Lisbon to Faial Island

We woke up at 3am to watch the Raptors win. The game finished just before our alarms at 6am, so we just got up, packed, met our driver outside and drove to the airport for our flight to Horta, on the island of Faial in the Azores.

The flight was 2.5 hours west, taking us closer to home. We had great views of Mt Pico and Faial island from the plane.

It was a beautiful day on Faial. The hotel emailed to let us know the car rental guy was running a few minutes late, and then we were off in our little Smart car. It’s actually not a bad little car!

Drove to our hotel, half way around the island, about 20 minutes. The island and ocean views were amazing. Hydrangeas lined the roads everywhere. All the houses and gardens are very well maintained.

We checked in at H18, and relaxed for a bit. Met with the owner who gave us recommendations for restaurants and things to do. It was sunny today and forecast rain for tomorrow so she suggested we try to see the caldera today.

First we drove to the north end of the island for lunch at Aldina Restaurant. The restaurant is popular with bus tours and we were squeezed into a corner. The food was good, we’re having mostly seafood while in the Azores (although the cows are all free range here, so the beef is pretty good too).

So next we drove to Caldeira do Cabeço Gordo, which dominates the island. Because we were approaching from the north, google maps took us through some small roads, barely wide enough for the Smart car. It was really scenic, it’s worth coming here just to drive around.

At the top, we parked and walked through a short 20m tunnel for views of the inside of the caldera. It’s home to more than 20 species of birds and animals. It used to be possible to take a guided trek to the caldera floor but no longer.

It was still nice weather (although about 5C colder than at sea level, and windier) so we figured we could do the two hour trek around the top of of the caldera. Just as we started, clouds rolled in, and after about 15 minutes we decided it wasn’t such a great idea (we weren’t prepared for rain) and headed back to the car.

The weather was much nicer as we descended. Drove back to our hotel, cleaned up and then walked over to Tasca O Capitólio, about 15 minutes in town, for dinner. It was okay, maybe our expectations were higher after the great lunch.

After dinner we walked down to Forte de São Sebastião, which according to our guide book looked great at night with the lighting. The guidebook is about four years old and out-of-date as it’s now a nightclub.