Azores Family Vacation
The Azores. Another one of those quirky destinations that I would tell people about and they’d tilt their heads and say, “where??”
Those are always my favorite places to go. A little off the beaten path.
I had a baby in late 2022 and I worried my traveling days might be done. I was thankfully wrong.
Getting to the Azores
In August 2024, I traveled to the Azores with my husband and my 1.5 year old toddler son. I got an amazing flight deal with Going (formerly Scotts Cheap Flights) and our tickets were only about $600 each from Portland to Sao Miguel. And yes, we bought our son his own seat, there was no way were holding that wiggly little dude across the Atlantic.
We flew Portland to Newark, Newark to Sao Miguel. That was the easy part. Then we found the most AMAZING accomodation on the island of Sao Jorge and that’s when we jumped deeper into adventure travel. Because of the timing of our arrival and connecting flight schedule, we ended up doing Portland-Newark-Sao Miguel-Terciera-Sao Jorge. In one day. Without sleep. With a toddler.
And our bags got lost on the last leg.
So we left Portland on a Thursday morning and arrived in Sao Jorge by sunset on Friday, lol. With no bags, no car seat, and extreme exhaustion. But hey, we were in paradise. I was frankly just impressed we survived.
I did have a meltdown in the final hour, when we were wandering around the city of Velas on Sao Jorge at sunset. We were buying 4 days worth groceries and a few pairs of clothes at the last open shops, before meeting our airbnb host who would take us via offroad utility vehicle the last 2 kilometers to the house, since it was not reachable by car. Normal things.
We made it. It was amazing. And it was all worth it, I swear.
Kuanza Nature Experience
Let me introduce you to Kuanza Nature Experience on Sao Jorge Island. A tiny hotel/airbnb made up of self-serviced stone houses, on Faja do Belos. A Faja is the name for the flat land created by landslides along the steep volcanic coastline. Essentially the mountains are too steep to do anything on, but you can build things on the flat faja below. Kuanza in located between Faja dos Cubres and Faja da Caldiera. As mentioned, the coastal road connecting the Fajas is actually more of a trail and is only passable by UTVs - not cars. The hosts help bring your luggage in and your luggage out, but the rest of the time, its a 2km hike anytime you want to go back to your car! Which is hard, except also it makes its 10 times more remote and wild and interesting. Are we slightly crazy for doing this with a small human? Yes. Was it worth it? Yes.
You can book a room at Kuanza with their website, Booking.com, or on Airbnb. I found and booked through Airbnb and we stayed at the Bela Mamba house.
Did I mention yet that Sao Jorge is famous for it’s cheese? Another reason it was high on my list. I love cheese. We ate a ton while we were here.
After the VERY long travel day, we spent our first full day at Kuanza just relaxing, playing in the pool, reading, and enjoying the absolutely insane scenery. I honestly never wanted to leave. There was even a tiny playground there for kiddos!
Swimming at Piscina Natural “Simão Dias”
But! There was so much more of Sao Jorge to explore, so on day 2, we set off on a very sweaty morning hike (it was HOT) and walked back to our rental car. It only took us about 25 minutes. The hike is not flat though! Then we drove to the town of Norte Grande and had an incredible lunch at O Amilcar. We had fresh fish, Portuguese wine, and amazing views of the surrounding mountains and ocean below.
After lunch, we explored Piscina Natural “Simão Dias” aka one of the most incredible places I have ever swam in my entire life. Also, the first place that my child has ever swam in the ocean, which was epic. All three of us swam out into the huge natural ocean pool together, and it was a bit scary, but totally memorable and stunningly gorgeous.
Exploring Pico da Esperança
After our swim, the toddler immediately passed out in the backseat and we set off on a fun drive across the volcanic spine of the island. We found winding dirt backroads that took us pass a number of small volcanos, including the tallest, Pico da Esperança, which is over 1km above sea level! The dirt road had crazy dropoffs with misty views of the surrounding islands and ocean in all directions. And we drove all this in our tiny little Fiat! The roads and volcanic areas were completely empty and we had the entire drive to ourselves which was so fun. And plenty of opportunies to stop and birdwatch to see the endemic island canary. It was an incredible day.
Hiking to Fajã da Caldeira
On our final day at Kuanza, we decided to hike the opposite direction from Kuanza and visit the tiny town of Fajã da Caldeira. This town is located at the end of the trail and also only accessible by UTV and walking. There is a famous pilgrimage here, and the lagoon in the town is famous for it clams! We walked over, had a beer and a snack, then swam in the lagoon a bit. It was quaint!
