Gravel Explorer: Cycling the Azores

Highlights: Quiet village of Povoaçao, rugged coastal cliffs, black sand beaches.

This afternoon we’ll meet in Povoaçao, the island’s first settlement, for your bike fitting and test ride. Enjoy a stroll through old town or to the black sand beach for great views of the bay surrounded by imposing cliffs.

Highlights: Furnas caldera, cooking pits, cozido das furnas, volcanic lagoons.

Today we pedal up from the sea to the Furnas Caldera where a wonderland of geothermic activity awaits: bubbling pools of hot water; towering white columns of steam; popping mud pools; and, sparkling water springs. Ride around the lagoon and visit the famous cooking pits where locals cook the “Cozido das Furnas”: a gastronomic dish that is cooked inside holes on the hot volcanic ground for 5 to 6 hours. 12 percent unpaved.

Highlights: Alameda dos Platanos, remote roads through pristine forest, colorful pasture lands overlooking the ocean

Leave Povoaçao on the famous Alameda dos Platanos country roads, lined with orange bark plantains and colorful hydrangeas. We’ll start climbing the basaltic slopes of the island’s highest mountain, Pico De Vara, on the Tronqueira road. This spectacular gravel road will take us through a dense forest of endemic laurel, ilex, heather trees and towering cypress to the town of Nordeste, aptly named for its position on the northeast corner of São Miguel Island. 70 percent unpaved. 

Highlights: Deep ravines and waterfalls, green pasture lands and tea plantations, ocean coast view points.

Today we cycle the rugged, northern shore of Sao Miguel Island along the base of imposing Pico de Vara, a 4-million-year-old volcano. Dense forest, deep ravines, waterfalls and pastures characterize this most Azorean of landscapes. Stop at a local tea plantation to enjoy an energizing cup of complimentary white tea on our way to Ribeira, where the black sand beach awaits. Minimal unpaved surface.

Highlights: Coastal cliffs ride, thermal springs and cooking pits, fishing villages, the whaling industry

Cycle secondary roads along the cliff side and among pastures to the local thermal spot where the heat from the ground is used for slow cooking delicious meals. Continue through fishing villages where the Azorean culture is still alive. In Capelas you will see remains of the whaling industry, once a significant source of income for the island. 25 percent unpaved.

Highlights: Sete Cidades caldera, crater lakes, Ponta Delgada

Today you’ll pedal along side roads through a lush landscape to gain the island’s westernmost caldera, a complex of multiple craters and cones nested one into the other. High atop, cycle the rim of the huge crater for majestic views over crater lakes and volcanos before descending to for more stunning views of two adjacent but differently-colored lakes. We’ll shuttle into Ponta Delgada, capital city of both the island of São Miguel and the Azores archipealgo, for our farewell dinner together. 25 percent unpaved.

Highlights: Ponta Delgada

Tour ends today after breakfast. Enjoy more time in Ponta Delgada, seek out more thermal hot springs, take a whale watching tour, or, if time allows, explore more of the archipelago.