FAIAL & PICO ISLANDS, AZORES – 22-23 September 2026
After 4 days on Sao Miguel, we were ready to hit the ground running with 2 days on Faial & Pico Islands. The trip theme (things not going to plan) continued with Christine and me thinking that we needed to be in the lobby at 6am to catch the bus, so we weren’t in a hurry, then at 5.20am we got a call from Rhonda to ask where were we, the bus was to leave at 5.30am – talk about chaos!
At least Christine was dressed, I had to dress, put everything together and clean my teeth, I don’t think I’ve ever moved that quickly!
The flight was an uneventful 40 minutes to Horta – I haven’t flown on a propellor driven plane for donkey’s years LOL.
We then drove into the countryside to Manny & Margo’s home for brunch (as we hadn’t had time for breakfast lol).
Manny and Margo are the owners of Fazenda, a seasonal farm-to-table experience located on 150-year-old family land. Much of the property had been devastated in the 1998 earthquake and all that survived was a chapel built in 1898 (interesting). The property, which had been left fallow for more than five decades, has now been carefully restored and includes a working farm, and greenhouse. Manny, a chef (from Equador) and Margo (who’s family were from Faial) were living in NY before taking up residence in Faial.
The view from the glasshouse – lovely scenery.
Manny’s kitchen – the carrot salad, focaccia and bruschetta were all fantastic, apparently he puts some of his recipes (which I’m definitely going to check out) are on Instagram
The house across the road caught my attention, loved the fact that it was built with volcanic stones, and liked the yellow features. Great views.
Once we’d checked out the farm garden, we were back on the road headed for the site of the volcanic activity in 1957/58.
The lighthouse, opened in 1903. The first floor of the building was buried in 5m of ash from the eruption.
Looking out from the lighthouse, in the middle of the image is where the eruption started, from a volcano under the water, the land you see now was newly formed from the explosions and the ash and lava released over 2 years of activity.
To the right of the lighthouse more ash deposited.
Closer to the lighthouse;
Infrastructure now in place since the eruption. The circular structure is actually an underground museum and the walkway in the bottom lh corner is an exit point to access the lighthouse, the museum was definitely worthwhile visiting.
We had the opportunity to climb to the top of the lighthouse, only 2 of us decided to climb the 200 steps. Looking down from the top. The last 20 steps were almost vertical and I had to hold onto the steps so I wouldn’t fall, going down was problematic too LOL.
Looking up from the bottom, was pleased to get on firm land again.
We returned to Horta and got a birds eye view from a lookout, much larger city than I expected.
And another small village on the other side of the lookout, it wasn’t until the mid 1900s that a road that vehicles could use was built between the two towns, prior to that it was horses and donkeys and a half day travel between the two towns.
While waiting to check in I took a quick walk to the beach that we were told we could swim in, whilst nice to see yellow sand, it wasn’t that enticing. Nice view though.
In my short self guided tour I found this near our hotel, not sure what the significance is but someone had had fun crocheting something to go around a Norfolk Island Pine.
We were able to check in at 3pm, then we did a quick walking tour around Horta. At 7pm we were taken to a sea food restaurant for dinner, thankfully we didn’t have to be ready to rock and roll again until 10am next morning, it had been a full day.
The ferry trip from Faial to Pico port took roughly 45 minutes and thankfully we had calm seas. This was our first sighting of Pico Mountain which is the highest mountain in Portugal, at 2,351 metres (7,713 ft). Historical eruptions of Pico have occurred from vents on its flanks rather than the summit crater. In 1562–1564, an eruption on the southeast flank produced lava flows which reached the sea. Another flank eruption in 1718 also produced flows which reached the coast.[5] The most recent eruption occurred in December 1720.
We got off the bus and were met with a myriad of volcanic “fences” with farming practices dating back to the 15th century. The vines just lay there on the volcanic rock.
Can you imagine the farmers back in the 15th century labouring to build the walls of volcanic rocks to shelter the vines from the weather (mostly winds). Originally, the farmers came from Faial Island (by boat) as there were no homes on Pico at the time, they occasionally would bring along dirt to suppliment the little dirt that was on the lava field.
Most of the grapes had been harvested by the time we got there, but I did spot some grapes still on the vine.
In the 1850s a phylloxera plague decimate Pico’s vineyards, essentially halting wine production and it wasn’t until the 1960s that Professor José Duarte Garcia had the vision to resurrect wine production to bring back the vineyards to their past glory (and Czar Vinyards was created).
The vineyards were recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004 due to the man-made landscape. The vines that they grew are a now almost forgotten species of Verdelho, Arinto dos Açores, and Terrantez do Pico, which are still the only grapes planted at the site.
I’m sure the main road that we walked along is a recent construction. There are some small “huts” that have been built randomly, we are assuming that these are for the famers harvesting the grapes so that they had shelter from the sun.
