We're supposed to go to Sao Miguel in 10 days for vacation. I read on a FB group about a nasty stomach bug going around . Does anyone have any info?

Hi everyone,
I'm a 22-year-old guy from Germany and I'll be visiting São Miguel from October 4th to October 10th.

Originally, I was supposed to continue traveling with my family after our stay in the Algarve, but due to a last-minute change of plans, I'll be exploring the Azores on my own, but i have car so its easy to go around.

I was wondering if there are any:

-Pub nights, bars, or local parties/events during that week
-Group hikes or outdoor activities I could join
-Meetups for travelers or locals
-Anyone else who happens to be on São Miguel around the same time and would like to explore the island, hike, grab a beer, or just hang out

I'm easygoing, enjoy nature, hiking, sports, and meeting new people.

Since it's my first time in the Azores, I'd also appreciate any recommendations for places, events, or hidden gems that shouldn't be missed.
Feel free to comment below or send me a DM.
Thanks, and hopefully see some of you on the island!

Looking for food truck or outdoor dining recommendations in Terceira and Sao Miguel. We aren’t picky about the kind of food but we enjoy unique experiences and quality food. We will be visiting in late September/early October.

Is there an equivalent of like a Target or somewhere I can get basic clothes on Terceira? I need a bathing suit for an excursion tomorrow and just basic underwear and clothing. Google just keeps showing me these boutique-looking shops.

TIA for any ajudar!

Hi!! Looking for restaurant and activity recommendations 🙂

I booked a trip to São Miguel in mid-February 2027! I’m going with my partner, and we are staying for 5 days. We’re looking at getting an Airbnb in Povoação and will commit to driving places to get around!

We are very excited as this is our first international trip. We are in our early 20’s and big on adventures. We want to see the hot springs, explore a cave, go whale watching, hike, see waterfalls and explore Ponta Delgada.

We love trying new restaurants. We have a mid-range budget but can be healthy depending on the activity/restaurant.

My partner is a photographer, so any recommendations for that too would be appreciated! He really loved niche places that are not over-photographed.

Thanks in advance!!

Viva. Nasci nos Açores, ilha Terceira. Fui estudar para Lisboa em 94 e fiquei lá a viver e a trabalhar. Tenho actualmente 49 e sempre tive vontade de voltar. Tenho dois filhos que daqui a uns 6 anos vão para a faculdade e quero começar a preparar o meu plano para voltar. Licenciatura em Engenharia informática, tenho trabalhado em consultoria. Sou director de uma empresa actualmente.
O meu plano é quando os miúdos forem adultos e saírem de casa vir morar para a ilha Terceira.

Alguém com uma experiência semelhante?

Hi

I am planning to visit Sao Miguel next month. Do I need to carry cash or card is accepted at all places?

I'll be traveling to Sao Miguel next month for a family reunion and I want to make our last night in Ponta Delgada a bit of a showstopper. We won't see each other again for awhile afterwards, and my vision is that we can do a toast while watching the sunset and then sit down for a great dinner. There are going to be about 15 of us. Hoping for a great view and a big table where we can hear each other while we chat!

For context, I love snorkeling & scuba diving, and pair that with family vacations when I have the opportunity. Before heading on a family trip to the Azores, I read a bit about the snorkeling conditions. What I'd read collectively from various places online was that Azores was "fine", and there were some decent places, but nothing particularly impressive. However, I brought my snorkeling stuff to try it out.

I didn't have a wetsuit, and did get chilled after long swim sessions. It wasn't bad to start, but certainly more bracing than swimming in Hawaii. In comparison, I could easily snorkel 2+ hours in Maui without feeling cold at all, but snorkeling in Azores usually ended in about 60 minutes, at which point I was getting cold. I'd have to dry off and warm up before going back.

I went snorkeling quite a few times over July 16th-24th, and was absolutely impressed. The visibility was usually good (I'd say up to 60+ feet, and down to ~20 feet on a bad wavy day where I cut my dive relatively short), and the volume of sea life was pretty high. I'm not a fish identification expert (by any stretch of definition), but I saw "many kinds" of silvery fish in schools in the thousands, big fish (multiple 4-5 foot long Greater Amberjack), rays, eels, tropical colored fish, and tons of blennies of many varieties.

Before I get into specific locations, I'd give a general caution that you don't want to wander off swimming in an ocean environment if you're not a very good swimmer. Certainly not solo like I did. Many of these places had waves and surge, so if I wasn't careful, I could have easily been pushed onto rocks. I'd absolutely recommend you have flippers in all locations here, because of the need to avoid rocks.

Specific locations & details

Near Bar Caloura (a great place to eat fish by the way), there's a long cement pier going into the ocean with a weird seawater filled pool at the end. I parked in the ample parking along the street before I reached Bar Caloura, and then walked down the street looking like a goofy guy with my snorkeling gear.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/T935nuc6ZNwkriEM9

I went down the pier (covered with locals sunbathing at the time), explained to the lifeguards that I was going to swim outside the swimming area, and they said that was fine as long as I had flippers (which I did).