If you are interested in making the hike yourself and aren’t staying at Kuanza, this page has great info about hiking from Faja dos Cubres to Faja da Caldiera.
Swimming at Piscinas Naturais da Preguiça in Velas
After 4 magical nights at Kuanza, we checked out and head to the airport - only to spend hours waiting for a flight that never came. Side note: don’t have high expectations about the timeliness of Sata Airlines! They were kind, and helpful, and refunded us as appriate/brought us our bags via taxi when they got lost, but keep in mind they are a small inter-island airline and there are MANY delays. Make travel plans that are slightly flexible if you can!
Alas, we were stuck on Sao Jorge one more night, and the airline put us up at a very nice hotel, Hotel Sao Jorge Garden, in Velas. We were grumpy about this but it gave us a 5th night on this gorgeous island and another chance to swim in amazing places! Turns out there was an insane swimming hole RIGHT behind our hotel, with beautiful views of the neighboring island of Pico and its symmetrical volcano. We made the best of this and had a nice evening swimming at Piscinas Naturais da Preguiça despite the travel stress. The swimming areas here have changing rooms, restrooms, showers, and sell beer/snacks. Oh, and have umbrellas! It’s pretty awesome.
Sete Cidades on Sao Miguel
We finally made it back to Sao Miguel, the main island of the Azores! We stayed in this absolutely gorgeous airbnb by the sea in Agua de Pau. Since we only had two days due to our travel delays, we immediately started adventuring after getting settled at our new house (with a very tired toddler).
I had to see the iconic Sete Cidades, so that was our first stop: Vista do Roi. This is the postcard image you see of the Azores.
We bought pina coladas from a random vendor near the Sete Cidades viewpoint, then drove through the caldera, stopping at many of the miradouras (viewpoints) for photos along the way. So many hydrangeas! So green!
After many photo stops, we had dinner at a delicious pizza spot, O Sole Mio, which was one of the best dinners of our trip.
Coastal Hot Springs at Ponta da Ferraria
After dinner, we decided to let our toddler stay up WAY past his bedtime so we could take a dip in a hotspring in the ocean! Ponta da Ferraria has a hot spring you can pay to access - but there is also a path you can walk down to the ocean for the free natural pools. We loved floating in the ocean pools - with our toddler in his life jacket - as the mix of cool sea water and hot thermal water intermingled around us. This was such an awesome swimming experience for all of us. It wasn’t too busy this late in the day (around 8pm). I don’t have a ton of pictures because it was getting very dark, but it was so much fun.
Glass bottom boat tour of Ilhéu de Vila Franca do Campo
On our final day, I really wanted to go on a boat tour! We booked one through airbnb initially that included cave tours, but it got canceled due to rough seas on the other side of the island. So we were able to find an amazing alternative - a glass bottom boat tour of Ilhéu de Vila Franca do Campo - an ancient submerged volcano island. This was awesome because my toddler was able to see all the cool tropical fish under the boat! And as a part of the tour, we got to explore all around the unique island, including snorkeling for a full hour around the little caldera. I even got to see an eel! This was the perfect last-day adventure and such a fun way to explore another part of the island, and swim!
Final explorations
We were pretty tired after our boat tour and snorkeling, but we pushed through and drove around the island to see a bit more. First, we drove across the island for lunch at Restaurante Cantinho Do Cais, which was recommended by our host. I never thought I could be impressed by fish stew, but oh my gosh it was SO GOOD. This lunch was phenomenal and we enjoyed a bottle of local Azorean wine from neighboring Pico with it as well.
After lunch, we attempted to bird watch with our grumpy toddler, and tried to drive up into the hills to find the Sao Miguel endemic bird, the Azores Bullfinch. Sadly, after a few hours and much frustration, we gave up and never saw it. Oh well.
It was late in the day at this point, so we drove back through Furnas and I took pictures out the car window. We spent the evening relaxing at our airbnb and enjoying our last Azores sunset. There was SO much more I wanted to do on Sao Miguel, but with only 2 days (and a small child) we did what we could. It was still so much fun.
Can’t wait for whatever adventure we plan next!
If you loved this set, check out some other travel adventures I’ve blogged!
FRENCH POLYNESIA AND THE AUSTRAL ISLANDS