Ponta Delgada and the Azures

[notacooldad]

Hi.
Anyone that has been here, can you give me information please.
Me and Dh like quieter holidays, with lots of exploring and walking. We normally go to Maderia or Chamonix for our holidays but fancied some where else this year.
We are happy to hire a car. Do we need one would you say.
Any tips or advice would be helpful.
Thanks

The Azores are great. Yes, a car would be helpful. Our favourite activity was kayaking on the blue lake and then hiking around the green lake. We love quiet places too, so it should suit you.

That sounds wonderful, thank you.

We've been to the Azores - wonderful place. Yes hiring a car is useful and was very cheap when we did it in March though might be seasonal pricing. We stayed in Furnas which was a great place to stay, the whole island was like a beautiful botanical gardens. We flew from Stanstead with Ryanair which was a very easy journey 4 hours direct but only goes once a week so we went back via Porto staying overnight by the river which was also lovely but much busier. Masses of exploring and walking, in the warmer months there's dolphin watching as well. Furnas has the hot springs and botanical gardens. We stayed at Octant Furnas which was wonderful and has 24/7 hot spring pools to swim in and a spa but is much cheaper in March than summer.

If there for longer you can also go on to other Azores islands. This is a very good summary for the island and it looks just like the pictures:

https://fullsuitcase.com/things-to-do-in-sao-miguel-azores/

You would need car hire unless using organised tours which would likely go from Ponta Delgada or just basing yourself in a small area like Furnas and getting transfers to and from but a car is better. We had a car. There were lots of lovely little churches there as well, when we went there were lots of pilgrims walking round the islands and a car race but both are March things. Food was amazing.

We have just returned from the Azores, we actually went for the whale watching which was amazing, but also had a day trip to Furnas (the hot pools were fantastic) and to Lagoa. Ponta Delgada is really pretty with lovely restaurants and bars, very reasonable to eat out too. I suspect a car would be good if you didn’t want to go whale watching every day. But I’d advise at least one trip out with Futurismo in the harbour, they were brilliant.

@Twwodoorsaway
@Penguinsa
Thank you, it sounds like our sort of holiday!