Azores Vacations

We have always been proudly different in the way we work. Rather than going through an agency and choosing from a set menu of hotels and activities, we work directly with hotels, guides, taxi drivers and excursion providers to create trips from scratch.

Being completely independent means we can fine-tune our trips down to the last detail, making them more authentic, immersive and rooted in local culture. We walk the walk, experience every aspect of our vacations and select only the very best bits for you.

One way we do that is by building them around people. That means entrusting your hosts to make you feel at home and to share the places they love, as well as maximising your opportunities to interact with locals in a meaningful way.

It means we can share the hidden gems, the truly local experiences that you can only find when sniffing around off the beaten track. It also means we can do things our way when it comes to the famous sights, be it finding the quiet corners of Sete Cidades or being selective about the whale-watching operators we choose to work with.

We hope you agree that it all adds up to a special experience of the Azores that you cannot find elsewhere.

The short answer is that we run our island-hopping trips from April to mid-October, with June to September being the high season. Spring and early summer is best for whales, late summer best for wine. The hydrangeas start flowering around May and are at their best until September.

If you are looking for winter travel, please see our dedicated Winter in São Miguel itinerary. The Azores' biggest island makes for a lovely winter getaway.

The more detailed 'when to go' answer is...

Spring

Spring equates to April through June and is a wonderful time of the year to visit the Azores.

At this time of the year, the temperatures are becoming more mild, the days are getting longer, the sea is getting warmer and calmer and the winds tend to lessen. Flowers are beginning to bloom and the migratory whale species are beginning to arrive.

The general rule is, the later in spring you go, the better the conditions become. The hydrangeas are really hitting their stride in late May and June. The whales are here in greatest numbers around those times too. As spring goes on, the tea harvest in São Miguel really gets going too. As sea temperatures rise, you can also start to swim in the natural seawater pools and off of some beaches.

Summer

The summer is generally considered to be July through September, though for many locals they include June in their thinking when they talk about the summer.

This is historically the warmest, driest and calmest time of the year. Sea temperatures are at their highest, usually in the mid-twenties, but they can get up to 27 degrees in extremely warm years. The summer is also the most humid time, which can make hikes a little sweaty. Keep in mind though that summer temperatures in the Azores are nothing like the scorching levels reached on the Portuguese mainland. It is therefore a great summer destination.

At this time of the year, you can still catch the whales before most leave the archipelago. The hydrangeas and other flowers are blooming away beautifully (though waterfalls are at their tamest). It’s a lovely time to swim in the many natural seawater pools dotted around the islands, though they may of course be a little busy with locals.

In the vineyards of Pico, the grapes will be getting nice and plump ahead of the harvest in late August and early September, a very photogenic time to be on the island. Likewise in São Jorge, you may see coffee beans drying in the sun following the annual harvest. Summer is also festival time across the archipelago, with a plethora of music and cultural events to enjoy.

You will also have the greatest choice of flight connections in the summer, particularly for direct flights into São Miguel from London or North America.

In summer it will be busier than usual in some hotspots on São Miguel. But it's never difficult to leave these behind. For other islands, the increase in visitor numbers is not really noticeable simply because there is less tourism infrastructure and capacity. But it does mean you absolutely must plan ahead to secure accommodation and activities as these are small-scale, just the way we like it. The earlier the better, but ideally we will have things booked up by January or February.

Fall

Fall is a fleeting time in the Azores, generally considered to be October and November, but really we’re talking about October up until the clocks go back. That event marks a step change signalling the arrival of winter for a lot of locals. Losing the hour shortens the days going into November, with sunset usually around 18:00.

October is a transition month. The weather is less stable than in summer, which doesn’t mean you lose entire days to rain, but it’s when the notion of ‘four seasons in a day’ is ramped up to the max. It is therefore a time of rainbows.

Temperatures are generally still very pleasant, in the high teens or low twenties. Sea temperatures hover around the same mark, but you do have to exercise caution as the ocean becomes a little less placid. October is a wonderful time of the year for the hot springs of São Miguel. As we roll into November, you see a lot of fall colors as deciduous trees begin to shed their leaves. It isn’t New England in fall, but it can be an impressive sight.

