Ongoing discussions · Azores

I love islands...

I love islands. So it’s no surprise that the Azores have been catching my eye for a few years now. The first time I suggested them to my dear partner back in 2021, he preferred the Lofoten Islands—an excellent choice, as it turned out, since we got to visit them with hardly any crowds. But for various reasons, the opportunity didn’t come up again in the following years. Until last year, that is. But by then, we’d left it too late—too late for the Azores, I mean—and the choice of accommodations on Flores and São Jorge was extremely limited. We decided to skip it without even looking at car rentals. So this year, we booked our flights, lodgings, and cars well in advance (between December of last year and early this year).

The Azores consist of nine islands, so you have to make choices. I quickly ruled out São Miguel, which deserves a week all to itself: from reading various blogs, some travelers seemed disappointed after visiting the other islands, even feeling it lacked the charm unique to the Azores. True or not, that was reason enough to leave it out.

In the end, we wanted to go to Flores for its lush nature (and because it’s reputed to be the most breathtaking), to São Jorge for its rural/nature vibe, and to Terceira for its cultural side and its *impérios* (more on that later). With the time we had, we could add another island without rushing. We like to take our time and wander a bit. Generally, whether it’s a viewpoint or a hike, we always spend more time than everyone else. Pico won out over Faial thanks to its wine culture. And of course, there’s Corvo, which is usually visited as a day trip from Flores. I thought it’d be nice to spend the night there to experience the atmosphere once most tourists had left. I hesitated between one or two nights and ultimately went with two (so we wouldn’t be rushed by the boat schedule). It was an excellent decision.

Here’s how it all panned out:

August 25: departure for Terceira via Lisbon at 7:40 AM; August 25–29: Terceira; August 29: flight to Corvo. It was supposed to take half a day, and we were meant to arrive in the early afternoon, but between schedule changes and delays, it ended up taking almost the whole day; August 29–31: Corvo; August 31: boat to Flores around 8:30 AM; August 31–September 5: Flores; September 5: flight to Faial in the early afternoon (originally scheduled for the morning, but the times changed)—visit to Horta; September 6: boat to São Jorge around 9:00 AM; September 6–11: São Jorge; September 11: boat to Pico at 11:15 AM; September 11–16: Pico; September 16: flight to Paris via Lisbon from Pico around 10:30 AM.

We had to juggle a bit to optimize the prices of our flight tickets from Paris and the inter-island travel.