Hot Springs of Furnas

Azores: Sao Miguel island

Following our short flight from Pico island, Chris, Flo & Mike, Roza & Russell and myself arrived back on Sao Miguel island and collected our next two hire cars at Ponta Delgada airport.

After coffee and a snack in a rather breezy but close-to-the-airport Cafe da Linda’s terrace, we set off in the cars for the 45 minute drive towards Furnas in search of thermal baths and hot springs!

En-route we stopped at Miradouro do Pico do Ferras where we took in a magnificent view of Lake Furnas and of the surrounding Furnas Valley which is technically a massive volcano crater! The last eruption in the Furnas Valley took place in 1630 and thankfully all was quiet during our visit.

Furnas is one of the ‘hot’ spots on the island to contain a concentration of geothermal activity which is similar, for example, to places where you can find such bubbling hot springs and steam vents in Iceland and New Zealand.

We found a car park in Furnas village and left both hire cars behind (with all of our luggage still in the boots), and set off with our day packs containing swimwear and a towel each.

One popular place to visit in Furnas is Parque Terra Nostra which contains tropical botanical gardens and a huge thermal bath and this was the place we were heading for. The entrance cost to include all of this was 16 euros per person.

Once inside the park, each couple split off to explore the botanical gardens first.

The park contained exotic flowers and different types and colours of hydrangeas which are popular throughout the island and can often be seen in hedges lining the country roads.

Chris and I followed some of the paths through the well kept tropical gardens with streams, ponds and various features.

Once we had seen the botanical gardens, Chris and I got changed (in the dedicated changing rooms), found a bench to leave our stuff and got into the huge orange naturally heated thermal pool. And met up with Flo & Mike who were already in there.

With it’s iron-rich water, straight from the volcano, it is said there are therapeutic benefits! Relaxing in the shallow water was lovely and tranquil – like being in a nice warm bath! Following our dip, we were both hoping to look 10 years younger, but maybe that was pushing our luck a bit!

A hotel and restaurant are attached to the Parque Terra Nostra and if you are dining in the restaurant, you can visit the parque for free. And! If you stay the night in the hotel, you can have a magical experience and have use of the thermal pool and the natural jacuzzi’s when all of the riff raff sorry, the general public have left. Although having said that, the orange pool is so large it didn’t feel crowded.

We all left Parque Terra Nostra at around 4 pm in search of an early dinner but as most restaurants didn’t open until 6.30 pm we had a while to wait.

The plan was to have a traditional dinner in Furnas before driving to the south of the island to check into our next accommodation.

As we explored Furnas village we came to more steam vents and hot springs, boiling away at over 100 degrees. These can be found in a free public park in the centre of Furnas.

Having not had anything to eat since about 11 am we were a bit hungry so decided on a snack and a drink while we waited for the restaurants to open. We happened upon a Spar which was both a cafe/bar and also a shop! This enabled us to stock up on some provisions to take to the next holiday house.

Slow cooked underground in the volcanic soil, cozido stew is the traditional dish of Furnas. When it got to 6.30 pm we arrived at Caldeiras & Vulcoes restaurant, which Roza had booked about half an hour before. We were given a large dish of vegetable cozido and two large dishes of meat cozido between the 6 of us.

Many of the restaurants in Furnas offer this local dish and it is a bit of a touristy thing. And we all agreed this was one of the least enjoyable meals of the trip so far. The stews were both a bit bland and also not really served hot. And, unlike a similar experience Chris and I had in Rotarua in New Zealand, we didn’t see where the food was cooked under the ground.

After the meal we drove both cars for 40 minutes or so to Livramento, a residential suburb of Ponta Delgada. Arriving at 8.30 pm we met Joao, the AirBnB host of our Sao Miguel self catering villa and our base for the final 3 nights of our trip.

In contrast with our traditional cliff edge Pico house this house was modern and minimalist with 3 double bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

Summary

Another fantastic day in a unique and interesting location. All went to plan with a smooth hire car drop off in Pico, a short on-time flight, a straightforward Sao Miguel hire car pick up and an easy drive to Furnas. Joao was understanding and flexible when I changed our check-in a couple of times as we had arrived later than originally advised. The plan for tomorrow is a 12 mile hike in Sete Cidades, one of the most photogenic areas of the island!