10 Reasons You Have to Visit the Azores

The Azores archipelago is Portuguese, but is situated very far away from the mainland in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. 

The Azores are ripe with delicious foods, geographical wonders and landscapes straight out of Jurassic Park. However, due to their isolated location and how expensive it was to reach them, they're sadly often missed out by visitors to Portugal, and even the Portuguese themselves. 

But this spring, cheap flights finally opened up from Lisbon, so we were able to visit. We loved it and ended up spending a whole month on the largest of the islands - Sao Miguel.

Sao Miguel pretty much has something for everyone so here are 

10 Reasons we think You Must Visit Sao Miguel and the Azores

1. Sete Cidades lake

The Sete Cidades lake was named one of the seven natural wonders of Portugal. Portugal is so beautiful that it had a lot of competition, but when you visit it you can see why it won: 

The lake is situated in an ancient, dormant volcano. You can walk all around the lake and all around the top of the volcano. If you do walk around the top you really notice where the lava has affected the earth (i.e. how the forest looks like four tongues).  

Even though it really looks like there are two lakes, there is actually only one. (It's divided by a bridge). The sunlight reflects differently on the opposite sides of the lake making one part look blue and the other green. 

This prompted a legend about a King refusing to let his daughter marry a shepherd. They cried so much that they filled up the lakes. A guy we met told us the blue lake is the daughter's because girls cry more, but he was wrong (and sexist). The blue lake is the SHEPHERD'S because his eyes were blue (and he probably cried more). 

Sexism aside, this kind of beauty was one of the main reasons we wanted to come to the Azores and it did not disappoint.

Tips for Sete Cidades: 

• DO spend all day there, you can hike round the bottom, walk round the top, even hike from the top to the bottom (that takes ages don't do that). You can also walk right underneath the volcano, but actually.. 
• DON'T walk in the tunnel underneath the volcano, it takes about 20 minutes, is pitch black and is a nightmare for anyone whose seen 'Creep' or 'the Descent' or any horror film really.
• DON'T now go and watch the trailer for 'the Descent' I'm now super scared. Okay, deep breaths..
• DO make sure you go on a sunny day 
• DO see the second reason to go to the Azores for the best view of Sete Cidades. 

2. Sete Cidades' haunted hotel: Monte Palace 

Okay, so speaking of horror films, how would you like to visit the set of a French one? 

Monte Palace was a French, yuppie, bad investment in the 80s. 30 years ahead of it's time it over-estimated the amount of tourists heading to Sao Miguel. Within a year it was closed down. 

For ten years or so, guards (and guard dogs) were employed to make sure no one broke in to steal the furniture/carpets/windows. But when the money finally ran out, nature was allowed to take over.

Photo credit: Petar Dimitrov, polygot

Well nature, the graffiti artists, and the annoying tourists:

Apparently a few years ago a French horror film was shot here, but we can't for the life of us find it's name :( or what it's about. We'd love to see it, so if anyone does know it (or can use Google.fr) please help!

It was creepy, but if you can, you MUST go on the roof. The views are the best. 

Tips for Monte Palace: 

• DO go in the rooms and imagine how luxurious the hotel would be with a view like this
• DON'T worry about being told off about going in there, there are no signs that say you can't, the doors are wide open and there are lots of other tourists there.
• DON'T go at night, unless you are super brave
• DO be careful, there are lots of old lifts you can fall down

3. Caldeira Velha

Located very close to Lagoa do Fogo (another volcanic lake) is Caldeira Velha - and it's the best! It's basically three hot lakes heated by the volcano.

This is the top one, it's about 25°C and has a waterfall

We (foolishly) went in this one first, thinking that it would be warmer than it was. 

Then we got in the next one (38°C) it was much warmer (duh). 

Having complained that the first one was too cold, we soon discovered that the second one was too hot (eat your heart out Goldilocks). No really, eat your heart out Goldilocks: 

Now who has the gold-iest locks?

It really was very relaxing, but because of the sunny weather we couldn't stay in for too long.

The third pool was a whopping 61°C! Drastically dangerous to go in, but perfect to dry off next to. 

