Destinations / Azores

Picture a velvety-green Hawaiian island rising straight from the vast and empty surrounding sea. Now perch a quaint northern Italian hill town right on top — Renaissance glories intact — and there you pretty much have Angra do Heroísmo, a 15th-century Portuguese town (and UNESCO World Heritage Site) on the island of Terceira, one of the nine islands that make up the Portuguese territory of the Azores.

Virtually unknown to Americans, the Azores — Corvo, Faial, Flores, Graciosa, Pico, São Jorge, São Miguel, Santa Maria and Terceira — and its more than 100 named dive sites are virtually unknown to European divers too. An important way station at the dawn of the golden age of navigation, the Azores today reveal their historic past above and below the waves; topside also offers many rewards for adventurous travelers, who have unlimited ways to work up an appetite for the varied local cuisine.

On the island of Graciosa — one of the five islands that make up the Azores’ so-called Central Group — dive tourism from North America is new, so expect an adventure on this completely unspoiled, lush, temperate island that is home to about 5,000 residents. At the renovated 100-year-old stone inn Casa das Faias, you’ll find warm hospitality, and the rustic Gracipescas dive shop (gracipescas.com) right out back — but there’s nothing rustic about its brand-new high-tech RIB, which also is used for whale watching, a signature activity in the Azores.

Accommodations elsewhere run from B&Bs in picturesque windmills to the new Graciosa Resort & Business Hotel (graciosahotel.com) — the island’s only American-style hotel — which offers 44 rooms, two suites and six villas plus a restaurant, bar, pool, gym and more. Dine as locals do at the Green Light, where heaping platters of local beef and seafood are served family style, and at Apolo 80, near Nautigraciosa dive shop, where the lunch buffet can include an amazing octopus stew. Do not leave these islands without checking out Azorean wine, a fantastic value for the modest price.

Après-dive, Graciosa’s restored historic thermal baths — the Termas do Carapacho — are now a high-tech spa managed by the Graciosa Resort & Business Hotel; relax in style with a water massage, in the spa’s chill lounges or in the swimming-pool-size mineral bath. Or experience a different sort of submersion as you descend 100 meters into an extinct volcano at Furna do Enxôfre, for a scene right out of The Lord of the Rings.

On the more-populous island of Terceira, you can dive the growing underwater archaeological park and many other sites around the island. At fisherman’s haunt Beira Mar, just outside of Angra, experience a typical Portuguese meal of seafood, beer and hours of friendly, boisterous conversation. Terceira offers nightlife and restaurants at the newly redeveloped waterfront in the town of Praia da Vitoria, on the island’s eastern side; or dance till dawn at cliff-side Copos & Companhia, a restaurant that turns into a nightclub after 10 p.m. Daytime highlights on Terceira include hiking — popular throughout the Azores — the Algar do Carvao volcanic formation and the lava tubes of the Gruta do Natal, a cave system named for the Christmas Eve services once held there. Spend your last few hours here just strolling the black-cobblestoned streets of Angra, where it’s easy to believe you’ve traveled straight back in time.


GEOGRAPHY:
Topography: If you measured from the ocean floor, these volcanic islands would be actually only the peaks of some of the tallest mountains on the planet. Despite that impressive statistic, the visible islands are green and gently rolling, and much of the available terrain of Graciosa and Terceira is cultivated for farming or raising prized beef cattle. The two westernmost islands —  Corvo and Flores — actually are located on the North American Plate, while the rest are within the boundary region between Eurasia and Africa.

Climate: The climate is generally subtropical, with mild annual variations; temperatures range from 60 to 76 degrees F. Rainfall is greatest in late fall and early winter; summer is the best time for diving.

HISTORY:
The Portuguese have controlled the Azores — more than 900 miles west of their shores — since about 1430, although the islands were known to seafarers even earlier. The islands played an important role in the Portuguese Civil War (1828–1834), when Terceira was briefly the capital. Allied bases in the Azores provided a key turning point in World War II, and the United States maintains a base there today, on Terceira.


WEBSITE:
www.artazores.com

CAPITAL:
As a region of Portugal, the capital city is technically Lisbon. However, the Presidency for the Azores’ autonomous government sits in Ponta Delgada on Sao Miguel, the Supreme Court is located in Angra do Heroismo  on Terceira and the Legislative Assembly is in Horta on Faial.
 
TOURIST INFORMATION:
Web: Visitazores.org
Phone: +351-296-288-082
 
POLITICAL STATUS :
The Azores is an autonomous country within the Portuguese Republic; its government is a parliamentary democracy. The Azores are naturally divided into three groups: the  western (Corvo and Flores), central (Terceira, Graciosa, São Jorge, Pico and Faial) and eastern (São Miguel and Santa Maria).
 
AREA SIZE:
The nine islands that comprise the archipelago occupy a surface area of 906 square miles. The archipelago, which lies in a northwest-southeast direction, extends for more than 370 miles across the Atlantic Ocean.

TAXES:
The Azores have a 15 percent VAT, which is included in prices at hotels, cars rental agencies, shops and restaurants.
 
PHONE:
When calling Portugal, first dial the code 00351 before the number you are dialing. When calling from the Azores to the USA the code is 001. Calling cards — available at the post office — make phone calls to Canada and the US much cheaper.


TIME:
The Azores are in the Azores Time Zone, which is four hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. The Azores observes daylight savings time from March through October.

DOCUMENTS:
U.S. citizens may enter Azores for up to 90 days for tourist or business purposes without a visa.  The passport should be valid for at least three months beyond the period of stay, and the traveler should possess a return ticket.
 
POPULATION:
245,374

AVERAGE WATER TEMPERATURE :
From 60 degrees F to 76 degrees F.

AVERAGE VISIBILITY :
From 15-30 meters

TYPES OF DIVING :
Walls, caves, swim-throughs, reefs, shore, blue-water seamounts, bays/harbors, wrecks, mostly from 6 to 40 meters deep

BEST TIME TO DIVE :
Late spring through summer are the best times to dive. Late fall and winter are the rainy seasons, which bring wind and currents.

WHAT TO WEAR:
3 to 5 mm wetsuit in summer; 5 to 7 mm wetsuit year-round

GRACIOSA AND TERCEIRA DIVES NOT TO MISS:
Terceirense (Graciosa): Attractions in these crystal-clear waters include the Terceirense wreck not far out of Santa Cruz harbor; get there with Nautigraciosa (divingraciosa.com). The wreck, which is split in two, is guarded by enormous purple conger eel; it’s also a good place to spot the lovely local dusky grouper, called meros here, along with amberjack, bream and wrasse.

Lidador and Anchor Graveyard (Terceira): Angra do Heroísmo was an important stop for sailors; today its ancient harbor shelters pleasure craft and divers who want to experience the shallow 19th-century wreck of the Lidador, part of Terceira’s underwater archaeological park. The developing park includes a deeper “anchor graveyard,” where divers of all levels can thrill to more than 40 enormous anchors of all description, many amazingly intact, and imagine the tall ships they once were attached to, exactly where you fin today among schools of Atlantic barracuda, stingrays and slipper lobster. Access the wreck and graveyard with PADI Five-Star IDC Anfibius (anfibius.com) — a modern, American-style dive shop located in the Hotel do Caracol, and the Azores’ only PADI shop.

Octopus Reef (Praia da Vitoria): Let the outstanding Octopus Diving Center (octopusportugal.com) show you its namesake reef, where you’ll dive under a sheer volcanic cliff wall through a tumbled stone landscape that looks like it was cut by giant hands.