The Azores (or Açores in Portuguese) is an archipelago or group of nine islands that’s located in the Atlantic Ocean between continental Portugal and North America. Although the islands are in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, they’re closer to Portugal than they are North America: the flight time from Lisbon to Ponta Delgada is around 2 hours and 10 minutes while the flight time from Ponta Delgada to Boston is around 5 hours and
Situated in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, around 1,500 km from Lisbon lies the Azores archipelago. Although a part of Portugal, The Azores is very different: the climate is different, the scenery is different, and the food is different as well. Unless you go to a specialist Azorean restaurant or shop in continental Portugal, you’ll struggle to find any of these dishes on the mainland. And, outside of Portugal: forget it. So, if you’re
São Miguel, the largest island in The Azores, is packed with plenty of interesting things to do. From soaking in thermal pools to visiting a tea plantation, here are some of the top things to add to your São Miguel bucketlist. Soak in the thermal Pools São Miguel is known for its hot springs or thermal pools, and there are actually several different groups of pools that you can visit: Parque Terra Nostra (Furnas):
There are three main things to do on the island of Pico: whale watching, wine tasting, and climbing Mount Pico. Of the three of these, climbing Mount Pico was definitely my favourite. It was also the toughest, but, then again, it’s probably not fair to compare mountain climbing with drinking wine and a boat trip. Climbing Pico is actually made up of two mountains: Pico (which was once a volcano) and a very small “mountain”
I normally start my search for car rental on rentalcars.com. It allows you to compare prices from a few São Jorge car rental companies including Autatlantis, Europcar, Way2Azores, and Ilha Verde. If you can’t find anything on there, I would also look firstly at Skyscanner.net and then at Kayak.com. They sometimes pull up a few more options or different prices to RentalCars.com. If you don’t find anything on either of those three sites, you’ll need
I typically begin my search for car rental on RentalCars.com, and I was able to find quite a few options for Terceira – a mixture of international companies like Hertz and Goldcar as well as local Azorean companies like Ilha Verde, Way2Azores, and Autatlantis. If you can’t find what you’re looking for on RentalCars.com, I would also recommend looking at Skyscanner.net and Kayak.com. There usually isn’t an need to look at many other companies: a
Most people have heard of TAP, the flag carrier and main airline in Portugal, but a lot of people don’t realise that this isn’t the only Portuguese airline. Besides TAP, there are actually two other airlines in Portugal: Azores Airlines (which used to be called SATA and sort of still is) and which covers flights within and to the Azores, and an even smaller airline called Sevenair. Sevenair is still very small, and some of
For most people heading to The Azores, the island of São Miguel is the first, and often main, stop on their itinerary. João Paulo II Airport in Ponta Delgada is the largest airport on The Azores, and it also has the most connections to mainland Portugal as well as other parts of the world like the United States and Canada. The easiest way to get from the airport to Ponta Delgada, or anywhere else on
Although many TV chefs have filmed episodes of theirs shows in Lisbon, very few have come to the Azores. The late Anthony Bourdain was probably one of the first. This episode first aired in January 2009. That was 3 years before he filmed the Lisbon episode of No Reservations, which is probably the most popular episode of all the ones filmed in Portugal. Lisbon and Porto have changed so much since he filmed there and,