There is a definite ‘after the party’ feeling as October goes on. The migratory whales have left, the grapes on Pico have been harvested, the crowds have thinned and some seasonal restaurants are closing. The flip side to that is that things are generally calmer and quieter as everyone takes a breath after the (relative) busyness of the summer.

One term you hear a lot in Azores is ‘four seasons in one day’. This is because it can often feel like the weather goods are constantly rolling the dice, so you can have a two one minute, a five the next. If you look inland to the highest points of the islands, the weather will often look moody. If you look out to sea, it’s all sunshine and, quite often, rainbows. Up above your head is often a mixture of both. It will be what it will be.

The weather is not always the weather for the day. You can begin a walk in fog and mist and end it under clear blue skies. Or vice-versa. Whilst it’s more settled in the summer months, conditions can quickly make a mockery of weather forecasts.

Weather can be very localised. For example, in São Jorge, warm air can gather by the lava rocks next to the sea, then rise and mix with the cooler air coming off the central ridge and form clouds which can hold rain. Indeed, there is no weather station on São Jorge, so the forecast is a guesstimate based on what is happening on Terceira and Faial, because São Jorge is somewhere in the middle of that. It is more of a guess than a planning tool.

So the mantra is to go prepared. Take a sun hut and a rain jacket, wear layers that you can remove and shoes that are both comfortable and waterproof. You will probably get a bit of everything, but on the whole it will be more good than bad and it rarely changes your plans a great deal in the summer months.

Our Azores itineraries generally include a mix of hiking, cycling and car-based discovery. They are intended to suit most fairly active travellers, so there's nothing big or scary lurking within. Importantly, you have your own vehicle and a wealth of guidance from us, and so you always have the flexibility to choose how much, or little, you do on any given day.

Hiking is a big thing in the Azores and, in partnership with our old friends at the EU, they have done an incredible job creating dozens of official trails across the archipelago. These are divided into easy, medium and challenging, with a great majority coming out in the middle.

The trails we include on your hiking days are moderate. Because they start in the higher parts of the island, they have a fair amount of downhill (we indicate lengths and gain/loss in the day-by-day section). Hiking poles are a massive help here. If you are concerned about how challenging the walks are, please let us know. There are always alternative options.

The most likely routing for an island-hopping trip is into Ponta Delgada (PDL) on São Miguel, and out from Pico (PIX) via Lisbon to the UK or Ponta Delgada for North America.

If you are coming from the UK, BA fly directly between Heathrow (LHR) and Ponta Delgada on Saturdays between April and mid-October, and on Wednesdays between May and September. We always try to start your trip on one of these days so that you can fly straight to the Azores. Ryanair fly direct between Ponta Delgada from Stansted (STN) on Tuesdays. You can fly indirectly via Lisbon with TAP on various days depending on your departure island.

There are more direct flights between São Miguel and the US and Canada, with regular flight connections with New York, Newark, Boston and Toronto.

You will usually start in São Miguel, one of the eastern islands (along with Santa Maria). To get to any other island, you will take a scenic flight of around 50 minutes. Once you are in the central 'Triangle' islands of Faial, São Jorge and Pico, you will travel by ferry between them. The crossings take between 20 minutes and an hour.

On each island, you typically have a hire car to help you get around and explore more deeply. You cannot pick the car up on one island and leave it on another. Because it's usually very quick to collect and drop off the cars, it's better to have a new one on each island rather than having to go back to where you started.

Simply put, driving is the best way to get around the Azores. It brings you the freedom to explore as you wish, heading down the road for dinner or pushing on to see one last viewpoint without the fuss and bother of taxis. There is an absolute pleasure in pottering about on the islands, particularly the smaller ones, with a windscreen full of landscapes and cows hanging around on the roundabout or spilling out into the road. It is part of the adventure.

Roads are nearly all paved. Those that are not are in the more remote parts of the island and we will always flag this if it's somewhere we think you might like to explore. Traffic is light as a feather, except for when the cows are on the move! Because distances are short - you will rarely drive for an hour or more in one go, you can very easily spend three or four days driving to the ends of an island and then refill your tank for less than €30.

Absolutely you can, yes. The simplest way to do this is to fly in or out via Lisbon or Porto. To that end, TAP usually offer a free stopover of up to 10 nights when flying to/from Ponta Delgada. That's enough time to enjoy either a 2/3-night city break or even a full walking trip in the countryside. Please just ask for ideas.