Somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic, roughly halfway between Lisbon and New York, there is an island most cruisers only see through a porthole. It is called Sao Miguel. The port is Ponta Delgada, in the Azores.
The Azores are Portuguese. They sit far out in the ocean, which is exactly why cruise ships stop there. A lot of transatlantic and repositioning sailings need a mid-ocean call, and this is the one that keeps showing up on the itinerary. Most people treat it as a place to stretch their legs and buy a magnet.
That is a mistake. Sao Miguel is green in a way that does not photograph well and has to be seen. The island is volcanic, so the interior is a run of crater lakes, hot springs, and steep pastures full of cows. The star attraction is Sete Cidades, a pair of lakes sitting inside an old volcanic crater, one lake blue and one green depending on how the light hits them.
Here is the fact that stops people mid sentence. The Azores are home to a working tea plantation, and it is one of the very few places in Europe where tea is actually grown. You can walk the rows, tour the old factory, and taste the result. It exists because the islands sit at a latitude and humidity that most of Europe simply does not have.
The other thing worth knowing is the food trick the locals figured out. In the village of Furnas, there is a valley where the ground is hot enough to cook with. Pots of stew get buried in the volcanic soil in the morning and dug up hours later, slow cooked by the earth. If your ship is in port long enough to reach Furnas, that lunch is the memory you take home.
One planning note. Ponta Delgada is usually a shorter call than a full day, and the good stuff is spread across the island. That means the drive matters, and a rented car or a small group tour beats wandering the waterfront. You can absolutely just walk the town and call it a day. You can also fly to the middle of the Atlantic and skip the volcano. Your choice.
If you have a crossing on your radar and you want to build the day around the island instead of the gift shop, that is the kind of thing we sort out for people. Send me the sailing and I will tell you how much time you really get on the ground.
Fair winds and following seas,
Captain Steve
Like what you’re reading?
The Captain’s Log is published daily by Ernst Travel Agency. We plan, protect, and personalize your vacation at no extra cost to you. If something in today’s post sparked an idea, let’s talk.
Ernst Travel Agency · North Kingsville, OH · Serving clients nationwide · ernst.llc