About Sao Miguel

Sao Miguel is the largest island in the Portuguese Azorean archipelago, situated in the North Atlantic Ocean. Known locally as ‘the green island’, Sao Miguel’s landscape is characterised by rolling hills, vast green plains and towering mountains. It also boasts beautiful crater lakes, sandy beaches, blue ocean waters and an award-winning national park. The bustling capital of Ponta Delgada offers both a cosmopolitan and historical atmosphere, with a great number of fascinating monuments and century-old buildings found alongside upmarket restaurants and a variety of shops. As the most populated island in the Azores, Sao Miguel offers numerous ferry connections to many locations in the archipelago. The routes are operated by a popular local ferry company, but, given the sparseness of the islands, the journey times can vary greatly.

About Sao Jorge

Sao Jorge is a slim stretch of land, measuring fifty-six km long and just eight km wide, in the Azores archipelago, a chain of Portuguese islands in the North Atlantic Ocean. Undulating peaks, countless emerald-green craters and steep, jagged cliffs encompass some of the ever-changing landscape on this hiker-friendly strip of the Azores. At over a thousand metres, Pico da Esperanca is the highest point, affording lovely views of the surrounding Central Group islands: Faial, Pico and Graciosa. Velas, Sao Jorge’s idyllic capital, sprawls around its picturesque harbour, which dates back to the 1400s, and the town itself has a beautifully made, traditional Azorean bandstand in the main plaza. The main port of Sao Jorge is in Velas on the northwest coast, which is easily reachable from the majority of Azorean islands by ferry, with some routes from the other Central Group lasting just a couple of hours.