Our trip: early June 2026 · Last updated: October 26, 2026
These are the places on São Miguel we’d send any friend to, all of which we did ourselves in early June 2026 (here’s the whole story). They’re grouped by side of the island, because that’s how you’ll actually plan your days: the west is an easy day from Ponta Delgada, Furnas deserves at least one night, and the east is a long, beautiful drive. If you only have three days, do Sete Cidades, Furnas and Ponta da Ferraria.
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Everything on one map
Open the full map in Google Maps ↗ and save it, so every pin is on your phone when you land.
West
Sete Cidades
Google Maps: Sete Cidades ↗ · São Nicolau ↗
The postcard of the Azores: a huge volcanic crater with a lake on the floor and a tiny village on its shore. Drive in, walk around the village, and have lunch at São Nicolau, a little family restaurant (my salad was perfect). The streets are lined with tiny houses and hydrangeas.
The Boca do Inferno ridge walk
Google Maps: Boca do Inferno viewpoint (listed as Miradouro da Grota do Inferno) ↗
A ridge trail with crater lakes on both sides of you, and easier than it looks: not much climbing, huge payoff. Bring water. We gave ours to two hikers who’d underestimated a longer trail, so plan for more than you think.
The Monte Palace
Google Maps: Monte Palace ↗
An abandoned five-star hotel on the rim above Sete Cidades. It opened in 1989, closed about 18 months later, was guarded until 2011, and has been empty and graffitied ever since, despite being bought in 2017. Jake loved it. I didn’t. The views are incredible either way, and it’s five minutes from the ridge walk, so do them together. Watch your belongings: Jake left a camera on the car roof and a stranger kindly flagged it.
Ponta da Ferraria
Google Maps: Ponta da Ferraria ↗
The one you’ll talk about for years. A natural rock pool on the west coast, about 25 km from Ponta Delgada, where a volcanic hot spring runs straight into the Atlantic. Every wave brings in cold seawater; then the spring warms it back up. There are ropes strung across to hold onto.
- Go within about two hours of low tide. That’s when it’s warmest and calmest. At high tide it can feel like plain cold ocean.
- Wear water shoes and an old dark swimsuit. The rocks are sharp and mineral water can stain.
- Check access before you go. The only road down was closed after a landslide in September 2025 and reopened in May 2026 with one lane and traffic lights. The thermal spa building up top has closed; the sea pool is the part you want anyway.
We went on a foggy, freezing morning and still had a blast. Watch the videos.
North
Ribeira Grande, at sunset
Google Maps: Alabote ↗ · Piscinas Municipais de Ribeira Grande ↗
The north coast’s main town has a cute little main street, dramatic black-rock coastline, and a famous seawater pool right on the ocean, the Piscinas Municipais down by the Miradouro do Castelo (closed for maintenance when we went, so check before you go). Stay for dinner at Alabote, a fish restaurant on the water. Ask for a table outside at sunset and order the three-fish option. We loved it so much we went back two nights later. There’s public parking just down the street.
Furnas and around
Furnas
Google Maps: Caldeiras das Furnas ↗ · Lagoa das Furnas ↗
A town in a volcanic valley that the Azores government calls one of the largest hydrological centres in Europe. You can see steam rising off the hot springs (the caldeiras) right in town. They’re far too hot to touch, and locals cook in them. Walk around the village itself, which most people skip: the houses are adorable. Then walk down to Lagoa das Furnas, the lake, which is especially peaceful in the morning.
Eat the cozido
Google Maps: A Terra at Octant Furnas ↗
Cozido is the Furnas specialty: meats, sausage, potatoes and vegetables slow-cooked for hours underground in the volcanic heat. We had it at A Terra, the restaurant at Octant Furnas. We wish we’d also done one of the experiences where you watch the pots come out of the ground.
Gorreana tea plantation
Google Maps: Gorreana Tea Factory ↗
Family-run since 1883, and the only one of São Miguel’s old tea factories that has never stopped producing. Entry, parking and the tea tasting are all free, and you can wander the factory and the terraced fields on your own. It’s open every day, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. at weekends. Allow an hour, or about two and a half if you add the 3.3 km tea trail (an easy loop of about 1.5 hours from the factory parking lot). Walking into those rows felt like being back in Sapa, Vietnam.
Cascata da Ribeira Quente
Google Maps: Cascata da Ribeira Quente ↗
A huge waterfall just south of Furnas, between two road tunnels. Park in the clearing, walk carefully through the first tunnel (narrow, dark, fast cars), and scramble in a few minutes. You can do it in flip-flops. You do not need to climb out across the log for a better photo. Ask me how I know.
Furnas Golf Course
Google Maps: Furnas Golf Course ↗
One of the most beautiful courses we’ve ever played, and the birdsong is unreal. Book a tee time ahead (we hit a three-hour wait behind an outing), and bring your own balls if you can. Renting clubs plus balls and tees cost us about €400 for two, and the forest keeps what it takes.
East and south
The drive to Nordeste
Google Maps: Restaurante Tronqueira ↗ · Miradouro da Ponta da Madrugada ↗
The far east is the least developed part of the island, and the drive in is hairpin after hairpin through deep green valleys. Stop at the lookouts, especially the Miradouro da Ponta da Madrugada. In June they were covered in blooming hydrangeas. The east also has its own weather: it was cloudy everywhere else and fully sunny there. Lunch at Restaurante Tronqueira in Nordeste.
Farol do Arnel
Google Maps: Farol do Arnel ↗
A lighthouse at the bottom of a cliff road in Nordeste. The road down is roughly a 35% grade with no parking at the bottom, so the sensible move is to park up top and walk the 500 m. (Jake drove it. Jake likes a challenge.)
Caloura’s tide pools
Google Maps: Caloura Hotel Resort ↗
On the south coast near Lagoa, natural volcanic pools in the sea below the clifftop at Caloura. We had access through our hotel’s private gate. Good for a swim on a calm day and for whale-spotting from the cliffs.
Vila Franca do Campo
Google Maps: Ermida de Nossa Senhora da Paz ↗ · Ilhéu de Vila Franca ↗
Two things here. First, climb to the Ermida de Nossa Senhora da Paz, a white chapel at the top of a zigzag stairway built into the hillside, with a view over town and the sea. Second, look out at the Ilhéu de Vila Franca, a volcanic islet just offshore with a nearly round lagoon inside its crater.
You can take a boat out to swim inside the islet in summer. Swimming reopened for 2026 after being closed in 2025 over water quality, with a cap of 400 people a day and boats run by the local naval club from Vila Franca’s harbor. We only saw it from above, by drone, and it opens our drone reel.
Good to know
- Rent a car. You can’t do this list without one. Most rentals are manual, so request an automatic early if you need it.
- Pick your weather by coastline. If it’s cloudy where you are, drive to another side of the island before you give up on the day.
- Go a little later than we did. Early June was still cool; locals said they’d only just switched to shorts. Hydrangeas peak around July.
- Bring cash for small spots. The Furnas laundromat, for one, was cash only.
- Save 112. It’s the emergency number across Portugal and the EU.
We checked the practical details here (hours, access, rules) against official and local sources in October 2026, and they’re linked where they appear. Things change on the island, so double-check anything time-sensitive before you go.