While visiting friends and learning of their travel plans to explore
the Azores in the upcoming summer months, we became intrigued and
managed to get ourselves invited along!
The Azores are a
group of islands, 900 miles off the coast of Portugal. We are staying
on San Miguel, the large island, in a villa we rented from
http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/. We booked our flights several months
in advance to save on costs from http://www.sata.pt/en/.
Flight: Sata airlines, booked in December. $756 pp
Room: Rented a two bedroom villa from the website above. $900 for 6 nights
Car: Autoatlantis, a Class C Renault Clio III/Modus $367.50 for the week. Unlimited km.
All expenses shared between two couples. Can't beat that!
Our
amazing host Josie, set us up with the car rental. It is usually about
$100 dollars more. We got a deal on the accommodations as well, because
we booked so far in advance.
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| Our plane on the Tarmac in Ponta Delgada |
The flight was less than five hours. Food
and service on board were great. The vegetarian option was better than
the regular option if you ask me, spinach, jasmine rice and a chick pea
curry. Nice and spicy! We were given granola bars, tea and coffee for
breakfast, and alcohol was free with dinner!
We landed
and retrieved our luggage. Our hosts were waiting for us in arrivals
with our names on a sign. Laudalina helped us get our car at the
Autoatlantis desk, and took our bags and led us to our villa. We thought
that we would never find our way back again, but everything is well
labeled and the main roads are in really good condition. In town, roads
are tiny, and made of stone. Beware of opening doors.
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| Our car, the Clio III |
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Go with the smaller car. Roads are narrow and divers are crazy!
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| Our Villa |
We
felt like royalty when we arrived at Josie's villa. It was beautifully
decorated, clean and was filled with every possible amenity you could
desire. She wasn't kidding when she told us all we would need is
sunscreen and bathing suits. She had fruits, cheese and sweet bread
waiting for us.
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| Becky and Jarvis chose this room. We are across the hall. |
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| Our room located across the hall. |
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| Impeccably clean washroom, stocked with towels and anything else we could possibly need. |
The flat iron and hair dryer are hotter than the ones I have at home.
I don't have a good view of the adjacent wall where the large flat screen TV and wifi are located. We were not living lightly.
Awaiting our indulgence.
The patio outside was beautiful. It is two levels, complete with loungers, and upper and lower patio sets for outdoor eating!
The laundry room and second washroom are located on the room underneath the upper patio.
We felt like movie stars staying in a fancy private villa.
Standing
on the top balcony and overlooking the neighbors fence, we learned that
we had a goat, several dogs, and some chickens. The goat was not a fan
of the dogs, and the chickens got the dogs barking up a storm. There
were times when it sounded like a small child was being eaten by a pack
of hyenas, and we often felt the need to intervene and check on the
goat, but he seemed to hold his own.
Looking the other way over the property.
Looking down the street both ways standing in front of our property.
We
decided to be troopers and stay up and start the day, so we puttered
around the town and found a beach. This beach is a rock bottom beach, so
we would need water shoes. We made a mission to find some while in
town.
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| The beach behind our villa |
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| It's rocky but the water is warm |
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| You can see why water shoes are a must |
Later we decided to drive to Vila Franca
Do Campo to swim. We found our way easily to the highway and managed to
dodge people, cars and buses to get to the beach at Vila Franca. It was
beautiful. The waves are strong, but the water is warm. Bring flip
flops because the sand gets HOT. There is a snack bar here, and
washrooms with showers. There is a "water park" here, but it's more for
kids, as the slides are not very big.
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| The water park. I think it was 9 euros for adults |
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| Beautiful beach |
We ate lunch at a cafe in the Sol Mar. We bought our groceries here too.
We drove back home to shower, have some snacks and lounge on the
patio for awhile, then headed out to Ribeirinha, just past Ribeira
Grande to eat dinner. We ate at O Gato Mia. A Very good recommendation
by our host. They have another location in Ponta Delgada if you don't
make it out to Ribeirinha. Becky and I had the codfish (which was
drenched in oil and garlic). It wasn't the greatest, but the grouper and
squid in seafood sauce was delicious. Jarvis and Shay were kind enough
to share. Bread with many traditional fixings, olives, and fava beans
were included. With dinner another tray of traditional sides came and a
sweet liquor to finish off the meal. The service was excellent, and the
owner/servers were so helpful gave great suggestions. I think we paid 60
euros for four of us to eat.
We made it home before dark, and everyone fell asleep by 10! Being up for 36 hours takes a toll.
