepherd. High on your itinerary, too, needs to be a dip inside pool at Caldeira Velha waterfall, a hike within the Lagoa de Fogo nature reserve and also a visit towards the time-warp which is Gorreana, Europe's only tea plantation, little-changed given it opened in 1883.
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Discover Portugal is our collection on the country’s top sights and a lot authentic experiences. Perfect for anyone who doesn’t need accommodation...
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