Couple’s Escape to the Azores Itinerary

Land in the Azores and the vacation starts in classic island fashion. A beautiful hotel overlooking the ocean; a couple’s spa treatment on arrival; the serenity of an island landscape. Check-in, spend an hour in the spa, and feel the island rhythm take hold. Nobody rushes anything here and you’ll soon appreciate what that means. A slower walk, less stress, a feeling that anything is possible but you can just do nothing. The hotel hangs on the cliffs above Ponta Delgada, so you can visit the town and try one of its restaurants, either along the waterfront or amid the black and white mosaics of the old town. Or you can hang out at the hotel, enjoying the solitude found in this corner of the world.

You’re on an island in the middle of nowhere. You have almost two weeks and you’re not going to miss out, so close your eyes and sleep some more. Breakfast can be delivered to your private terrace and you look down the cliffs while sipping coffee. This day is left free and ensures you are fully relaxed into island rhythm. Take your time getting over the flight. Explore new impressions as you take a hike along the cliffs. Sip cocktails in Ponta Delgada, walk hand in hand to a sublime viewpoint, or take a short transfer to one of Sao Miguel’s beaches. Most importantly, start appreciating a space made just for two.

A green-eyed princess met with a blue-eyed shepherd, but alas their romance was as star-crossed and ill-fated as a Shakespeare play. They both shed a tear, one blue, one green, creating the twin crater lakes of Sete Cidades. It’s a mythical, unbelievable tale. But this place evokes fairytales, such vibrant yet contrastingly colored waters, so many astonishing panoramas to take in. Walk around the crater rim, above the green water. Then descend to the larger crater, choosing to walk, mountain bike, or drive around its frame. There’s an option to kayak and swim as well, but you may prefer to just visit the iconic viewpoints and wonder at this surreal work of nature. There’s a reason that Sete Cidades is the best-known attraction on the islands, and you’ll find that out on today’s private tour.

The small boat rocks gently in the harbor as you set sail. Deep blue Atlantic waters soon extend in all directions. You’re on the lookout for whales and dolphins. Great pods of them ply these waters and you might have already spotted them from the cliffs. Cruising beneath Sao Miguel’s mighty mountainous frame, you travel to a collapsed crater where a stunning lagoon makes for a quiet morning of swimming. Like many times on this tour, you’ll wonder why there are so few people around. After a morning sail, you can lunch in Vila Franca before transferring into Sao Miguel’s interior, where your hotel is hidden amid volcanic remains and lush forests.

Hydrangeas and camellias blossom along the paths. Ginger lilies and cycads rise around ferny groves. You’re in a botanical wonderland, one that backs on to your hotel. Thermal currents surge through this area and you can float in them, towards the sound of trickling waterfalls and a crater lake. The land was made by a volcano and much of that history remains. All around Furnas you find steaming holes, gushing hot springs, exploding fumarole, and a romantic dinner cooked underground. The tradition here is to slow cook stews underground, utilizing the steamy volcanic heat. Nature does the cooking, and the results are spectacular, this being a mostly self-sufficient island where almost everything is organic.

Leave one volcano behind and travel towards another. You fly to the far west of the archipelago and Flores, an outpost with very few permanent residents. Hydrangeas carpet the landscape with their pinkish tone massing against the lush green of the indigenous forest. Cliffs rise steeply, with waterfalls trickling down their facades. Lagoons are a surreal shade of green and blue. Basalt columns rise tall like giant’s fingers. Go exploring and you’re never far from lava tubes and caves. This is the Azores Eden and you’re staying right on the coast, in the tiny village of Faja Grande. Look around and there’s hardly anything but nature. You set off with your partner and shake your head in disbelief at the surroundings.

A full day on Flores and the program is left free, so you can set off on your own little adventure. This is a great island if you love the outdoors, with options for canyoning, mountain biking, even diving and snorkeling in lava tubes. The two easiest things to do are on your doorstep. Walk the coast from Faja Grande towards Ponta Delgada with waves crashing down below and virtually nobody else around. Or travel a mile in the other direction to Fajazinha, where more than 20 waterfalls drop down the cliff faces, including one that’s over 300 meters high. As you go misty-eyed from Flores you also realize that you’re fully engrossed in island life now, the serene tempo ideal for romance to thrive.

Flores is a rough and rugged island, just a couple of roads and dramatic landscapes carved by volcanoes. You need a four-wheel-drive to get around as most of the island is cut off. Head out on a jeep tour today, bumping along the cliffs then traveling up a volcano and coming down somewhere on the other side. Pass a couple of fishing villages, descend into some lava tubes, surround yourself with flowers, and find a lagoon that’s perfect for a private swim. The guide knows the places to take you away from it all, and the tour can be customized to your mood.

Corvo looks surreal from afar. The island consists of a single caldera and it seems that most of the volcano is underwater. Travel here and it instantly feels like you’ve stepped back in time. You can see how Corvo was easily cut off from the world. When you walk through the village, you’ll experience what that means. Only 400 people live here, but they keep alive culture, cuisine, and language from the time their ancestors arrived here from pre-medieval Portugal. It’s a fascinating little place to explore, with the village encounters followed by more expanses of dreamy nature.

Fly to Faial, an island in the heart of the archipelago. This time your hotel is in the village, rather than on a village’s outskirts. An old-world atmosphere drifts through the streets, with townhouse blocks coming from the annals of maritime history. For centuries this was a whaling station, now the boats set sail for other reasons. The captains are still in search of whales, but now the focus is on showing them to visitors. Set sail in the afternoon and three species could feature. Blue and humpback whales migrate through here from April to October, while the sperm whales are year-round residents, Faial having the greatest known sperm whale population anywhere in the world. Sail into the sunset and savor where you are, a land of marine giants halfway between Lisbon and New York.

An eery silence greets you at Faial’s western tip. The salty wind rushes past your ears. The landscape is ashen, mostly barren but punctuated by ferns and flowers. This is Capelinhos, the last Azores volcano to erupt, evidence of its 1958 explosion all around you. The volcano rises and then it ends abruptly, its western face crashing into the Atlantic with a flurry of red and orange colors. Take a walk on the new land is created, your footsteps sinking into leftover ash. Then travel to Faial’s heart and a 300-meter crater of innumerable green hues. For the rest of the day, you could hit the beach, either the black sand near Horta or the golden sand of Porto Pim, two beaches that see very few visitors even in the height of summer.

The final day of this romantic escape and you might choose to stay on Faial, doing little but enjoying each other’s company. A boat is waiting, however, and you can choose a day on nearby Sao Jorge or Pico islands. Pico is all about the volcano, a hiking trail taking you along its slopes to vineyards and lava tubes. Sao Jorge is a coastal paradise, with rolling surf, broad beaches, stupendous coastal cliffs, and a landscape not dissimilar to Flores. The guide will explain what you can do and exactly where you can go, with the return boat journey offering another chance to spot whales and dolphins.

You have one final morning gazing over the ocean before you depart. A private transfer will take you to the airport for your journey back home, away from this surreal island world.