Azores - the mid-atlantic archipelago

The hidden jewel of Europe. The New Zealand of Europe (quite possibly). It is quite remote from Europe and full of wonderful nature and landscape to be discovered. Set in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, made up of 9 islands, this archipelago is an autonomous region of Portugal (so yes, it uses Euro and they speak Portuguese).

 

Most people when they hear Azores either go "where/what is Azores?" or "Oh I've heard of it, but don't know anything about it". Yes, it is that exotic and unknown. But it is abundunt in nature and marine life! And that were the reasons why we chose to go for our vacation. On the onset, we knew it was going to be an expensive holiday. We are both avid divers and the opportunity to see big marine life was a big pull for us so we were prepared to spend big bucks to go diving. General idea of island living is that everything will be expensive because it is so remote (i.e. Iceland), however, that was not entirely true once we stepped foot onto 2 of the 9 islands.

 

Azores has 9 islands. The main island and the one with an international flight (from Boston no less) is Sao Miguel. These 9 islands are grouped into 3 geographical groups: Eastern (Sao Miguel and Santa Maria), Central (Terceira, Graciosa, Sao Jorge, Faial, Pico) and Western (Corvo, Flores). Understanding the groupings will help you to plan which islands to visit within your timeframe as they are grouped according to proximity. The easiest place to start would be Sao Miguel since it has more frequent flights from Europe and also Portugal mainland (Lisbon, Porto) and that was also our first stop. After much deliberating and planning, we chose 3 islands (2 to stay on) - Sao Miguel, Faial and Pico based on what we plan to do - volcanoes/hot springs, fantastic diving (rays and sharks). Because of the flights, we chose to base ourselves out of Faial and did a day trip out to Pico to climb the mountain. That turned out to be the best decision as we both loved Faial much more than Pico (more on that later).

 

And so our adventures begun - we started off with 3 days in Lisbon and absolutely loved the city! It's a less touristy Barcelona with fantastic weather, colours and food! And it is cheap too! Wouldn't dwell too much on Lisbon but we did enjoyed the food and wine so much it pumped us up for the rest of the trip (couldn't wait). Moving around Lisbon is also so easy and cheap - Uber is a great and cheap way if you need to go somewhere further along. So is the public transportation network!

Sardine from Estrela da Bica

Best Mussels from Estrela da Bica

Ponte Final is recommended with great view and good food

Rosa da Rua - for only 14E(excl drinks) you get an amazing buffet!

Hub New Lisbon Hostel with Ball Pit!

 

We took a 2 hour flight to Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel (Azores Airlines is the only airline that flies to Azores). The flight was pretty standard (they do provide refreshment and free check in bags up to 25kg). Upon landing, we took the airport taxi to our guesthous (standard rate charged by the airport taxis - EUR9 to the city center). We checked ourselves in to Lena's Home in the middle of town (lovely place and really cheap on booking.com). The apartment is very well located in the quite part of town but close to where all the action is! And it is clean and well maintained. We shared the first floor with another room but you have free use of the kitchen and the outdoor area and free parking behind!

 

The town itself is very clean and well-maintained, with a rather European feel to its architecture. As we walked along the cobbled streets, you get the feeling that it's very relaxed and local - there aren't that many tourists on the streets. At the recommendation of Lena, we ate at O'Giro and boy were we spoiled. We thought 2 appetizers would not be too much of a big deal so we went for mussels and limpets and a main of Octopus. Big mistake! The 2 appetizers almost killed us! The portions were so big they could have been a main by itself! By the time they served the Octopus we were stuffed! Yet the prices were very reasonable (almost cheap by European standards).

Octopus fit for 2

Look at the size of the appetizers

 

The next day we booked ourselves to 2 dives with Best Spot Azores. If you ever dive in Sao Miguel, make sure you dive the Dori Wreck. It is a amazingly well preserved wreck just 10mins off the shore. Prices for diving are pretty standard with all the dive centers - usually 2 dives for 75E, excluding rental equipment (which usually costs between 15-20E per day). It is therefore cheaper to do 2 dives instead of 1 as you pay the same for rental and 1 dive is about 50E.

Dori Wreck

 

There's a nice little cafe near to Best Spot for a quick bit of local food - Mane Cigano. A lot of locals head over there for a lunch. Fried sardines, beef stews are some of the recommendation - all go well with a pint of beer in the afternoon sun! Not to mention cheap food (big plate of sardines with potatoes cost 6E)

Fried Sardine from Mane Cigano

 

Another recommendation for food is Taberna Acor. It is usually quite crowded but we managed to get a seat for 2! We ordered a few things off the menu and also tried their hot stone fish (where you cook your fish on hot stone). It's good and cheap food!

