Things to do in Azores

The Azores are nine islands, not one, spread across more than 600 kilometres of open Atlantic. They split into three groups. Flights fill the gaps a ferry can't reach.

Three groups, nine islands

• Eastern group. São Miguel and Santa Maria; São Miguel is the largest island and holds most of the archipelago's flights and hotels.
• Central group. Terceira, Pico, Faial, São Jorge and Graciosa, close enough that Pico and Faial share a 30-minute ferry across an 8-kilometre channel.
• Western group. Flores and Corvo, the remotest pair, over 500 kilometres from the eastern group and reached by their own separate flights.
• Between groups. Inter-island flights run 30 to 45 minutes; island-hopping here means building a route, not picking a single base.

What the islands are made of

• Volcanoes. All nine are volcanic; Pico's cone reaches 2,351 metres, the highest point in Portugal, and still shapes the island's weather more than the calendar does.
• Craters and springs. São Miguel's Sete Cidades holds twin lakes inside one caldera; nearby Furnas cooks a slow stew underground using the same heat that fills its thermal pools.
• The vineyards of Pico. Grapevines grown inside thousands of small stone-walled plots along the coast, a UNESCO-listed pattern built to block salt spray rather than to look the way it does.
• Angra do Heroísmo. Terceira's old port town, a UNESCO World Heritage centre since 1983 and a routine stop for ships crossing the Atlantic from the 15th century into the age of steam.

Practical

• Weather. Summer rarely passes 26C and winter days hold near 16C; the weather changes by the hour more than by the season.
• Diving and whales. The water around Pico and Faial is a known route for whales and dolphins; the diving season and the calmest crossings both run roughly April to October.
• Getting between islands. Book inter-island flights early in summer; they run on small planes and a limited schedule, and weather cancels them more often than on the mainland.
• What to bring. Layers and a waterproof shell rather than beachwear; the Azores are a green, cool Atlantic climate, not a tropical one.