The Essential Azores

The largest town in the Portuguese Azores Islands and capital of the island Sao Miguel, Ponta Delgada is built on gently rising ground between green hills. With its many churches, its trim white houses and the lush gardens on its outskirts, it presents an attractive spectacle to visitors arriving by sea. The marina at Ponta Delgada also welcomes many yachts and private sailors from around the world. Boasting many impressive churches and convents, visitors are constantly reminded of its wealthy and illustrious past, when the port was a crucial staging post between Europe and the New World during the15th and 16th centuries. Read more about Ponta Delgada, Portugal

Praia da Vitória (“Beach of Victory”) is a picturesque port in Portugal's Autonomous Region of the Azores. The Azores are an archipelago of nine volcanic islands in the North Atlantic, 1500 km west of continental Lisbon. An administrative division on the island of Terceira, Praia da Vitória occupies the northern coast of the island and extends halfway into the interior, having at its frontiers Pico Alto and the shield volcano of Santa Bárbara (960m). Praia da Vitória is a services, fishing and agricultural municipality, and boasts a large marina, popular with the yachting community. Read more about Praia da Vitoria, Portugal

Santa Cruz (pop. 4400) is a Portuguese municipality on the island of Graciosa, in the archipelago of the Azores. Of the nine islands, Graciosa is the 2nd smallest, at 12 km maximum width. The island groups lies 1590 km due west of Lisbon, Portugal. Read more about Santa Cruz Da Graciosa, Portugal

Velas (pop. 5400) is a portside town on São Jorge Island of the Azores in the North Atlantic Ocean. Velas is one of nine islands in the archipelago. São Jorge Island is a relatively long thin island (54 km by 6 km at its widest). Read more about Velas, Portugal

Horta, with a population of about 7,000, is a city on the island of Faial, which is a tourist island with a rich collection of historical, natural and modern attractions, situated in the western part of the Portuguese Archipelago of the Azores. The city contains the Horta Regional Museum which has a permanent exhibit - Exhibition of Capelinhos Volcano - that details in photographs the 1957 volcanic eruption in the Azores. The museum also contains a large collection of scale models of buildings, ships, and people carved from fig kernels. Visitors seeking sun will likely travel to the black sand beaches of Praia de Almoxarife, Conceicao and Porto Pim, as well as the rock pools scattered along the coast. Read more about Horta Azores, Portugal

Lajes do Pico (pop.4700) lies on the southern shore of the mountainous Pico Island in the Azores archipelago, North Atlantic Ocean. The island is the second largest of the nine islands. It is dominated by Mount Pico at 2351 m, the highest point in Portugal. This was an old whaling town, and visitors may take a whale and dolphin watching tour. Read more about Lajes do Pico, Portugal

The largest town in the Portuguese Azores Islands and capital of the island Sao Miguel, Ponta Delgada is built on gently rising ground between green hills. With its many churches, its trim white houses and the lush gardens on its outskirts, it presents an attractive spectacle to visitors arriving by sea. The marina at Ponta Delgada also welcomes many yachts and private sailors from around the world. Boasting many impressive churches and convents, visitors are constantly reminded of its wealthy and illustrious past, when the port was a crucial staging post between Europe and the New World during the15th and 16th centuries. Read more about Ponta Delgada, Portugal

The largest town in the Portuguese Azores Islands and capital of the island Sao Miguel, Ponta Delgada is built on gently rising ground between green hills. With its many churches, its trim white houses and the lush gardens on its outskirts, it presents an attractive spectacle to visitors arriving by sea. The marina at Ponta Delgada also welcomes many yachts and private sailors from around the world. Boasting many impressive churches and convents, visitors are constantly reminded of its wealthy and illustrious past, when the port was a crucial staging post between Europe and the New World during the15th and 16th centuries. Read more about Ponta Delgada, Portugal