Tips for Caldeirha Velha: 

• DO go in the 38°C one first and then the 25°C
• DO make sure you go in the water, it's very relaxing
• DO try and go on a colder day, it would be perfect if it was snowing!
• DON'T step in the 61°C one (duh) 

4. The Wildlife 

Photo credit: Petar Dimitrov

With a great environment and very few humans, there is a lot of wildlife here. Lots of unique birds, cute frogs: 

and absolutely abundant with one of our favourite animals - Lizards: 

As House Sitters, our favourite animals are dogs, closely followed by cats. But the dogs and cats aren't that great here. Okay some of the dogs are cute but most of them are actually SCARY. We walked across the island one day, passing lots of farms with lots of scary (thankfully chained up) dogs. 

The cats aren't a lot better, they're not really scary (what's are they going to do, bite my toe off?) but they are a bit skanky/underfed/flea-bitten/inbred. We felt a bit sorry for them so gave a couple of them some fish heads. It wasn't long before they came back with an army:

but at least it included their cute (inbred) babies!!! 

But maybe skanky cats,  scary dogs and lizards aren't your thing.. Don't worry the Azores save their best wildlife FOR THE SEA:

We saw dolphins and whales with the wonderful Picos de Aventura if you'd like to hear more about that perfect day, please check out this post. 

5. Furnas

The third volcanic lake of Sao Miguel is called Lagoa das Furnas and the volcano is actually still active (though it's last eruption was in 1630). 

Because of the activeness of the volcano, there are plenty of geysers (hot springs where water sporadically boils) hence all the steam:  

They boil eggs in these waters! 

But we didn't eat eggs, instead we opted for a traditional cozido which had been cooked in the ground: 

Yum

Even though it looks like a mud pie, it's a bit more sophisticated than that. Meats, veg and rice are placed together in a pot and then buried in the earth for five hours. The volcano heats them up and gives you a yummy mess of foods cooked in each others' juices. 

Photo credit: Petar Dimitrov 

These cozidos are cooked right next to the lake, which is beautiful

We mountain biked round the edge of the lake and then kayaked on it. It was a great way to see everything in an interesting way and from all angles. But for more on that check out our other post Canoeing and Mountain Biking on Furnas

Tips for Furnas: 

• DO go kayaking and mountain biking with Picos de Aventura 
• DO have the cozido cooked from the ground (unless you're a vegetarian). I can't say it was our favourite food on the island, but the novelty makes up for it. 

6. The Food

So what was our favourite food on the island? All our favourites were found in teeny tiny  place called Capelas on the north side. 

Firstly they have a bakery there which is to die for, not many tourists come to Capelas (there's nothing to do there) so the prices are kept low and the tastes are kept yummy for the natives:

This 'Pastel de Nata' was the best we've ever had. Pastel de Nata is apparently custard tarts, but I've never had custard tarts like this in the UK. I'm no tart expert (haha, far from it) but I think the difference between the UK ones and the Portuguese ones is the pastry. 

Anyway, Pastel de Natas in Lisbon will set you back about 70 cents. The Pastel de Natas in Capelas are just 39 cents! 

But our absolute favourite food came from our neighbours. They kindly invited us round to have food with them and their friends. It was one of the best meals we've ever had! They cooked most of the things in their wood oven:

We had bread, fish, potatoes, beef, chorizo, all cooked perfectly in the super hot oven. 

They also had home made cheese which wasn't pasteurised and may be the best cheese we've ever had.

There was also plenty of wine and homemade tangerine liquor.

All the food was either from their garden or from the island, or from the ocean. It was all delicious. 

7. The People
Our neighbours weren't the only nice people we met in Sao Miguel. We also managed to hitchhike 20 times on the island.

Hitchhiking was another reason we wanted to come to the Azores. Before the Azores we were pretty much hitchhiking virgins. In the Azores you have to hitchhike. Unless you hire a car or like walking for 3 hours. There are basically no buses and the taxis are expensive. 

It turned out hitchhiking was really easy and really fun on Sao Miguel. As long as you stick to the main roads (so you know lots of people will pass). 

