Nine unique Azores islands await you; Sao Miguel, Terceira, Faial, Pico, Sao Jorge, Santa Maria, Graciosa, Flores and Corvo. Split into three groups dotted across 370 miles of ocean, each one is a mini-paradise. We’re exploring them all, and this time around it’s the turn of the most easterly islands in the Azores archipelago. Dive in to discover the best bits of São Miguel and Santa Maria, and find out why you won’t want to visit the super-remote Formigas islets.
What’s on the horizon at Sao Miguel, Azores?
Set like a jewel where three vast African, Eurasian, and North American tectonic plates meet, Sao Miguel island is home to around 140,000 people, the biggest Azorean island even though it only takes a couple of hours to drive from one end to another.
Nicknamed the Green Island, this place has high drama at its heart. With its vast volcano calderas filled with azure water, dizzying cliffs, lush vegetation, hot springs and thickly wooded slopes, every stunning mile of this extraordinary landscape is underpinned by the volcanic fury deep below.
Exotic plants, unique wildlife, friendly people and endless breathtaking views typify the island, a nature-lover’s dream with bubbling geysers, twin crater lakes, and endless wonders for keen hikers to fall in love with.
Discovered by the Portuguese explorer Gonçalo Velho Cabral in the 1400s, you can clearly see the signs of centuries of history in the ancient capital of both the Azores as a whole and the island itself, Ponta Delgada. Overlooking the blue Atlantic Ocean, this is a feast for lovers of gorgeous buildings: the old City Gates, St. Sebastian Church, and the Fort of São Brás dating way back to the 1500s. Stuffed with shops and cafes, restaurants and museums, it’s a bustling and fun place to be.
Volcanic activity is a huge attraction on the island, a place where you can see the planet’s vast engine at work, up-close and personal. Along with world-class whale watching, fishing and diving, fumaroles, volcanic caves and grottos, biking, canyoning, windsurfing, paragliding and swims in natural thermal pools, it’s intense. There’s more than enough to fire your senses.
Add golf, surfing, horse riding, thermal spas, natural parks, sunsets to die for and a fantastic tea plantation to the list and you’re more or less in heaven. They grow green, orange and black peko tea at the Gorreana Tea Estate near Ribeira Grande, and you can taste their refreshing wares on a tea tour.
And then there’s the food… which is fantastic, with a choice of popular restaurants in the capital and elsewhere. Don’t leave without trying Cozido, a rich meaty stew cooked underground over volcanic steam. Think fried limpets drenched in a buttery pepper and garlic sauce, beautifully moist steaks from the island’s well-fed cattle, fine tuna steaks, and the cake-bread fusion called Bolo Levodo, originating in Furnas village and eaten either savoury or sweet.
Small, juicy pineapples are the name of the game here. They grow like weeds in the lovely soil, as do all sorts of tasty fruits and veg. The food here isn’t just delicious, it’s also healthy.
The things visitors love most about Santa Maria, Azores
After a couple of centuries of rumours and sightings, the Portuguese explorer Diogo de Silves finally found the island of Santa Maria in 1427. With a twenty first century population of around 5500, the island comes with unusually dry weather, lovely and warm.
Like every Azorean island Santa Maria was born of volcanic violence, but in this case it happened a long time ago. In sharp contrast to the others, Santa Maria has a mature landscape with more soil. While there are regular seismic events because it’s so close to the Glória Fault, the island is comparatively calm geologically speaking.
An island of two halves, to the west there’s a very dry clay plain with not much green. Anjos and Vila do Porto lie in its north and south, and river valleys divide the landscape. The island’s east is a different story of dense vegetation, fertile farmland and more river valleys, the area where you’ll find the peaks of Pico Alto, Cavacas and Caldeira, all around 500m above sea level. It’s more humid in this half, it can be foggy, and it’s windier than the plain.
The island’s entire coast is eye-wateringly gorgeous with its steep cliffs, white sands, calm protected bays and many rocky islets. The village of São Lourenço has its own islet, and like the islet of Lagoínhas, on the north coast, it is endlessly Instagrammable.
This is where, every August, thousands of people flock from around the globe for the brilliant world music festival, Maré de Agosto. The August Tide Festival in English, it has attracted a wealth of world music legends including the awesome John Lee Hooker Junior.
Food and wine-lovers adore this place for local dishes like rich turnip soup – which tastes a lot better than it sounds! – pancakes, hearty meat stews, fish soups, meringues and honey cakes. Don’t miss the curious ear-shaped Biscoitos de Orelha, unique to the island and dating back to the 1500s. The wines, fortified wines and liqueurs are a voyage of discovery too, fresh from the vibrant São Lourenço foothills. Give the island’s mulberry liqueur and milk liqueur a go, unusual flavours you’ll love to discover.
Last but never least, the viewpoints. You could create a holiday around them alone, each view better than the last. It’s a fairytale landscape with seascapes to match, uplifting for the spirit and a great way to focus, clear your mind, and feel renewed.
And that’s the end of our detailed Azores tour. Or is it? What about those tiny specks on the map at the far eastern end of the archipelago?
You can’t discover the secrets of the Formigas!
You can’t go to the Formigas, but why would you? This cruel-looking scattering of barren four million year-old islets is uninhabited, unwelcoming and super-remote. Translating as the Islets of the Ants, they lie 27 miles from Santa Maria and south east of São Miguel, in the same area as the vast underwater Dollabarat Reef, a marine mature reserve a couple of miles away and a big favourite with scuba divers. There’s a lighthouse on the biggest islet, Big Ant, but it isn’t manned. This is a lonely, lonely place, only suitable for the shipwrecked, the desperate, and the lost.
What a dramatic way to end our adventures in the Azores’ three island groups. We hope you find it inspiring. Next, book some Azores tours and see it for yourself.
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