São Jorge is an island in the central group of the Azores, about 54 kilometres long and at most eight wide: a mountain ridge rising to over a thousand metres and dropping to the sea in towering cliffs. It has about eight thousand inhabitants, split between the municipalities of Velas and Calheta, and is a paradise for walkers.
The fajãs
The island is famous for its fajãs, small plains formed by landslides or lava flows at the foot of the cliffs, at sea level. Fertile and sheltered, they have been farmed for centuries, with vines, vegetable gardens, orchards and even coffee, and hold small villages, some reachable only on foot. There are several dozen.
The most famous is Fajã da Caldeira de Santo Cristo, on the north coast, with a lagoon where clams found nowhere else in the Azores are harvested; it is also known to surfers. It can only be reached on foot or by quad bike, via a fine trail from the Serra do Topo or from nearby Fajã dos Cubres, which has a small lagoon of its own. On the south coast, Fajã dos Vimes is known for coffee and hand-woven blankets.
The cheese
Queijo São Jorge is one of Portugal's most famous cheeses: a hard raw cow's milk cheese with a piquant flavour and protected designation of origin, aged for at least three months. You can visit the cooperatives that make it, to taste and buy.
Velas and around
Velas, the main town, has a harbour, a small square and an eighteenth-century monumental gate on the sea; nearby is a natural rock pool. At Urzelina, the bell tower of a church buried by lava in the 1808 eruption still rises among the fields. At the western tip, Ponta dos Rosais has an abandoned lighthouse on a spectacular cliff. From the heights you can see the nearby islands of Pico, Faial, Terceira and Graciosa.
Getting there
São Jorge has a small airport with flights from the other islands; in summer ferries link it with Pico, Faial and Terceira. To explore it you need a car or good legs for the trails.