We were picked up by a mixture of natives and tourists (German and America, no British I'm sad to say). A lot of the natives didn't speak English, but it was fine. The ones who did revealed that a lot of the natives dislike tourists, they raise the food prices for the locals and crowd up all the lovely nature things. Oops. 

8. The coast

Whilst Sao Miguel doesn't really have any 'proper*' beaches, you can't fault the coast for it's crystal clear waters. 

The sea is pretty rough and should only be ventured into by experienced swimmers, but there are still sections you can swim in, because they've cleverly built up the rocks to create a kind of 'sea swimming pool'. You get all the benefits of sea swimming, without having to worry about being swept out to sea! 

*by proper I mean white-sand, enjoyable to lay on type beaches, this is not the Algarve, but that shouldn't put you off visiting!

9. The landscape 

If you're bored of the coast, be sure to check out the inland, which is super green. There are lots of mountains/hills dotted across the island and most of them are in weird pointy shapes. 

We actually walked one day from Ponta Delgada to Capellas (i.e. from the south coast to the north coast). It took three hours but it was absolutely beautiful! 

10. The awesome activities 

Our final reason that we think you'll love the Azores is because of all the chances there are to do cool sports surrounded by beautiful nature. Alongside mountain biking and canoeing/kayaking (which we loved), you can also go fishing, bird watching, canyoning, hiking, horse riding, hang gliding, scuba diving and surfing. 

All in all we absolutely loved the Azores, it's one of the best islands we've ever been to and one of our favourite places in Europe. No matter what you're looking for, be it relaxation, excitement, wildlife, volcanoes, good food, nice people - you're guaranteed to find it in the Azores. So what's stopping you? Well maybe the practicalities, but let's look at those now

 

Things to know before you arrive:

Getting to the island
We flew from Lisbon and thanks to Skyscanner (a website that lets you compare all the plane prices) our flights were pretty cheap.

Getting around the islands
Like I said, we got around solely by walking and hitchhiking. We really recommend hitchhiking, it was loads of fun.

You could of course hire a car here (we recommend doing this on Skyscanner's car comparison site). 

Please do believe us though when we say buses aren't an option. They go about twice a day, if that,  and don't go to the places you want to go. 

Accommodation: 
House Sitting
Confession: we did NOT House Sit here! When we were booking our flights there were no House Sits on the island! 


Saying that, the moment we got back from the Azores, a House Sit popped up there! So it's worth checking out Trusted House Sitters - Portugal for House Sits before you book. 

AirBnB
Instead of House Sitting we opted for AirBnB, which was good because it meant we got to meet our real Azorean neighbours and share that lovely food. It also meant that we could be out all day, without worrying about being back to let the dog/cat out.

On the other hand, we missed having a pet so much! (Hence the attempted bonding with the skanky cats).  It also meant that our accommodation wasn't very fancy and we actually had to pay for it! Which we never really do. But if you'd like to use AirBnB we can offer you a discount here! 

Hotels 
A third option would be staying in a hotel! If you fancy staying cheap but nice accommodation in the Azores, try Agoda. Here you'll find good hotels at discount prices. 


The weather 
The Azores have some crazy ever changing weather. Sao Miguel is a pretty small island, but you can have bright sunshine on one side and torrential rain on the other.

Hence we recommend going to the Azores for at least two weeks if you can. There is so much to see and do there, and if you only come for 3 or 4 days, there is a possibility that all you will see is fog! 

Food prices
We were surprised by how cheap food was on Sao Miguel - especially outside Ponta Delgada. We'd (dimly) assumed that everything would be imported and thus expensive, but because of Sao Miguel's fertile lands and intermittent weather they can grow pretty much anything! The pineapples in particular were to die for. 

Sao Miguel has been one of the highlights of our last two years of travelling and we are busy recommending it to everyone. Our only regret is not being able to visit the other islands, but we will be back for that!! But what do you think? Would you like to go to the Azores? Let us know! 

Dolphin and Whale Watching around Sao Miguel, Azores

One of the first things that attracted us to the Azores was the chance of seeing whales and dolphins. As the Azores are literally in the middle of the ocean, you can see these beautiful creatures at any time of the year! 