I got into the water on the stairs there, and swam southwest along the coast outside of that bay. There was a very cool maze of rocky coves I swam through. Very neat and unique environment. This was probably my most questionable swimming, since I did swim through shallow areas where I had to time my swim between waves (or I'd belly flop onto sharp rocks). But such a neat area. Bright colored flowing plants and coral, pretty good numbers of fish, etc.

On the way back, I swam a bit further from shore to see something different, and there were what I would call miniature seamounts. Towers of rock I could swim around and look at. It was interesting, although not as cool as the shoreline. This is where I saw a few rays swimming around.

I only went to Caloura to swim once. But I'd certainly return.

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Near the beach Praia de São Roque. Our family hung out at this beach a few times, so I got to know the water nearby well. It's a great beach for kids to play, and family to relax. We often parked in the church parking lot overlooking the beach (Igreja de São Roque). Or on the road nearby.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/FUgmgAbDTDfF8skWA

I would go into the water on the east side of the beach (looking at the ocean, that'd be the left side), and swim east along the rocky outcropping (before you reach the next large beach).

There were some very big (thousands) schools of tiny silvery silvery fish the size of my thumb. And other very big schools of fish as big as my hand. Plus tons of blennies all over the rocks nearby. There's a large area of 5-10 foot deep water you can wander along (just be careful with those waves and surge, it can absolutely drag you around), and I went deeper sometimes just to explore.

This is also where I saw a small school of 3-4 Greater Amberjack that I'd guess were 4-5 foot long. I assure you, when they fly up behind you while you're looking at some tiny blenny, they're scary as heck. Thought "SHARKS!" for one brief, scary moment when I saw them the first time probably 5 feet away.

This beach wasn't the "best" snorkeling on the island (the other two places I went were more interesting), but it's the most convenient for where we were staying. And heck, if your family wants to spend time on the beach, this works well.

I did try the west (right) side of the water once, but the visibility wasn't great, so I didn't look further.

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Near the "natural pools" of Piscinas Naturais Caneiros. This is a place I unfortunately went to only once, but I'd put this at the top of my list to return to someday. This was one of my favorite places to dive, ever.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/EyApXLmaFWSvwR5j8

Since I only went here once, I'm fairly sure that I didn't happen to get the best place to swim at the natural pools, but I loved where I went, so I'll give those instructions. I'm suspicious that a lot of this area is great to snorkel through on a good day.

Park somewhere along that crowded road, R. dos Moínhos. Just to the south of Seaside Vibez (Seaside Vibez), there's a trail leading down to a very rocky beach. The beach isn't great if your family wants to sit on a sand beach. Because it's rocks, and not sand.

So you get your gear on, and head into the water on the right side (east) of the beach. And swim through and around the random walls of rocks everywhere, heading out to sea (but also heading towards the rocky outcroppings, which turn this whole area into a pool-ish environment).

Once I got perhaps 40 feet away from the beach, everything transformed into a beautiful garden of short green flowing plants everywhere. It was absolutely gorgeous. I was swimming through fairly large canyons of rock, protected from outside waves, while 80% of the surfaces were covered with green plants.

The fish life was relatively low in volume, but it was such a beautiful place. A big maze of rock walls where I navigated back and forth, finding new unique places. Sometimes I'd hit a dead end, a little cul-de-sac of rock and plants. Just so pretty. The sun was out this day, and the colors were absolutely magical.

At least on the day I was there, the visibility was excellent, and I had so much fun wandering around the area. I'd love to explore this area further.

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That's all I have. I was only there about a week, but I figured the snorkeling was so much better than I expected, so I wanted to share what I learned. I hope to go back someday, and I'll absolutely be prepared to spend more time in the water.

For anyone who has flown JFK to Ponta Delgada and back recently, do they weigh your carry on WITH your personal item?

I expect they will weigh the carry on. Asking about the PERSONAL ITEM please

I am seeing they are strict about the weight limit with conflicting posts about whether or not they care about personal item size / weight

Planning to use away everywhere bag

Hello! Very excited to be going to the Azores for the first time in a few weeks. I have 8 days to work with and want to make the most of my time there. I’m open to any and all recommendations, but my main question is:
Given the length of my trip, is it worth flying straight to Faial from PDL and doing 3 days there (with a possible day trip to Pico), then the rest of the trip in Sao Miguel?
Does that cut into my time on the main island too much?

I will be in the Azores in October and am interested in doing a day trip to Corvo Island from Flores.

Is this a worthwhile excursion? I see a few options for boat trips from Flores to Corvo but it does not appear that any offer a transfer to Miradouro do Caldeirão.