 

After 3 days in Sao Miguel, we've come to realize Azores is not the expensive place we thought it would be. True, activities are not cheap - pretty much European standards. But when it comes to food and drinks, they are super cheap. That's because most of them are local produces! Drop by Principe dos Queijos - where you can buy all kinds of local produce - cheese, wine, salsas, piri piri. We asked for recommendation of a medium priced good wine and the guy pointed us towards 4E bottle! You can even get a bottle of wine for 1E! That's how cheap it is! It also goes to show how much markup the restaurants are making on the wines - they usually sell for 10E and up. Well, with that price, it made sense that we bought a couple bottles of wine to savour at our own time. And cheese. The local cheese is really good! I personally really liked the Sao Miguel cheese. The Sao Jorge cheese (which locals say is the best) comes second in my opinion.

 

Sao Miguel is also known for it's land-based activities and hot springs. You cannot miss the hot springs here because it's not that common outside this island! We rented a car (25E per day all inclusive) from one of the car rental agencies and explored the island. Renting a car is the best way to move around the island freely. There are buses but they run on fixed schedule and only major stops (frequency could be once an hour) and that may not be the best option to move around.

Poca da Dona Beija

Poca da Dona Beija

At Poca da Dona Beija

 

Furnas - you have to go there for the hot springs and the furnas cooked meat. Poca da Dona Beija - this is an awesome outdoor hot springs with 6 different small pools - at 36C and the coldest at 28C. Entrance is 6E each and you get to spend unlimited time inside. The setting is in nature and you can hop to the different hot springs. They are the same, except for one which is 28C (and therefore less crowded). You can get a locker to store your stuff (only need to pay a deposit) or otherwise bring your bag along with you. At the recommendation of Lena, we ate at Tony's restaurant and Ian ordered the Furnas cooked meat stew - you kinda had to try it in Sao Miguel more for the method of cooking than the flavours. It was a HUGE plate of meat (and potatoes) for just 11E! But Ian didn't like it too much - meat was plain (no sauce) and rather dry from the long hours of cooking. I ordered the tuna (13E) which was a big plate with 2 fillets of tuna and a huge side of vegetables. All these went down with 2 glasses of house wine for 2E each that felt more like 2 flasks of wine. Value for money!

Cozido

 

We went to another hot spring Caldeira Velha. A little more expensive at 8E, you get 2 hot pools and 1 waterfall pool (water is a bit colder at the waterfall). It's a smaller area where you walk into a forest/jungle to experience the hot springs. The waterfall area is quite refreshing and nice, although a little cold surprise for my tropical body after the really hot waters.

Waterfall at Caldeira Velha

 

 

There's one vegetarian restaurant in Sao Miguel (figures, azoreans are generally meat eaters) but you need to make reservation in advance as the place is very small. We tried to walk in but unfortunately they were fully booked.

 

Another must stop is the Sete Cidades - which is a volcano crater lake. If you follow the road up to the standard viewpoint at Miradouro da Vista do Rei, you get to explore the abandoned hotel which was pretty cool! It was built in 1980s as a 5 star grand hotel (called Hotel Monte Palace) with the view of the crater. However, Azores wasn't that much of a tourist hotspot (it still isn't that touristy yet) so the hotel basically shut down after about a year of operation. We did get some video footage of the cool place but forgot to get it off the SD card before returning the Garmin to its rightful owner. The view of the crater is pretty amazing but make sure you go on a clear day! However, I recommend the other view point which offers a much better scope of 2 lakes - Miradouro da Boca do Inferno. That's the place where you see all those iconic photos taken of the crater lakes. Recommend to go early in the morning - at sunrise or right after. We drove up there at 630am, right when it got bright and we were the only people for at least an hour before another couple came. We were also very lucky to have clear skies to enjoy the scenery. The gate into the lake is closed early morning and late evening, but you can walk in (just no car when the gate is closed). What's better than having breakfast on top overlooking the beautiful crater lake.

 

From the Vista do Rei viewpoint

 

At Boca da Inferno

Had to do an acro pose with such beautiful background!

