Kathy and I met our friends Ken and Elaine at the airport in Ponta Delgada. They live in San Francisco, but had spent some time in Massachusetts for a family reunion and were on their way to Italy and Majorca (for the eclipse).
Kathy and I had visited in November 2023 with our firends Pam and Mike, so this was a return trip for us (see previous trip report here), but we found several new adventures this trip.
We picked up the rental car and headed into town to find our hotel, the Grand Hotel Açores Atlântico, which is right on the marina. The concierge recommended the Cascara coffee shop for breakfast and it was indeed wonderful to sit out in their terraced garden and have excellent food and loose tea prepared correctly.
We walked around Ponta Delgada a bit and returned to the hotel to await our rooms being ready. We all rested a bit once we got into the rooms, then went out to dinner at Louvre Michaelense, which Kathy and Ben had enjoyed (twice!) on our previous visit. It did not disappoint!
The next morning Ken and Elaine slept in while Kathy and Ben took a walk to São Roque, which took us past the boutique hotel where we’d stayed the previous visit. The rock itself is very pretty, with terns on top and indigenous plants growing in the cracks.
In the afternoon we drove over to Vila Franca do Campo, where we took a snorkeling trip around the volcanic islet offshore. We saw a few new fish species, as well as a meter-long eel in a crack in the rocks.
For dinner we hit up Bom Pesqueiro, which had been recommended by Ben’s sister. Out on a jetty in the marina, it’s a very pretty restaurant and they specialize in grilling freshly-caught fish, which hang in a refrigerator in front of the kitchen. You get a detailed description of each fish, including how many it will feed, and off you go. We got the wreckfish, and it was delicious! That afternoon a three-masted schooner had docked in the marina, so we got some fine views of it, as well.
The next day’s adventure was a trip to Furnas, where there are many volcanic hot springs. We went into the Terra Nostra gardens and springs, where they had amazing plantings (see special album below) as well as a large pool fed by the hot springs and a smaller, warmer “hot tub”. After a couple of hours exploring the gardens we went over to the Terra Nostra Gardens Hotel, where we had appetizers on the terrace before going to the fancy restaurant for dinner. Kathy and Ben had the Cozido à Portuguesa, a classic dish where assorted meats and potatoes are cooked in the volcanic soil. It was an experience, but it was a bit too much food, and not as tasty as one might have hoped.
The day after our Furnas visit we went kayaking on the lagoas Azul and Verde in Sete Cidades. Elaine was a bit under the weather, so Kathy and Ken went in a tandem, and Ben was solo and photographer. The lakes are really beautiful, surrounded by tall hills. We saw a few terns in lagoa Verde after we’d explored a beach that was made up largely of pumice. After the paddle we got lunch at Casa de Chá “O Poejo”. The food and tea were quite good, though the service was a bit slow.
After lunch we drove up the mountain through the incredibly large hedges of hydrangeas that line the sides of the road. Some of these were three times as high as our car! At the top we turned left and headed over to the trail head for the Miradouro da Grota do Inferno. This viewpoint is the iconic one shown in all the guide books and Açores promotional materials. There’s a walk through the woods to a path with wooden railings on either side, leading to an overlook at the end with the most spectacular vista of the crater lakes below. In the photo album there are two panoramic views that you need to click into and scroll around to get a feeling for what it’s like up there. Kathy and Ben had tried to get there on our last trip, but it was completely socked in with fog. This time was beautifully clear!
We headed back to the hotel and took a quick dip in the pool, then went out to dinner at Tasquinha Vieira, another repeat from our last visit. This is a small restaurant with an open kitchen and one of the rooms is the wine cellar (be sure to ask for it when making a reservation). There’s also a terrace out back with a few more tables. The food is excellent though it’s a limited menu.
On our kayak trip one of the guides was a New Zealander who had done some carpentry work for a new tour boat operator on the north shore of the island. He said they had great private tours of the cliffs and caves, so we booked one. The four of us were the only passengers on a zodiac built for 30, and we had a guide and skipper, as well, of course. The coast is amazing, with the rocks having all sorts of interesting shapes and colors, especially in the caves themselves. Kathy was the only one brave enough to jump into the briny to swim (too cold for everyone else) and explore one of the caves.
For dinner we thought about going to the hotel’s restaurant, “The Balcony”, that Kathy and Ben had enjoyed the previous trip, but in the end decided to return to Bom Pesqueiro, where this time we ordered a slightly smaller fish, a rockfish, so that we would not be quite so full.
Friday we hung out at the hotel until dinner at A Tasca, a recommended restaurant that we’d missed out on the previous visit. Its a bustling place, but the food and service were great. During the day we did observe a freighter coming into the marina and being turned around by three tugboats. It did not look like the space was wide enough for the large vessel, but they did it!
Saturday was our last day, so we packed up and checked out of the hotel and drove over to the west end of São Miguel, where there are spectacular vistas of the cliffs, offshore rocks, and the town of Mosteiros. We thought we might like to go up to Sete Cidades again so Elaine could see it, but we were concerned that there might be fog up there. Nevertheless we set out up the hill and the clouds had parted so that we could get a great view from the other viewpoint, the one next to the abandoned hotel at the top of the mountain. We also got a good view of the old aqueduct up there, so it was a successful trip. From there we headed back down to the airport to catch our flight to Lisbon, the end of a great visit.
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