The Best Places to Stay in the Azores
Created: January
14, 2013Last Updated: January
14, 2013
The grounds at the sustainable Hotel Aldeia da Fonte on Pico Island in the Azores. (By Paul Ross)
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When I’m traveling, the days are packed
with visiting sites, learning, meeting people, and sampling the local
cuisine. Everything is new and exciting until it’s time to check into a
hotel. The rooms are often rectangular-shaped boxes
with flat-screen televisions, overpriced minibars, and a few
forgettable pieces of art on the walls. The breakfasts are usually
sugar-laced, tired, and industrial.
When I arrived in the Azores—a dramatic,
volcanic Portuguese archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and
only four hours from Boston on SATA Airlines,
I was ready for another boring lodging experience, but boy was I wrong.
The Quinta do Martelo on the island of Terceira is set on a 2,000-acre complex. (By Paul Ross)
Terceira
Close to the town of Angra do Heroísmo, on
the island of Terceira, is the small village of São Bartolomeu. This is
where archeologist, historian, and museum curator Francisco Maduro-Dias
just opened his 18th century, rural, basalt
stone home as a bed and breakfast called Quinta do Espírito Santo. In
his words, he wants to accommodate “educated, intellectually and
culturally curious guests for great conversations and exchange.” Bravo,
Mr. Maduro-Dias!
The facade of the Quinta do
Espírito Santo, a bed and breakfast near the village of São Bartolomeu
on the island of Terceira. (By Paul Ross)
The courtyard of the house and colorful
mosaic bench were designed by Maduro-Dias’s father, a well-known Azorean
painter. A plaque on the wall includes a mysterious and lyrical line
from one of the painter’s poems: “Let me be the
solitary stone that only desires to be a rock in the sea.”
Chickens and ducks roam freely and birds
chirp wildly among the lush foliage and fruit trees on the grounds of
the historic home. A few of the birds perch on terra cotta ollas and an
old millstone.
Guests can choose to stay in the main
house—where six generations of the family have resided—or in two small
apartments with whitewashed limestone walls, which once housed the
servants. They are equipped with a fridge, stove, and
washing machine. Any frequent traveler who travels light knows that a
washing machine is like an angel of mercy, sparing the wearer from
another day of the same shirt and jeans.
Later that day, I drank local wine with the
owner and at night, he drove me to a deserted spot along the jagged
coastline. We stood under a canopy of stars that dotted a black sky, and
Maduro-Dias told me that hundreds of years ago,
this was where people could stand and watch ships returning to Europe
laden with silver from the New World. We spoke quietly of the age of
discovery of the Americas, native populations, and the mindset of early
explorers. It was deeply personal and moving.
The Quinta do Martelo on the island of Terceira is set on a 2,000-acre complex. (By Paul Ross)
Next, I spent two nights at the glam, 18th
century Quinta das Mercês, outside of Angra do Heroísmo, also on the
island of Terceira. It took five years to restore the property, and I
shudder to think of the expense. The elegant sitting
and dining rooms, outdoor dining overlooking the ocean, infinity pool,
gym with Turkish bath, game building, private chapel, and antiques from
Macau where the owners once lived, made this an elegant place to stay.
Also on Terceira was the brand-new Angra
Marina Hotel, the first five-star hotel on the island. The lobby looks
like a sailboat and features huge sofas that face inclined picture
windows, which frame the marina. My luxurious suite
included a large balcony, a bathtub in the bedroom that overlooks the
harbor, a sitting room with velvet armchairs, a white leather sofa, and
two marble-floored bathrooms. Alas, the service was still rough around
the edges, but a little time, I hope, will
add the needed polish of a five-star hotel.
Angra Marina Hotel, the first five-star hotel on the island of Terceira in the Azores. (By Paul Ross)
For people with a real sense of adventure
who appreciate rural tourism, cultural preservation, and the devoted
attention to historical accuracy, check out Quinta do Martelo on
Terceira. The 2,000-acre property was once a functioning
farm village with a barbershop, post office, school, and general store.
The owner—whose grandfather worked on the farm—has spent 22 years
restoring the property (he calls it a “recomposition”), and you can stay
in rock house apartments with authentic straw
beds. Of course, you don’t sleep in them, as the accommodations are
equipped with modern comforts. For 100 euros a night, you get a room,
rental car, breakfast, and you can wander into the shoemaker, pottery,
and winemaker workshops. It’s like staying in an
ethnographic museum that happens to have modern tourist amenities.
São Miguel Island
In the city of Ponta Delgada, on São Miguel
Island, my favorite was the four-star Hotel do Colégio, which is a
converted primary school built from basalt and dripping with history,
stone arches, and charm. It is located on a narrow
street with black, volcanic paving stones. The chef who helms the
hotel’s Colmeia Restaurant cooks for the president of the Azores. You
can imagine that regional specialties like octopus with broad beans,
pork in red wine, and stuffed horse mackerel were impeccable.
The grounds at the sustainable Hotel Aldeia da Fonte on Pico Island in the Azores. (By Paul Ross)
Pico Island
On Pico Island, the Aldeia da Fonte is a
four-star, sustainable, rural hotel where I slept in a two-story stone
house with a red tile roof, constructed and designed to resemble the
local architecture. The idea behind the hotel, which
was built on an abandoned vineyard near the edge of the ocean and
dramatic, rocky coastline, was to open the property to visitors without
destroying nature and, when possible, to enhance it through design and
landscaping. The hotel was built by a doctor and
his wife, and they offer guests yoga, a fitness room with sauna, palm
trees, gardens, a rock-pond with goldfish, a whale watching tower, and
stone steps that lead down to swimming in the summer and crashing surf
at other times of year.
The view from a guest room at the four-star Graciosa Hotel. (By Paul Ross)
Graciosa
Graciosa Hotel is small, breathtakingly
beautiful, and has been dubbed “the white island” because of the white
buildings in the historic area. I lodged at this three-year-old,
four-star hotel, which is situated in the middle of an
old vineyard. The food was jaw-droppingly good, and I dropped my jaw as
I ate for two hours. The hotel itself is a marriage of ancient and
ultra-modern, polished basalt stone and glass, and the reception area
features black marble flooring. My room was furnished
in light wood and rattan furniture. The only art was the ocean, visible
from the balcony.
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Just writing about these little-known
islands and the delightful array of hotels makes me homesick for that
crashing surf, and anxious to go back again.
Judith Fein is a multiple-award-winning
travel writer who has contributed to more than 100 publications and is
the author of “LIFE IS A TRIP: The Transformative Magic of Travel.” Her
website
is www.GlobalAdventure.us
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