São Miguel is the largest and most populous island of the Azores, called the "green island" for its pastures, woods and hydrangea hedges. Its main town, Ponta Delgada, is the archipelago's chief city and the gateway for most visitors, thanks to João Paulo II airport.
Ponta Delgada
The old centre has black and white paved streets and white buildings framed in dark basalt. The city's symbol is the Portas da Cidade, three eighteenth-century arches on the seafront. Nearby are the mother church of São Sebastião, with a Manueline portal, and the Esperança convent, which keeps the statue of Senhor Santo Cristo dos Milagres, focus of the largest religious festival in the Azores, on the fifth weekend after Easter. The Carlos Machado Museum displays sacred art and natural history, and the seafront has the marina and the fort of São Brás.
Sete Cidades and Lagoa do Fogo
West of the city opens the great caldera of Sete Cidades, about five kilometres across, with two linked lakes, one green and one blue, tied to the legend of a prince and princess who wept tears the colours of their eyes. The most famous viewpoint is Vista do Rei. In the middle of the island, Lagoa do Fogo is a lake in a wild crater within a nature reserve, reached by a trail. Nearby, Caldeira Velha has thermal pools amid giant ferns.
Furnas
To the east, the Furnas valley is a village in a caldera full of fumaroles and hot and cold springs. On the shore of Furnas lake, cozido das Furnas is cooked, a stew of meats and vegetables left for about six hours in pots buried in the hot ground. In the Terra Nostra park, a nineteenth-century botanical garden, you can bathe in a large thermal pool with ochre-coloured, iron-rich water; there are more pools at Poça da Dona Beija.
Tea, pineapples and the sea
On the north coast are the tea plantations of Gorreana and Porto Formoso, among the only ones in Europe, open for tours and tastings. Near Ponta Delgada pineapples are grown in heated greenhouses. Ponta Delgada is one of the main departure points for whale watching and dolphin spotting. The black sand beaches of Santa Bárbara and Mosteiros and the islet of Vila Franca do Campo, with its circular lagoon, are ideal in summer.
Getting there
Ponta Delgada has direct flights from Lisbon and Porto (about two and a half hours) and from some European and North American cities; see the Azores airport page. To tour the island, hire a car.