Nine volcanic islands out in the Atlantic
The Azores are nine volcanic islands in the middle of the Atlantic, about five hours from Boston and two and a half from Lisbon. They're Portuguese, with 1,500 km of ocean in between, and they look nothing like the mainland: crater lakes, hot springs, a couple of tea plantations, black rock coastline, hydrangea hedges along every road, and a lot of cows. It rains most days, though rarely for long, which is why everything is so green.
We'd base ourselves on São Miguel, the biggest of the islands. You can walk the rim of the Sete Cidades crater in the morning and be sitting in the hot, rust-colored pools at Furnas by mid-afternoon, a short walk from where the restaurants bury pots of stew in the volcanic ground and dig them up at lunchtime. Sperm whales and dolphins live offshore most of the year, and there are boats out of Ponta Delgada that go and find them.
Late spring is when we'd go: the hydrangeas are coming out, the sea is warm enough to swim in, and the mainland Portuguese don't arrive for their holidays until August. We have our eye on a quinta out in the countryside for most of the week, with the last night or two in Ponta Delgada, where the good restaurants are.
A morning hike
Up early to walk the Sete Cidades crater rim before the cloud comes in, with the two lakes below you the whole way.
A long lunch
Cozido, the stew they cook in the ground at Furnas, or grilled limpets and whatever came in on the boats that morning.
In the water
A soak in the thermal springs, a dive, or the swimming hole at Caldeira Velha.
Dinner in Ponta Delgada
Fish in Ponta Delgada, with wine from Pico, where they grow the vines in little stone-walled plots on the lava.
It'll change with the season and with who comes.
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