Here is the answer to the many of you who asked this question: Volcanic islands in the Atlantic Ocean. I have repeated this over and over again as almost nobody I spoke to ever heard of this place. I love visiting unusual places as many of you may already know. The next question is usually “Why did you choose to go there?” I have a list of places to go to and a lot of them are unheard of. I see a lot of documentaries and make research about beautiful unexplored places around the world and write everything down on a list. The Azores islands are one of these places.
A curious fact about these islands are that they are located exactly between the Eurasian Plate and the North American Plate. In fact the first island we visited, São Miguel, is located on the Eurasian Plate, while the second island we went to, Flores, is on the North American Plate. However, politically they are both part of the Portuguese territory and form part of the European Union.
A trip here is like an escape to a land of dreams consisting of pristine landscapes, greenery, forests, lakes, waterfalls, volcanic activity, mountains, laid back village life, beaches and marine life and an infinite possibility of outdoor activities. This is why I chose this destination for my next photographic adventure. So my question is why not go there? Getting there from Malta might be a little complicated I admit, given that we do not yet have direct flights from Portugal. But I survived 18 hrs straight on a plane, so an 11 hour trip consisting of 3 flights was bearable. You can judge for yourself whether it was worth it or not.
Our first stop in the Azores was the biggest island Sao Miguel and our accommodation was in Ponta Delgada, the capital of the Azores. The area of the biggest island is 744.55 km2 that is double the size of Malta, whereas the population is just one fourth of my homeland making the density 10 times less! You can drive kilometres without seeing any building here and that is what I loved the most.
Finding an accommodation might be a little challenging. The islands are not very touristic yet and although we were a small group it was a little difficult. However with the help of our local guide we were able to fit in all the group in one place. Here is just a taste of our first day on the island, where we went for whale and dolphin watching (sorry not a lot of photos here as we ended up dripping wet and I wanted to save my camera hehe) and a walk around Ponta Delgada, which served as a small warm up of what we were going to experience in the following days.
Check out more blog posts from the Azores:
Volcanic Lakes in Western São Miguel
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And she did it again ..! Beautiful review ! ????????????
Thanks Bridget 🙂 This is just a small apetizer. Wait for the rest you will be amazed 😉
Amazed 🙂 thanks for sharing .. which months do you recommend please?
Hi Donia, thanks for your feedback. I would recommend the Azores for the early summer months that is from June to August as all the flowers are in bloom. Moreover if you intend to do canyoning in Flores you need low river waters otherwise it is not possible to do it!