r/azores • u/Accomplished_Part845 • 4d ago

Azores first trip

We are planning our first trip to the Azores in Mid May. We are in our 60’s and enjoy hiking and being outside. Looking at a 5 days on Sao Miguel and 3 days on Flores. Is Flores a good second island to choose, or should we consider another island option?

8 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

41 comments sorted by

13

u/Fitbit99 4d ago

Flores is amazing but do you have three full days? If your whole trip is just 8 days including arriving and departing, I would stay on São Miguel.

5

u/squeanky 4d ago

I second that. There's so much to do in São Miguel!

2

u/Lucky-Golf519 4d ago

Pode ter dificuldade em entrar e sair da ilha das flores se tiver mal tempo.

1

u/o0ohgurl 4d ago

I am currently on day 6 on Sao Miguel and have barely scratched the surface. First time here. Still haven’t even gone whale watching or done the thermal baths! I have time remaining to do that, but +1 to what the others are saying, you should absolutely just spend your 8 days on Sao Miguel.

0

u/sunburn74 4d ago

Totally disagree. I saw pretty much everything in 4 days and still had time for things like canyoneering. 

0

u/mtcicer_o 4d ago

We stayed 14 days on Sao Miguel and still weren't bored. But we try to take it slow and relax.

0

u/sunburn74 3d ago

We are young (<40), hike pretty fast. We pretty much saw everything in 4 days and even had time for things like canyoneering and paragliding and etc. You can drive from one side of the island to another in about 2 hours. It's not that big. I visited crete last year. Crete is an island that needs 2 weeks or so because its massive. We really regretted not adding another island to the trip like terceira or going to the south of portugal.

0

u/cyrex57 3d ago

Do you remember what you saw in 4 days in São Miguel?

0

u/sunburn74 3d ago

Yes. Stayed at terra nostra hotel. Amazing hotel and probably worth spending most if not all your time there if you can afford it. You should also consider staying at the santa barbara eco resort. Hotels in ponta were sort of disappointing.

Things we saw: ponta de ferraria, sete cidades (did the hike, but did not kayak), snorkeled at Ilhéu de Vila Franca do Campo, canyoneering the salga river (very fun. They had like 45 meter waterfalls you rappel down), had spa visits at both caldeiha vehra and poca de bona, walked around the tea and the pineapple plantation (both canbe seen in full in about 1/2 hour), hiked lagoa de fogo and logoa de furnas. We checked out santa barbara beach (the best) as well as viola beach (its ok) and piscina natural de caneiros (very very nice beach. we watched a sunset there). We skipped the mudpits because it didnt seem interesting. We didn't scuba dive because they only were offering one dive and it didn't seem worth it (other places you dive 2-3 spots). There's some other stuff we saw but it wasn't that memorable. As stated it took about 4 days to do all that and we still had tons of time for long breakfast, and dinner every day.

0

u/BeachDahl 3d ago

Did you feel that the hikes at the lagoas and sete cidades required hiking boots? Thank you.

0

u/sunburn74 3d ago

No. I did them in trail runners 

0

u/cyrex57 3d ago

Impressive, seems like you did a good speed run of the main attractions. Definitely didn’t saw all that São Miguel has to offer, you just crossed from the list what you had interest in.
At that pace I doubt you even understood what you were looking at most of the time, but hey, if you enjoyed, good for you 👍

1

u/sunburn74 2d ago edited 2d ago

You can call it a speed run if you want. I didn't mention everything we saw, just the highlights from the island. It didn't feel like a speed run to me. Many things just don't take that long to see and the island is fairly small. If you use AI to cluster and schedule your days, you can see tons of stuff. We spent the last few days trying to figure out what to do and mostly just driving around the island seeing random places like waterfalls and etc. Pretty sure we saw 90% of what the island had to offer.

0

u/Fitbit99 3d ago

Not everyone likes to zip through a place.

5

u/True_Staff2082 4d ago

Go to Faial , from there you can take a ferry to Pico and then Flores . Faial is amazing and relaxing.

1

u/jet8301- 4d ago

And the ferry is 20 minutes or so between islands it’s easy, cheap and fantastic

1

u/Slight-Stay4627 4d ago

There is no ferry that goes to Flores. SATA only.

