Flores, the westernmost island in the Azores, is also the westernmost inhabited place in all of Europe, located 1944 km from St. John’s, Newfoundland and 1908 km from Lisbon. The island could just as easily be understood as the outer reaches of the Americas than as it currently is, as the outer extremity of [...]
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The Azores are renowned for their mild climate which allows fauna to grow on the islands that is not seen anywhere else in Europe. For gardeners or nature lovers it’s easy to spend a whole week exploring the famous gardens of the Azores. Here are just a few of the highlights that you can expect [...]
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In a previous post we looked at the long standing connection between the people of the Azores and the whales that swim in the islands’ surrounding waters. While the islands were a major focus of the world’s whaling trade in the 19th and early 20th centuries, in the last 20 years the Azores have become [...]
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The relationship between the Azorean island of Pico and the sperm whales that pass through its cool waters goes back a long way. It was here in the 18th century that English and later American whaling ships would call during their missions to capture whales and harvest their vast amounts of oil. At that time [...]
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For six days in July (from the 3rd to the 8th) Hampton Court Palace will be ablaze with colour and will welcome thousands of visitors for the annual Royal Horticultural Society Flower Show. This year a dedicated section will feature ‘World of Gardens’ and within this area will be a garden showing off the typical [...]
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Imagine an island filled with the most colourful flowers in bloom where even the hedges that frame the quiet lanes are made of up of miles of vibrant hydrangea bushes. If we add in a sprinkling of banana and pineapple trees you’ll probably have placed your imaginary island somewhere in the Caribbean. Yet the Azores, a [...]
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Many of us might consider our holidays to be the perfect time to put away our computers and phones, and unplug completely from our routine lives. The advent of smartphones and ever increasing wifi coverage is threatening this gadget de-tox, with more and more people feeling the need to stay connected even during their time [...]
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Go to the extremities of any continent and you’ll probably find yourself in a remote setting. Surely however there are few places as remote as Flores, the most distant of the Azores islands and the last piece of European land in the Atlantic Ocean this side of the Americas. Flores, known as the Atlantic Garden, [...]
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Lago Santiago, Sao Miguel 1. While the islands were first colonised by the Portuguese in 1432, the Atlantic islands had been the stuff of many fearsome and alluring legends for centuries before. Even Pliny and Plato wrote about mysterious Atlantic islands (Atlantis?) over 2000 years ago. 2. Christopher Colombus stopped for a breather on the [...]
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I recently visited the Azores on a fam trip. There were 9 people in the group. We flew from London Gatwick to Ponta Delgada with Sata International and stayed at the Hotel Royal Garden in Ponta Delgada for 1 night. We were up very early the next morning to catch an inter island flight to [...]
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