There are numerous companies on the island that offer dolphin/whale watching tours. We chose Picos de Aventura (and recommend that you do too), for two reasons:

1) They don't disturb the cetaceans
Other companies on the island go out on bigger boats (with bigger engines) which can have up to 60 other people on board! That's not nice for the whales - and incidentally, not nice for the people either: Do you really want to be with a massive group of people all pushing for a front row seat? Or would you rather be with just a handful of others? 

2) They help research projects and are concerned about the animals and the environment 
Picos de Aventuras are working with Monicet which is a research project that wants to build a long term database of cetacean sightings. They are clearly passionate and knowledgeable when it comes to the preservation and protection of the animals - and the environment in general. 

We knew Picos de Aventura were dolphin and whale friendly, next we wanted to know how likely we were to see whales and dolphins

Like I said, the Azores are in the middle of the ocean, so dolphin and whales are very common there. However, the ocean is still massive and the boats are tiny so how do they know where to look?

Picos de Aventura employ a clever technique - they have lookouts on the mountains who use military binoculars to spot the whales, then they radio/phone the boat and tell them which direction to go!

Despite the commonness of the cetaceans and the cleverness of the binocular plan, there is still a chance you won't see whales - they are wild after all. In this rare case, Picos de Aventura give you the option of coming back on another day free of charge, or having your money back. Which is really cool, a lot of other companies don't do this. 

Ultimately, as long as you're at the Azores for long enough, you will see dolphins/whales. By long enough I mean at least a week (but ideally a fortnight - or a whole month like we did ;) ). 

The Azores weather is very volatile and if you come here for just three or four days, yes even in the middle of June, you could get four days of rain and you won't see the whales.

All in all, Picos de Aventura manage to keep everyone happy - they ensure the tourists have the highest chance of seeing the whales, but they also make sure that the whales are kept safe, by keeping the correct distances and forbidding swimming with them.

The boats go out three times a day, and we opted for an afternoon one:

We sat right at the front of the boat, we were warned that it would be less bumpy at the back, but we wanted to 'Jack and Rose it' and pretend we were the kings of the world. It was indeed bumpier at the front, but not that much bumpier and the views were worth it: 

i.e. we didn't have to see the backs of people's heads

We hadn't been at sea for very long before we saw our first dolphins!!

It was so cool to see them in the wild, they came right up to the boat, so the engine was respectfully switched off. There were lots of dolphins and we even saw pups! It really was magical.

Next we saw a Portuguese man o' war, apparently named because they look like the old Portuguese ships. Not because they're actually Portuguese.  

Anyway, I was busy thinking that we'd been lucky enough to see dolphins and jellies and have a great boat ride. There was no way we were going to see whales too, but then we saw a whale blow.. we saw whale blow? We saw air exhale explosively from a blowhole???... Basically we saw water burst upwards in the distance and were able to shout 'thaar she blows!!!' 

Blow

The boat sped towards it and soon we spotted it! It was a sei whale!!

Hi Sei!

Sei whales are the fourth biggest whales in the world. And it really was big!!! It kept moving along steadily - surfacing and diving. I managed to take a lot of shots of it diving, and due to the water colour and the fin shape, it kind of looks like a dolphin!:

But this amazing photo from Felix will give you an idea of how big it really was: 

It was so exciting! After ten minutes or so of observing the whale, we turned back to shore. We were quite far from Ponta Delgada at this point, but luckily our guides kept things interesting by showing us the Islet of Vila Franca do Campo - where Red Bull do Cliff Diving!

We highly recommend Picos de Aventura - they are by far the best adventure company on Sao Miguel. This was a really exciting, wonderful day. We were in the Azores for one month, this and Furnas were our absolute favourite days.

Recommendations:

• Sit at the front of the boat if possible - it's lots of fun
• Make sure your camera is waterproof 
• If you have limited time on the island, whale/dolphin watch on your first day - that way if you don't see any, you still have time to come back another day!

We were invited on this boat trip as a guest of Picos de Aventura, but, as always, all opinions are our own.