Azores time is one of my favorite European destinations .
I can’t believe that few tourists have heard of this amazing chain of islands. The Azores provide everything a traveler could want in a vacation spot. It includes stunning landscapes, great food, empty beaches, dozens of trails, and countless vantage points.
Almost exactly halfway between the western coast of Europe and the eastern coast of the United States, the Azores are located smack in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. There are nine inhabited islands in total.
I spent four days on Sao Miguel, the main island. They were more than enough to make me want to come again. That vacation ranks up there with the best ones I’ve ever had!
It’s too easy to go there
Sao Miguel is an ideal destination for a road trip.
Thanks to the combination of smooth pavement, gentle curves, and low traffic provides you very much count on having a fantastic day of riding. I was in element again after a day of scooting all around the island. I couldn’t stop raving about how great the roads were.
Whether you prefer to explore by car or scooter, Sao Miguel is small enough. You can go from the capital city of Ponta Delgada to either the east or west coast in a day.
We split our time evenly between the west and east coasts, spending one day in each region. At the end, I felt that we had experienced a good portion of the island’s attractions.
The only bad thing? You won’t be able to see much of the island if you have to rely on buses because of the limited public transportation alternatives. If you don’t have other plans, I recommend one of the two top-rated tours on Get Your Guide that take you to the east or west side of the island. The reviews for these two excursions on Get Your Guide are some of the best I’ve seen.
Getting there is like a breeze
My readers think it would be too expensive and difficult to do this kind of travelling. That’s why they don’t follow my footsteps. But i assure you that it will be inexpensive and budget friendly place for you to travel.
In the instance of the Azores, I’m relieved to report that this is not the case.
Stopovers on the islands are included in the price of your ticket on SATA Airlines’ daily flights. For $275, we took off from Boston and landed in Lisbon, Portugal. It is the cheapest route from North America to Europe. The airline prices were the same even after including a five-day layover.
If you’re currently in Europe, you can find cheap round-trip flights. To the United States on SATA Airlines, TAP Portugal, Tui, and Ryanair for as little as $100. Skyscanner is a great tool for price comparisons.
From Sao Miguel, you may easily reach the other Azores islands using SATA’s convenient flight routes. Every island in the archipelago is connected by a ferry service, and rides typically cost between $50 and $70. Passengers who choose to bypass Sao Miguel are offered a complimentary trip to another island from SATA.
As if you want to save money, you can also ride the ferry from island to island.
The food of Azores time is glorious
Eating on a remote island in the middle of the ocean is rarely a pleasant or cheap experience. It is What I’ve learned from my time in the South Pacific. High costs are associated with importing food from the next major continent. Due to this fresh food might be difficult to come by unless you have connections with fishermen.
When I wasn’t near a restaurant or able to grow my own food in Tonga and the Cook Islands, I survived on canned goods and chips for several days.
It gave me great joy to learn that in the Azores, this is not the case.
Supermarkets and restaurants across Lisbon proudly proclaim that their ingredients come from the Azores, and for good reason: the food in this region is really stunning. Price-wise, it’s a pleasant surprise.
Due to the Azores’ ideal weather and rich soil, the islands produce enough food to feed themselves without relying on supplies shipped in from Portugal’s mainland.
Cozido das furnas, a stew cooked within a volcano, is the most well-known dish of the Azores and also happens to be one of my all-time favorite dinners. The tangy Azorean cheese, the excellent quality Azorean wine, the juiciest pineapples I’ve ever had, and the possibility to dine on exotic seafood were among highlights of my culinary experience in the Azores.
The meals we had were among the greatest I’ve had all year, yet we only spent about €12 on lunch and €15 on dinner.
The price is surprisingly low
Everything, not just the food, is quite reasonably priced.
You can spend as little as €17 per night on a dorm bed at Azores Dream Hostel (rated 8.6 on Booking), as much as €75 on a private room with a double bed at Comercial Azores Guest House (rated 9.1 on Booking), as little as €45 per night on a double room with a beautiful view at Atlantic Home Azores (rated 9.5 on Booking), and as much as €60 per night on a double room at Azorean Urban Lodge (rated 9. At the end of this piece, I explain why in greater depth.
Scooter rentals were €17 per day, and automobile rentals were roughly €21 per day.
Overall, I spent an average of €63.50/$79 a day without making any special efforts to cut costs.
Amazingly perfect weather whole year
What a perfect setting!
The temperature in the Azores swings between 15°C and 30°C — that’s 60°F and 86°F — and rarely goes higher or lower at any time of year. If you wish to avoid the hordes of tourists brought by cruise ships in the summer, you can do so without risking hypothermia by traveling during the shoulder or low season.
