I had planned out activities for Day 1 in Terceira back in summer 2025: Gruta do Natal, Algar do Carvão, and Furnas do Enxofre. I no longer remembered what these were about, so we had to look them up again. The internet called the overpriced and underwhelming. The weather was iffy, 14C with feels-like of 3C due to high winds, and chance of rain. Yikes. The day was not looking promising.
We layered up and headed out into the weather. First up was Furnas do Enxofre. This was a little trail around sulphur vents. We’ve seen geothermal parks in other places, most recently in New Zealand. The trail here was lined on both sides with wooden railings. These prevent people from walking off-piste and stepping into a vent; on windy days like today, it also helped to keep us from being blown off the trail. The loop was longer than it first appeared. It took us about 30 minutes to walk around. There’s no bubbling fumaroles, just steam escaping from vents. The high winds minimized the sulphur smell. There’s unique vegetation and some good signage explaining everything. It was interesting to see, and free to visit.
Next up was Algar do Carvão, an ancient volcanic vent. Unfortunately it was only open for limited hours (14:30 - 17:30) due to construction.
We looked at the map to figure out something else to do. There was a walking trail to a miradouro overlooking Angra but we couldn’t find the trailhead. It was getting closer to lunch, so we decided to skip the trail and just go eat.
I had picked out a nearby restaurant (Bota Que Tem) on Google Maps. It turned out to be a popular lunch spot for locals. It was buffet-style, but the idea was more around self-serve rather than all-you-can-eat. We had the soup (potato I think) and then ribs / grilled chicken / grilled sardines. It was really good, and we didn’t overeat. We had an espresso to finish.
We then walked around the neighbourhood (Posto Santo) which was quite cute.
We drove back to Algar do Carvão. It was just after 2pm, and there were about five other cars already there, waiting for 2:30. We parked in line and waited too.
The fence opened right at 2:30, and we all streamed in on the access road. We bought our ticket (9 EUR) and entered the park.
We could see the new welcome centre under construction. There’s now a tunnel that deposits you about half way down the volcanic vent. There’s then stairs the rest of the way down. The inside drips water constantly, which we had read about and worn our rain jackets.
We thought that was it, just a big hole in the ground. But there was more! Another set of stairs took us down near the lagoon at the bottom, and another set of stairs into another large chamber. The whole cavern system is subtly lit, so that you can get a sense of the scale. Wikipedia has a good pic of the layout. There were interesting stalactites hanging from the ceiling, looking like chandeliers.
Anyways we really liked the cavern and thought it was well worth the cost of admission. Not sure about all those negative reviews on Google Maps. Maybe it was earlier in construction and there wasn’t much open yet?
Next up was Gruta do Natal, a 697m long lava tube. This was way better than the one we saw in Pico. There’s lots of signage explaining all the different geological formations. We liked this as much as Algar do Carvão.
Overall the three volcano-related sites we saw today were really interesting. We were lucky with weather too, as we avoided the big downpours.
We took the long way home around the northwest corner of Terceira. There’s some cool miradouros. We also checked out Farol da Serreta, a lighthouse.
Later we went for dinner, at a restaurant that supposedly had good grilled beef. It was just okay.
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