Azores Honeymoon: An Outdoor-Lovers' Guide to Portugal's Volcanic Islands
There's a particular kind of couple who reads "honeymoon" and pictures a hammock, and another kind who reads it and pictures a volcano. The Azores was built for the volcano kind!
Nine islands rise out of the Atlantic about 900 miles off the coast of Portugal, and in 2023 the archipelago was named the world's best adventure destination by the World Travel Awards — the kind of honor usually handed to places with more obvious credentials. The Azores earns it through terrain: crater lakes stacked two to a caldera, hot springs that steam straight out of the hillside, and a coastline where the whales arrive on schedule.
Start on São Miguel, the largest island, where the twin lakes of Sete Cidades sit inside an old volcanic crater — one lake blue, one green, a trick of light and mineral content locals will explain over dinner if you ask. Hike the crater rim in the morning, then soak in the geothermal pools of Furnas Valley in the afternoon, water heated by the same volcanic activity that built the islands.
Then go to Pico, where the mountain that gives the island its name is a dormant volcano rising 7,713 feet — the highest point in Portugal — reachable by a trail through black lava fields to a summit that, on a clear morning, shows three neighboring islands at once. The old whaling port of Lajes do Pico, once the center of an industry that nearly emptied these waters of sperm whales, has become one of the region's models for how tourism can give something back: strict, science-backed whale-watching protocols and naturalists, not just guides, in the boat. Spring brings blue whales through on migration — the largest animals that have ever lived, seen from a boat captained by someone whose grandfather hunted the same waters for a living.
Affordable: Furnas Boutique Hotel - puts you walking distance to thermal pools
Premium: Santa Barbara Eco Beach Resort - the island’s first eco resort built with locally sourced materials. Farm on site that supplies the food!
Luxury: Octant Furnas - outdoor/indoor mineral pools
A trip like this takes more than a hotel booking — knowing which whale-watching operators actually follow the protocols, when the crater trails are passable, and how to pace nine islands so it doesn't become a checklist. That's the quiet work a travel advisor does, including access to Virtuoso rates and amenities you can't book yourself.
If an Azores honeymoon sounds more like you than a beach chair does, reserve your spot for custom trip planning with GATHER.
