A charming archipelago in the Mid-Atlantic, approx 948 miles (1525km) due west of Lisbon. They are an autonomous region of Portugal, characterised by dramatic landscapes, small fishing villages and green rolling pastures, with hedgerows full of blue hydrangeas.
São Miguel is the largest of the islands making up the Azores. With lake-filled calderas and the Gorreana Tea Plantation, the oldest, (and currently only) tea plantation in Europe. Cultivating tea since 1883.
Visiting The Azores
This was to be our first visit to The Azores, and the picturesque island of São Miquel. The only flights we could find where from Stanstead Airport, which would mean an early start to get us in the airport with plenty of time for the flight.
This was our first flights out of Stanstead and first impressions where mixed. You seem to park so far away, the bus journey was be nearly 30 mins just to get to the terminal. Once we had negotiated the self checkin stations and deposit our cases on the conveyor belt we where ready to head somewhere near the gate. Due to the size and layout of the airport we had to catch a train, and I’m sure we went back passed where the car was parked.
We had three locations booked for our stay on the island. The first night was to be in the islands capital of Ponta Delgade staying at the Comfort Inn, with our next few nights at the top of the island in Povoacao at the Hotel do Mar down on the harbour. For the final nights of our stay we moved over to the other side of the island to a lovely apartment chosen from A Casa d’El Rei in Ribeira Grande near the town centre with secure parking just behind.
With our hire car collected we headed off to find our hotel for the first night, finding the hotel was fairly straight forward, parking however was a little difficult that close to the centre, but finally parked up we where able to check in and head out for a little exploration, a bite to eat and most importantly a refreshing well earned beer.
During our time on São Miquel we had the pleasure of visiting many of the attractions and seeing many of the sights this stunning island has to offer.
Be prepared for windy mountain roads, as I am not a big fan of heights these where often a little bit of a test.
One of the places I wanted to visit was the abandoned Hotel Motel Palace sitting on top of the edge of a extinct volcano crater.