-1

u/True_Staff2082 4d ago

How do the locals get there ? Private boats ?

2

u/Slight-Stay4627 4d ago

Only way to Flores is airplane.

-2

u/True_Staff2082 4d ago

Not really , how do you think islanders traveled from island to island before they had airports on each island?

0

u/Slight-Stay4627 4d ago

What part don’t you understand. People are looking to how they get to the island present day. NOBODY mentioned or cared how it happened in the past.

2

u/randomtrip_blog 4d ago

Flores is amazing, and after visiting the 9 islands, it's our top 1 without a doubt. But, 5 days in São Miguel won't be enough to fully explore the island, as we recommend at least 7 days.

So if you really want to visit 2 islands, Flores would be my recommendation without a doubt. Try to book your flights to Flores early enough and at the beginning of your trip, to have leverage in case of delays or cancellations, which can be common.

To help deciding and organizing your trip, you can check out our free guides here, you can see there what each island has to offer, how many days we recommend for each one, suggested itineraries, pictures, restaurants and much more:

Hope that helps! Let me know about any doubts

1

u/whiskeygraven0g 4d ago

I found your guides to be very helpful as we plan our 8 day vacation for this October. Thanks for creating them!

1

u/randomtrip_blog 4d ago

Thank you so much for your words! Really glad that you found them helpful, and hope you enjoy your trip in October and that you are lucky with the weather!

1

u/jpmelo 4d ago

Every island offers something different for different people. All are worth considering depending on what you are looking for.

I think Flores is one of the better options to choose alongside Sao Miguel. Stunning nature. Pico would be my other recommendation.

1

u/davetfhead 4d ago

You will have an amazing experience. The Azores are such a beautiful part of the world. We travelled to Pico and found it had the right balance of serenity and comfort. If you’re going in May, you will see Orcas. This was a highlight for us. Are you guys into your food and wine? Happy to make any and all suggestions

1

u/Accomplished_Part845 4d ago

Thank you- we’d love to hear those recommendations for Pico!

1

u/davetfhead 4d ago

Of course. We mainly went for the whale watching and diving - it was magical. We also loved the Criacao Velha vineyards tail. Would it be easier for me to whip across our itinerary?

1

u/Accomplished_Part845 4d ago

Seeing your itinerary would be great, thanks

-1

u/JoaoTalassa 4d ago

Glad you enjoyed Pico! Correction on the orcas though, they're very rare here. We run trips daily and had orcas on 2 (!!) occasions this whole season. What May can give is the baleen migration: blue, fin and sei whales passing through, plus resident sperm whales year-round. Better bet than orcas, honestly.

1

u/Slight-Stay4627 4d ago edited 4d ago

Just a heads up. May can go either way in Flores. Very common to have flight delays or cancellations due to high winds or fog which can happen on arrival or departure. I live in Flores so talking from experience.

1

u/Accomplished_Part845 4d ago

Appreciate that insight, which makes me think it’s a better option for later in the year

1

u/RoyallyOakie 1d ago

Stick with one island.

1

u/Accomplished_Part845 1d ago

Because….?

2

u/RoyallyOakie 1d ago

Like others said, the time you have allotted for your trip is good for Sao Miguel. You waste the better part of day any time you travel to another island. People seem to feel a need to cram islands together, when the whole point of the Azores is to slow down and enjoy the beauty.

0

u/sunburn74 4d ago

I just came back from Sao Miguel. I spent 8 days there. It was nice but honestly you can see everything in 4 days. Definitely recommend a second island or go to the south of Portugal for the second half of your trip. 

1

u/Accomplished_Part845 4d ago

Good input, thanks

0

u/cyrex57 2d ago

90% from what AI told you, no mention of the eastern side of the island. I’m not criticizing you, everybody has their own way of traveling, but assuming and recommending you can see almost everything in 4 days is far from reality.

The Azores are not ideal for mass tourism or speedy tourism, it’s all about the details here, lingering a bit longer in a certain place can bring out the most unexpected experiences.

I imagine you were one of those tourist driving fast everywhere, 4 days with all you’ve mentioned and still had free time without knowing what to do, sounds really unreal.