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World’s Best Islands: Why São Miguel In Portugal’s Azores Belongs On Your Travel Wish List
Among a certain set of travelers, there’s an understanding that the harder a place is to reach, the better it is. Let the masses stay in the gateways, the thinking goes. If we press on for one more flight (or drive or ferry), the rewards will be great. At least the bragging rights are.
By that logic, I would have passed straight through São Miguel, the biggest and most populated island in Portugal’s Azores archipelago (and the one that welcomes low-cost and international flights, including from North America). In fact, I did, last year when I went to Terceira and Pico in search of the “real” Azores.
But it turns out that São Miguel is very much a destination in its own right, not just a layover on the way to someplace less traveled. And while it’s true that there were some cruise ships and package tours before the pandemic, it was never a place for mass tourism.
“São Miguel is a place you go when you know why you want to go there,” said Triin Medeiros, as she led me along the breathtakingly beautiful hiking trails of Sete Cidades (“seven cities” in Portuguese, but in fact seven volcanic craters and lakes that are covered with otherworldly vegetation) and Lagoa Azul (“blue lagoon,” probably the most photographed spot on the island). Medeiros, a well-traveled Estonian who has lived in São Miguel for decades, is a guide for her husband’s adorably, understatedly named adventure travel company, Fun Activities, and she has a pretty good idea about the people who come to her island. สล็อต
They are not people who book a flight to some place they can’t pronounce just because there’s a promotion. (The Portuguese spelling, Açores, is a head-scratcher.) They are not people whose idea of an island vacation is lying on a sandy beach in the sun. They aren’t people who are afraid to get muddy or wet. (This is one of those places where tour guides and hoteliers like to trot out that cliché about four seasons in one day.)
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