Some of the fences (wind shields) are nice and straight, others were less organised.
It’s impressive how many acres that have these fences built, must have taken them many, many years. And then, in the 1850s a phylloxera plagues decimate Pico’s vineyards, essentially halting wine production and it wasn’t until the 1960s that Professor José Duarte Garcia had the vision to resurrect wine production to bring back the vineyards to their past glory (and Czar Vinyards was created).
Once we’d walked the length of the “vineyard”, we were picked up and taken along the coastline to a small village. I wasn’t sure what to expect here, but when we were dropped off at the road to the vineyard, we were quite close to the coast (a field of lava rocks and a couple of lava shelves) and I was disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to go closer to the sea. But, once again, my expectations were more than met by this village that we visited.
Apparently, in the 16 – 17th centuries when production of wine had increased, this village was used for distilleries and for shipping the wine.
There were a few derelict “houses”.
We then came to what was obviously either a new house, or one that had been “renovated”, and I knew this because the deck is made from “eco decking” almost the same as the decking I’ve used in my house. As this area is part of the UNESCO site, any new buildings must reflect the buildings that were built in the old days, ie, made of stone so all the houses in this village reflect the era.
Our guide pointed out this well, it is a tidal well which guarantees a water supply all year round, mainly for the distilleries’ operation (in the old days). In the post-phylloxera area (at the end of the 19th century), small wineries started to start up again and this is why these houses started to be built.
And here’s an old photo of it.
What the coastline looks like – would be hard to ship wine from here.
But here is where they would have rolled the casks down to the shore and loaded them on boats.
And just around the corner some equipment – obviously later than the 17th century lol … or maybe not.
Of more interest to me though was the rocks (and the nice walk that they’ve obviously put in for tourists so we can view the sea and how it’s eroded the lava).
Pretty impressive – there’s got to be a lava cave or two here!
We came to a set of steps (and there was evidence of a railing that had been in place for safety), but obviously this was no longer used.
And then I spotted the steps from another vantage point, and low and beyond, some big cracks in the bridge – now I know why those steps are no longer used!
After we’d had our fill of the village, we then drove to another area of vineyards as we had been promised a “wine tasting”.
So far, we had seen lots of vineyards, but not much sign of how the wine was made, gain, my expectations were quite low and again they were well and truly exceeded.
Walking to the distillery, these fields seem to be a little more organised.
And here we are in the wine tasting room – pretty impressive.
Very nice wines, we weren’t sure which ones we liked best.
And then they took us on a tour, very impressive.
And each room we were taken into was more impressive.
Was hard to take this pick of the grapes – obviously much different colour to those we’d seen out in the field.
The guide explained all the equipment but it was too much for me to take in. Most of the machinery and equipment was in rooms that looked to be underground, and that too was impressive.
Just when I think that we couldn’t see anything as impressive as the vineyards, village and the wine tasting, we’re off to see a bit of the mountain, particularly a “lagoon” that we were told about.
I was expecting something like a lake that we saw on Sao Miguel, but this one is different. Apart from being on private land (or some of it on private land hence the fences), it is part of a fault. Known as Lagoa do Caqpitao, and at 790m altitude (not even half way up the mountain), it’s 2.6 hectares and about 4.5m deep. Apparently, it’s one of the most important tectonic accidents of the island.
But that wasn’t the highlight for me. For the past 7 days, the majority of the vegetation on all the islands has been introduced. We asked what the endemic vegetation was and up until today no-one had given us a good answer. But finally, someone has given me the answer I was looking for AND shown us an example.
Juniperus brevifolia, the Azores juniper, is a species of juniper native to the Azores (on Corvo, Faial, Flores, Pico, Santa Maria, São Jorge, São Miguel, and Terceira), where it occurs from sea level up to 1,500 m (4,900 ft) elevation. And apparently this is what covered the island until it was settled by those who wanted to clear the land for agriculture. The example above shows how the trees struggled with the winds.
This is a large volcanic rock on which are some of the junipers, my thoughts are that this is a very slow growing shrub/tree, and on this rock it’s growing like a bonsai.
This is a vulnerable species in its native range due to a combination of felling for the valuable wood and competition from invasive introduced plants which would have been introduced because they were fast growing. It shouldn’t be surprising that on some islands the tree has gone extinct, and on the other islands, it remains endangered.
And so ended our Pico Island visit. It’s a beautiful Island, and I really felt at home on it, the only downside I could see was that to get to a hospital you’d have to take a ferry to Faial Island! Bit of a problem for oldies.
The coach drive made and be-line to the harbour and we were back on the ferry before we knew it. Christine and I were both exhausted, AND, we had an early start the next morning to take us to Angra do Heroismo on Terceira Island.
Both Faial and Pico Islands definitely exceeded my expectations, we’ll be on Terceira for three nights, will be interested to see what surprises are in store for us!!!