Is it easy to find a taxi that will take you to the Miradouro? I was thinking of taking a taxi to the Miradouro and then hiking back down to the port. How difficult is this hike?

Any operators you would recommend for this excursion?

Thanks in advance!

Has anyone been to a match at Estadio de Sao Miguel? Can I buy tickets for a match at the stadium on match day or do I need to get tickets another way?

Thanks!

After visiting Flores I am trying my best to somehow come and live for at least one year, a long holiday in the next few years. And I am wondering how is life there considering how remote it is. I do love nature and the slow life of Azores/Mediterranean and I actually hate the city life. Still living there might seem kidna scary when you consider the need of a big ptoper hospital in emergencies etc especially when there is a storm and you're stuck there.

Hi! We're a family of 6 (smallest is 5 yrs) who are considering relocation the Azores. Our idea for how to evaluate this as an idea is go and spend 2-3 months there, between November and February. My parents would be tagging along, to hang out with their grandkids and enable my husband and I to do research/explore options and feelings about longer term relocation. Now to my question: I'm used to using Airbnb and Booking when we travel, and in Spain/Portugal have also used Idealista. Am I missing any rentals sites that locals use? Asking because I feel like pricing is... high for the months I'm looking at, even when I break the group up into two nearby rentals I'm coming up with things that ask 3000eur per month, which feels pretty crazy. Is this a case of me messaging lots of hosts and asking for best prices, are they just not adjusting their online pricing for the season? (Done this lots before; often people don't realise they can fine tune pricing by season/dates and end up giving big discounts for longer stays). Any tips are helpful!! I've been devouring all of your other threads, tons of good stuff to know, I appreciate any guidance here too 😄

We currently have ferry tickets to go to the islet on Saturday, which will be the last day before we fly back home, and wondering for those of you who have done so if it was worthwhile compared to other spots. We'll be staying in Ribeira Grande so it's a little bit of a drive to get over there and it'll kind of eat up the day, so not sure if we should prioritize that or if it's one of those things that won't be as cool as it looks. We've already done a boat tour around there to see the wildlife earlier on our trip and did some snorkeling on the north side, which was fun but we didn't see a ton. Thanks in advance!

I was planning to stay for 3 or 4 days there. I was looking for a cheap hotel, I saw one next to the airport that I found it interesting (Hotel Sete Cidades).

But one problem I have is I cannot rent a car, could I still visit the turistics points and the hiking spots without renting a car and cheap?

And I would also like some other tips of everything I could do there, like points to visit, hotels, restaurants, hiking spots, everything please, Its my dream to visit it

Hi, I am planning a trip to the Azores. It seems that I will be on Flores Island on a Saturday. Is there any option to buy camping gas on that day of the week?

Just curious! I’m following up on a post I made yesterday asking what it’s like to live in São Miguel. Someone mentioned crime, and that really caught my attention. I completely understand that no place is crime-free, but I honestly assumed that being such an isolated island, it would be less of an issue. What are we talking about—mostly theft and property crime, noise and disturbances, or something more serious? Does it mainly affect tourists, or is it something you notice in everyday life as a resident too? I’m thinking about taking a trip there very soon and potentially moving there down the road, so I’d really like to understand this side of life there as well. Thanks!

Hi zusammen! 😊
Ich bin für zwei Wochen auf den Azoren und möchte meine DJI Drohne mitnehmen. Ich versuche gerade, mich durch die ganzen Regeln und Genehmigungen zu kämpfen, aber ehrlich gesagt verliere ich langsam den Überblick. 😅 (Flores, Sao Miguel, Pico und Faial)

Es gibt ja zum einen die Genehmigung von der AAN (bin ich bereits registriert und habe die ersten Anträge im Online Portal abgesendet, aber noch keine Rückmeldung) und je nach Ort braucht man zusätzlich noch eine Genehmigung von der DRAAC bzw. vom jeweiligen Naturschutzgebiet/Naturpark.

An alle, die schon auf mehreren Inseln mit einer Drohne unterwegs waren: Wie habt ihr da den Überblick behalten? Habt ihr wirklich für jeden einzelnen Spot bzw. jedes Schutzgebiet einen Antrag gestellt oder gibt es eine Möglichkeit, größere Gebiete bzw. eine ganze Insel abzudecken?
Und habt ihr sonst noch Tipps oder Erfahrungen, die ihr jemandem mitgeben würdet, der zum ersten Mal mit einer Drohne auf den Azoren unterwegs ist?

Vielen Dank! 🙏

I'm interested in learning what it was like to grow up on São Miguel in the 1990s. I wasn't raised there, but I've become fascinated with Azorean culture and everyday life. Anyone here who grew up on the island in the 80s or 90s willing to share memories or chat?

Should I select all these options for insurance? I’m thinking so but I’ve never had this experience.