 

Another must go is the natural hot pools of Ferraria. We didn't know of this place until we chanced upon it while trying to find something to do as we drove to the coast! So glad we did because otherwise we would have missed it! It's a natural hot pool that's carved into the coast and meets the ocean water. You have to go during low tide to experience the thermal bath otherwise the water will just be ocean cold when it's high tide as the volume is too much to be heated. I wasn't ready to jump into ocean water initially, because COLD. Until Ian had his fill and told me the water is warm close to the edges. I didn't believe him still because he can be known to play tricks, until he kinda convinced me to give it a try (unwillingly). The first jump was not pleasant - water was indeed cold. So I swam with all my might towards the edges and OH BOY!!! Thermal bath! Where the earth heats the water, it is soooo warm and nice! I stayed in my place for quite a long while, not moving because I didn't want to leave the comfort of hot water! We came back another time but it was high tide and that didn't work with me so we jumped out of the water after 5 minutes. Be sure to check the tides if you want to experience the thermal baths!

Thermal pool of Ferraria

 

One of the purpose of coming to Sao Miguel was to try to dive Formigas (offshore). We thought of going to Santa Maria to dive Formigas due to closer proximity but the logistics of island hopping was too complicated. We looked into doing it from Sao Miguel and found out dive centers do make the trip but subject to extreme good conditions - sea has to be as calm as mirror, which did not happen during the 5 days we were there. It was rather disappointing but we got a good news from Faial island right before we left - a trip to Princess Alice has been confirmed and we are booked on it! Whoop! Princess Alice was one of the must-go dive locations in the Central Group and that news perked us up!

 

Henceforth, we flew to Horta, Faial with big smiles on our short 50mins flight, a taxi for 8km (15E) and we arrived at our airbnb which we rented from Naturalist. They operate the Porto Pim Guesthouse and all proceeds from the shop and rental goes directly into researches. Highly recommend them as the people are really friendly and helpful in dealing with visitors and customers. The Porto Pim guesthouse is gorgeous! The whole apartment has 3-4 rooms sharing the living room and kitchen and each room has its own bathroom. The room itself is small but adequate and the location is great! It is by no means expensive as well and close to so many nice eateries and the sea!

 

Horta is a really small town - everything is within walking distance. It is here that we saw a hypermarket! Not even Sao Miguel has one but Horta, such a small town! So anyway, our first stop was Norberto Diver to confirm our spot on the boat, but not before stopping by Gelados de Atlantico for a couple scoops of Gelato to cool us down! We were greeted by Rachel from Norberto who made us feel so welcomed and comfortable and glad we chose Norberto. We highly recommend diving with Norberto - the staff there feels like family and they really take care of you. And we went out to Princess Alice with a catamaran so that made the trip a lot more manageable! Some dive centers go out in rib boats - not the most comfortable for a 3H journey. We planned to do several dives with him and Rachel made sure we were booked on those dives and arranged the dates for us.

Beach at the doorstep in Horta

With the remaining of day 1, we did a couple short hike up the viewpoint in Horta itself. It's a short hike up to the top (where the church is) and the view of the bay was pretty amazing! There's also another hike up the opposite mountain.

View from the top

 

Norberto himself is such a guy! We met him the next morning as he delivered the boat to shore and personally greeted each diver. Gregarious, eccentric, full of life with wild hair! Just the kinda guy you want to be when you're old. He's so full of life and energy and passionate about marine conservation and what he does!

 

Our boat out to Princess Alice was with 8 divers and 3 conservationists (and 2 dive masters). Princess Alice is a 3 hour boat ride out to the open ocean and the sea wasn't exactly calm that day. A few people got seasick, me included, which was not the best start to an otherwise amazing dive trip. Before we made the trip out, Norberto personally promised we will definitely see lots of mobula rays. Afterall, Princess Alice is known for the Mobula rays. A trip out there consists of 3hours boat ride (each way) and 2 dives including equipment (240E per person). It is a static dive in the sense that you go down and hang by the rope while you wait for marine life to approach. This is essential as current can get real strong there and the rope is for your safety. With the first dive, we went in one by one and down the rope. It didn't matter to wait for everyone to be in the water as we would all just be hanging by the rope. And then the wait started. Nothing happened for some time, until we finally spotted a couple mobula rays. Before long, the first dive ended. We saw mobula rays but only a handful - not exciting by all means. When we all got ready to climb back onto the boat, a group of rays swam past. That must have been a good sign as the 2nd time we jumped back, they just started coming at us non-stop! There must have been at least 30 rays swimming around us that we didn't know where to look! That feeling was just so magical! Princess Alice dive can be a hit and miss - it is the big blue ocean no corals or reef and you basically wait for marine life to appear. If they do, you're guaranteed to be pleasantly surprised. However, if nothing happens, you're basically just floating in deep blue for 40minutes and that can be frustrating. Still, this is a must do dive when you come to Azores!

Chasing mobula or being chased?

