The Azores is a cluster of nine islands located in the North Atlantic Ocean, about two-thirds of the way from Canada to Portugal. The islands are fairly unknown to most people, which is something the locals are rather proud of. It’s “the Hawaii of Portugal” where it never gets too cold or too hot, scenic views present themselves whichever way you look, and cows are two-to-one for every island inhabitant. With the tourist season starting at the end of May, April doesn’t get to see many travelling visitors, the locals seem to hide in their homes and churches, so it really felt like the Islands were our own.
As in any place that’s not your hometown some things appear strange. In the Azores, people drive predominantly standard transmission cars, almost all streets are uphill/downhill extremes, people seem to park wherever they want, birds run across the streets when seeing an oncoming car, and there is pretty frequent cow traffic on the roads.
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The landscape and the nature are astonishingly beautiful. For all you know, looking at the photos, it could be Ireland but the bright greenery and volcanic rock walls are the Azores’ signature. Since the Islands are volcanic everything is made of volcanic rock: from the sand on the few beaches to houses and jewellery.
We ate cheese, drank beer out of tiny bottles and large pints, drove through a storm cloud with zero visibility (on several separate occasions), descended into the depths of an empty volcano, ate limpets, got lost, drank hot milk, jumped off of waterfalls, and hiked, well, everywhere we weren’t sure the car would be able to take us. As the weather was mostly cold and dreary the prospect of spending several hours on a boat exposing ourselves to an even greater amount of elements didn’t appeal to us, hence we didn’t get to see the whales. But that’s just one of the many reasons to go back.
Getting around
While there is public transportation, it is scheduled to accommodate the locals and their regular work days. As such, it does not reach all points of interest, runs infrequently, and not very late. While there are several tour operators offering their daily sightseeing tours they average at about $75+ EUR per person for a 4-hour/half-day tour and well over $100 EUR for an 8-hour/full day. Having a limited budget we wanted to maximize our experiences and have the freedom to see and do things at our own pace, hence, (as per multiple TripAdvisor suggestions) we rented a car.
The Azores operate on standard transmission vehicles so, if you thought you’d ever want to pick it up as a skill, now is the time – Europe does not do automatic. While driving a small standard car might not seem like a challenge, driving it in the Azores is. The islands are very hilly, roads are usually very narrow, especially in larger cities, and quite often even the GPS gets confused.
If you’re like us and are used to twelve-lane highways, driving in the cities on the Azores islands will probably be challenging and frustrating. The roads are predominantly cobblestone, generally averaging 18% slope, barely-enough-space-for-two-small-cars-to-get-by narrow thus seeming like a one-lane street with two-way traffic (so avoid renting full-size or larger vehicles on your trip). Most importantly, you know those spacious sidewalks allowing the driver a clear view of the surrounding environment and the upcoming cross-road intersections? They don’t have them in the Azores. The city roads are more like narrow pedestrian alleys between buildings with doors opening directly into the street with people coming out of walls before they suddenly materialize in front of the car. Warped hidden driveway-type mirrors are usually your only way to see if it’s safe to proceed through an intersection.
Driving outside of the cities provides a different set of challenges. It’s just a paved path (well, mostly paved) through the mountains, frequently zig-zagging up and down the hills, an abyss on one or both sides of the said path, and cows crossing it will stop in front of the car and stare at you for a while before sauntering up or down the steep hill and out of your way. I can’t speak for what it’s like driving in the tourist season, but in April it is frequently rainy and foggy. Clouds get “stuck” between the mountain peaks and you get the unique experience of quite literary driving through the clouds. These clouds are often the rain storm kind where you don’t really see where you’re going, don’t see the sides of the narrow road you’re on, nor where the said road might suddenly end.
What to do in the Azores
All roads are scenic so driving around never gets boring. There are plenty of options for hiking. Most islands also have scuba diving, whale and dolphin watching, jeep tours, and horseback riding.
Sao Miguel
This island can well enough be a trip on its own with all of the scenic points, caves, sports activities, and hot springs. On the day we visited Furnas, in addition to soaking in a hot spring and hiking down to the lake to see the hot steam come straight out of the ground, we opted for Canyoning. It is not canoeing or walking along the shore and looking into the canyons – canyoning is hiking up a mountain and then finding your way down by rappelling and jumping off of waterfalls. We were warned about the dangers and the cold that was to come but I don’t think either of us was really ready for what was about to happen. The entire way up I was genuinely afraid of slipping on the wet, muddy leaves and falling into nature’s abyss off a mountain rock. On the way down it was cold, wet, with a scent of fear and extreme thrill. Terror aside, I would do it again, with proper hiking shoes and a couple of years of swimming lessons behind me.
Terceira
The obvious thing to do in Terceira is to visit the caves. When you are standing at the bottom of an empty volcano 82 meters deep things do come into a different perspective. What we were not expecting to do in Terciera, however, is party. One of the nights our waiter recommended checking out a club across the street where there was some sort of a dance lesson night. Hesitating to go there we wandered around the block quickly realizing that Angra do Heroísmo is the party center of Azores, even though it was a Tuesday night. The Snack Bars were full, the streets were busy and, it seemed like, everyone in town was at the Club. People sitting around on stairs and tables, leaning and smoking out of the windows, an occasional child running across the room, and one notable man working the dance floor in what seemed like Brazilian fusion.
Pico
My clearest memory of Pico is driving through the mountains through a dark white cloud wondering if we will ever get home and how likely are we to slide off the said mountain into the ocean on the next turn. There is also a small wine museum (no wine tasting), a few small vineyards along Madalena, and a cool tour through Gruta das Torres, a recently opened to public volcanic lava tubes. Overall, Pico is a great place for scenic drives. The driver across the island through the mountains can get very cloudy, the weather up there is different, so be prepared for a slower journey.
Santa Maria
The beaches, people come here for the beaches and they are worth it. There are a number of natural swimming pools where the ocean water fills the pool area with plenty of sunbathing room around – this is where I want to spend a week in August. The island is small, we did everything that can be done on it in 3 days, enjoyed the view of the entire island from the single highest point on the island, saw the “red desert”, looked off every viewing point, found the 100 meters tall waterfall, hiked down to the ocean from a lighthouse and up the mountain between the vineyards.
Food & Drink
Let’s start with a few Azores basics:
Non-alcoholic drink: Kima – passion fruit juice.
Liquor: Pineapple liquor is a local drink and while we found it too sweet to drink without a mix or tea we’ve seen locals drink it neat first thing in the morning as a digestive.
Local fruit: Pineapple, they put that shit in everything, even the blood sausage.
Meat and Seafood: Beef, Pork, and a variety of grilled and fried fish. Local favourite delicacy is Limpets (or lapas in Portuguese), shelled sea snails of sorts, cooked in various sauces they are chewy and rubbery and I don’t love them just yet. It might take a few tries.
Cheese: OMG cheese. Most restaurants serve fresh cheese which is, as we learned, made of goat or a mix of goat and/or sheep and/or cow’s milk. It‘s wet, incredibly soft, and smooth, and melts on your tongue. Usually served with a spicy tomato sauce (not always spicy and often very salty).
A few things to keep in mind
When you ask for milk for your tea it is served warm. The blood sausage is by default sweet (pineapple). The meal starter is bread with cheese and, sometimes, olives that often get served by default and added to the bill later as a table order or per person. Because their kitchens are only open for lunch and dinner (7 pm) there are a lot of snack bars – small convenience store-looking places you can drink and smoke in while enjoying either a savory or a sweet pastry. The drinks are small, there are small beers, small milk, small juices, everything is small. There is no junk food, we saw one McDonalds in Ponta Delgada that didn’t appear to be much of a destination.
Almost everything comes with potatoes, they are not big on seasoning so we always had to ask for pepper, and things are often very, very salty. Due to the lack of seasoning the flavors often seem bland. When you order what looks like steak it isn’t always steak, sometimes it is a thin piece of meat served with a topping, like a fried egg or sandwiched with ham. Having come from Toronto with an avid flavour palate and high expectations we were frequently disappointed.
Azores are famous for their seafood so we kept on trying it. We had some great octopus and parrot fish. In Pico, we found some great pizza, with a lot of cheese, of course, in Clube Naval in Lajes. On our second night there we had dinner at a restaurant Ancoradouro in Madalena suggested to us by the locals, which was the best meal at this point of the trip. Note that the Cataplana de Marisco is listed as a dish for two, but the two of us ate it for two days so yes, the portions are generally very generous.
During our drives, we also stopped and had lunch in local small-town cafes, where they hardly ever speak English and serve authentic Azorean meals, the kind they eat at home. Those places were particularly special and wonderful in that rustic simplistic kind of way.
Accommodations in the Azores
Sao Miguel
Ponta Delgada has a great selection of hotels. White Exclusive Suite & Villas is a great choice for a luxury stay. The property has an onsite restaurant, an outdoor pool with a swim-up bar and a bar/lounge. Continental breakfast is included and the hotel offers airport shuffle. Following the pool theme there is Pedras do Mar Resort & Spa, which also has a gym, bike rentals, snorkelling, and a tennis court. We stayed at the boutique Hotel Talisman, breakfast and a rooftop pool included.
Terceira
On this small island, you can choose to stay somewhere cool and central like The Shipyard Angra in Angra Harbor or Palacio Santa Catarina in Se Cathedral. Both hotels have beautiful modern decor and plenty of amenities. For a more scenic and remote stay, there is Caparica Azores Ecolodge on the other side of the island.
Pico
Hotel Baía da Barca, just on the outskirts of Madalena, was our choice. Coming in we already had high expectations for this sustainable apartment suites resort: there was a beautiful pool on the grounds and a promise of a nice view. The promise of a nice view was an understatement, our suite looked out to the ocean through one window, where you could also clearly see the Faial island floating in the distance, and Mount Pico out of the kitchenette and living room window. Strong WiFi, cable, a consistent supply of hot water, and hot tea were much appreciated in the stormy weather.
Santa Maria
In Santa Maria, the options are quite limited. There are private rentals available if you’re looking for a place with a kitchen. Some are quite remote, we stayed between the mountains in a home with zero reception, which at the time was actually quite cool. If you are looking to stay more connected there is Hotel Colombo near Vila do Porto Marina which has an on-site restaurant, pool, gym, and other amenities.
What to pack
The obvious packing rule is to bring comfortable fitness attire, hiking shoes, and, if you plan to head up Mount Pico, sufficiently warm waterproof clothing (serious hikers only, no joke). I picked up a couple of outfits from Titika* for extra comfort and to look good for…the cows I guess, our audience was mostly cows. Sadly, I only got to wear the shorts under the wetsuit (should have gotten fleece leggings)- the comfort and warmth quality active wear brings is priceless.
Less obvious is bringing city clothes. In bigger towns, like Ponta Delgada and Angra do Heroísmo we frequently felt underdressed when dining out. Somehow, our yoga pants did not align with the heels and dress shirts throughout the restaurants. Our city attire consisted of skirts and dresses which, sadly, it was too cold for during our trip.
Our flight limited us to travelling with only a carry-on so with the cold spring weather I ended up wearing pretty much everything I brought, sometimes all at once.