When we were there in mid-October, the weather was a wonderful 23 degrees, and the sky was blue every day. I could get by with just a vest and shorts most of the time.
Impressive architecture to admire
No matter how hard I looked, I just couldn’t figure out why every structure in the Azores seems to be painted in shades of black and white.
I’m not sure why churches, homes, stores, and hotels all look the same, but the consistency is lovely, and you’ll have a lot of great shots to choose from. The island is covered in black basalt formations like this, and I couldn’t get enough of them.
Beautiful old hotels to explore in Azores time
I was ecstatic to learn that visitors to Sao Miguel are welcome to explore a closed hotel at their own leisure and take photographs inside.
The Monte Palace Hotel was established in the 1980s in a remote area of the island, long before tourism became a major industry in the Azores. It’s no surprise that this once-luxurious hotel fell fast into bankruptcy and has been crumbling ever since.
These days, you can roam the entire building, from the rooftop, where you can take in some of Sao Miguel’s finest vistas, to the bar, hair salon, ballroom, stairwells and guestrooms. There were maybe a dozen other guests at the hotel when we were there, which added to the spooky atmosphere.
Picturesque village scenes
On the third day of my stay in Sao Miguel Azores time, we decided to amble along the northeastern coastline, which was one of the highlights.
With almost no traffic on the roads, we wound our way through tiny villages consisting of a hundred whitewashed structures, pausing only to sip a beer while overlooking a breathtaking vista or to take yet another photograph of a scene that appeared to have been lifted from a postcard.
This island’s small villages and cities could have easily occupied an entire week of my time had I chosen to explore them at a leisurely pace.
Lagoons are everywhere in Azores time
The majority of your tourism in Sao Miguel will revolve around lagoons, as they are dispersed throughout the island.
Lagoa das Sete Cidades — the Lagoon of the Seven Cities — which is partially depicted above was by far my favorite. There are two lakes of differing hues in the caldera of a dormant volcano. In other words, it’s fairly freaking badass. Lagoa das Furnas was ideal for a stroll along the water’s edge prior to observing the volcanic stew being removed from the hot springs where it had been preparing since the morning. Lagoa do Fogo is a lake within a volcano that provided me with some of the trip’s most gloomy photographs; it was shrouded in mist when we visited, and we were only able to capture glimpses of it when a particularly strong gust of wind threatened to blow our motorbike off the cliff.
The hot spring offers many opportunities for relaxation
On Sao Miguel alone, there are three active volcanoes, so it is not surprising that there is a great deal of geothermal activity to observe while in town. There are four hot springs on the island, but my favorite is at Ponta da Ferraria, where there is a natural thermal pool at the ocean’s margin.
The most famous hot spring on the island is the one in Furnas, but I must warn you: it appears awful! There’s a whole heap of iron in the water, which has turned the pool into an opaque rusty-color that appears the exact opposite of appealing.
Azores time is great for hiking
Yes, the Azores offer all of the above, as well as excellent hiking.
On the main island of Sao Miguel, there are roughly a dozen trails, but due to time constraints, we chose only two. Both were of easy-to-moderate difficulty and ended at a breathtaking waterfall. The Salto do Prego walk was almost exclusively uphill for the duration of the forty-minute ascent, but the reward of having such a beautiful spot to ourselves at the summit made the effort worthwhile. The Salto do Cabrito hike led us to one of the most stunning waterfalls on the island, but it turned out to be a simple walk because we skipped the six-hour round-trip hike and instead rode scooters to within ten minutes of the waterfalls.
You can see sao miguel in Azores time
The principal island of the Azores can be visited in less than a week.
We allotted four days to investigate Sao Miguel, which proved to be the ideal amount of time. There we spent one day walking around Ponta Delgada, the capital of the island, one day exploring the west side of the island, one day exploring the southeast coast by scooter, and one day exploring the northeast. If we had more time, we would have likely spent a day unwinding in the island’s hot springs.
If you had a full week to explore the archipelago, you could elect to spend four days on Sao Miguel and three days on one other island. You could choose Pico for volcano climbing and wine tasting, Faial for whale viewing, Flores for hiking and mountain biking, and Santa Maria for beach hopping.
If you had at least two weeks, you could visit most of the nine islands, as they are all relatively small. I already have plans to do precisely that later this year.
Azorean urban lodge was wonderful
The guesthouse where we stayed was fantastic! There was a pool there! The personnel was wonderful! I rarely require you to stay in a particular hotel, because a hotel is a hotel is a hotel. However, this one? This is certainly worth investigating.
Final thoughts
In short you will love to visit Azores time. You will enjoy the beautiful landscapes along with the dazzling views of Azores. Azores is the perfect place to visit in whole year as its has a lovely weather all year round.
Happy to share all the details…
Good luck for your visit.