 

Feeling lucky and because it's supposed to be the start of the season, we booked ourselves onto the next day's boat for some blue shark diving! It's 170E for diving or 150E if you just snorkel. I've found out that it's better to snorkel with these sharks as they don't go deep (bait is placed at 5m). Before the trip we were told a few boats tried to look for them but no one has seen them yet. We were both apprehensive but also felt lucky that we could be the lucky ones! Plus Norberto "blessed" us before our trip. We got into the speedboat with Martin and Fred (Ian knew him from before, and he is an amazing freediver/photographer) and Jorge. After an hour ride, we arrived at the spot and the baiting/waiting game begun. I was prepared to wait for some time but within 20 minutes, the first shark appeared. And it was just a mad rush to get equipped and jumped in. But he swam away faster than we could jumped in. After 15mins we surfaced and waited again. Not for long. 2 came next and I aborted my dive equipment and started swimming towards them. Blue sharks - they are such a beauty! Lean and streamlined and curious little fellows (ok not little). They really swim so close to you (at one point it swam under my belly) but not dangerous at all! I did not feel any fear when they got close. We must have played with them for a couple hours before we called it a day. What a great feeling!

Feels like JAWS

Close encounter with the Blue Shark

 

As mentioned Horta is a pretty small town so there are only a handful of restaurants. We were recommended some by Naturalist and pretty much they didn't disappoint. Genuino is opened by Mr Genuino who sailed around the world twice! It's an interesting conceptual restaurant (not too expensive), we found the food to be alright but not amazing though. Canto da Doca is another good restaurant where you cook your orders on hot stone. We liked it very much but remember do not oil your food before you put it on the hot stone! The staff told us that but I guess lost in translation and Ian put oil on the stone and smoke all over! You're meant to cook it oil-less on the hot stone and the meat shouldn't stick that much to the stone. They do change the stone if it cooled too much. Again reasonable price for the quantity of food! What we highly recommend and also by Naturalist is Atletico. They serve fresh fish (you choose the fish they have for the day) and really cheap prices. First time, we ordered tuna and parrot fish (both were about 13E each and the serving was HUGE). Second time, we went for the appetizers only and they were so amazing! I'm still thinking about the tuna sashimi (only 10E) everyday! The thing about ordering in Azores is be careful of the portions. If you think normally 3 dishes are enough, then order 2. Scale down is the key. They are so generous with their portions! The mussels and prawns we ordered were amazing as well! If you plan to eat at Peter's Cafe (it's got 100 years of history on Horta), make sure you order the mussel dish - one of the best we've had! Just a note, all the fish from the restaurants there are from sustainable source, not mass fishing industries.

Great concept Ok food

Best meal in Faial!!!

 

After almost 2 weeks, we've come to realize that vegetables are not very popular on the menus of restaurants. The best salad they come up with is lettuce with a few tomatoes and cucumbers. Not the most appetizing dishes. Even ordering a side of roasted vegetables only turned out to be 1 corn, 1 slice of zuchinni, 1 slice of pepper, 1 tomato - very uninteresting. There are some vegetarian options in Horta restaurants (should I say 1 option only?) but they are not the most appealing options. If you go to the supermarket, you do see variety of vegetables available both grown locally or from other countries. We asked the locals and they said it's more about hospitality and showing people the food in Azores - so serving meat is the best showcase of the local food instead of vegetables. Serving meat shows hospitality and abundance.

Pico

 

One of our free days, we took a trip to Pico. It's only a 30min ferry ride across from Horta and about 7E each way. Very convenient. Took the first ferry out to Pico so we could start the Mount Pico climb early! Mount Pico is the highest mountain in Portugal at 2,351m above sea level. We took a taxi (25E) from the port to the start of the climb and registered for our climb (you pay 20E to climb and you get a GPS each). When we arrived, the wind was blowing so strong and it was so cold! We were not expecting that! Be sure that you are wearing properly footwear as they will stop you from climbing if you don't have proper shoes. Also wear layers because the weather changes constantly as you climb. When we started it was so cold I had on 3 layers of clothes but as we climbed further up, the sky cleared and the sun started shining and the layer came off. Towards the top, the wind is pretty strong so be careful! It took us about 2.5 hours to get to the top. There's some thermal steam coming off the rocks where you can seek shelter and warmth from. The path up can be steep and slippery at times so be careful. It is all very well marked so you can do it easily on your own instead of taking a tour (would have cost you at least 80E per person). Took us about 2 hours to come down - all in all less than 5 hours. The guys at the reception would tell you an average of 7-8 hours to complete but we figured we could do it in less as you already started the climb at above 1000m. You can call for a taxi at the reception or try to hitch a ride to the port if you don't have your own transport. The climb itself was alright, was not the most spectacular climb we've done and it was not difficult by all means - not technical. The view was pretty great when the clouds cleared. If you're physically fit, you would have no problems at all!

Route up Pico

On the top

Hanging on to dear life at the top of Mt Pico

 

Of course we did not leave the island without more water activities! We tried swimming with dolphins - amazing creature but so hard to swim with! They swim so fast and even when we spot them so close, once we got into the water they started swimming away! We managed to see them underwater for a few seconds but then it was up to the boat and chasing them. And nope, making dolphin sounds didn't work.

Up close with Dolphins

 

We did another dive with Norberto at Furnas. Was a really cool dive as we dived into a cavern and saw loads of eagle rays coming at us!

 

Before we left, we went up to the Caldeira with 2 mountain bike rentals. It was a very expensive trip which on hindsight we should not have done. Cost us 60E for half a day of rental with transportation up to the crater. Horta being a volcanic island, is probably a haven for avid mountain bikers but for someone like me, it was so tough cycling up up up up all the way with no end in sight.  Was a nice form of exercise though but was quite tough going for me at least. Probably not recommended to try to rent bicycles as they cost more than renting scooters.

Caldeira

 

Another recommended place to visit is the lighthouse where that area is built up by volcanic lava (so technically new land). However, we didn't have the time to do it as we spent our last day swimming with dolphins again :)

 

There's so much to do and so much to offer from the Azorean islands! We heard that Sao Jorge is amazing and not many tourist so it still retains a lot of its natural beauty. And from pictures/videos it is just a massive cliff which looks so inviting and mysterious. All the different islands have different things to offer in terms of land-based and water-based activities and if you love nature and hiking, there's so much to do on the islands! Definitely Faial if you want some of the best diving in Europe. Sao Miguel cannot be missed because it has so much to offer and I so miss the hot springs every single day! The good things about Azores is the temperate weather! When we were there in summer (July), the highest temperature was around 24C but the sun made it so much warmer than it really was! And you don't get extreme winter weather but you do get storms. It is afterall in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean! If you're already used to European water temperature then it is by no means a shock to you to know that the average diving temperature was 19C. I had 7mm wet suit with hoodie and was still freezing. But I'm tropical. Ian on the other hand had no problems with that water temperature but he's weird (he went swimming with dolphins without any wetsuit and the water was 20C).

Is Azores expensive? For such a remote archipelago, it really isn't expensive. We were pleasantly surprised by how affordable it was! Food was cheap and servings were huge! Case in point, a main dish (and HUGE) was about 10-15E (we don't eat meat, so couldn't say much about beef and stuff but if I remember, beef wasn't expensive). So in fact it is a lot cheaper than a lot of European countries purely by the size you get for the price you pay! By the way, the locals praise about their meat (or beef) and by the looks of all the free roaming, healthy cows we saw along the way we believe the beef would taste really good. Although after 5 days of those large portions, we were feeling a little overdosed with eating at some point (ok that might sound like pampered bitches but you do get frustrated with too much food sometimes), and the lack of proper vegetables was bothering us quite often. Wine and beer we enjoyed very much - locally produced and cheap. Accommodations can be fairly affordable. Our airbnb was about 40-50E per night (split between 2 people). You can of course go upscale and book some of the posh hotels for a much higher price. Activities can be fairly expensive - diving is at the minimum 75E for 2 dives (without equipment), snorkeling or whale watching activities are at least 70E per pax. If you don't rent a car, you can join land based tours starting from 80E per person. It can add up to quite a fair bit if you prefer the luxury of being guided, however, a lot of the land based activities can be DIY-ed. There's a pretty comprehensive hiking trail and maps on Azores Trails where you can download maps and plan your own hiking trips. And if you rent a car, you can pretty much cover the whole island yourself and that doesn't cost you anything (except gas and rental).

 

It is so hard when it comes to such lovely unspoilt land - you very much want to preserve its authenticity and for it to remain real, on the other hand they depend primarily on tourism as a source of income but the more people know and visit them, the less authentic it becomes. The fear is that the high level of environmental awareness everyone has now might be diluted when cashing in on commercial benefits. Everyone we met has such a level of environmental awareness - sense of protection of the great ocean. The sea is so clean of rubbish or plastic and everyone does everything to keep it clean (few times, our boat would reverse up to pick up bags floating on the ocean). To everyone who would love to visit, keep this in mind and do your part when you visit the islands - think about the environment, be mindful of keeping the place clean and be a considerate tourist. If everyone acts like he/she would when at home, every place would be sparkling clean. And it's not difficult at all!

 

Made a short clip highlighting some of the fantastic diving we did in Azores: