There is an airlines that is direct, but they didn't have it the days we were going.
We rented our car from Guerida, super easy. Most cars there are stick shift.
One night in Thomas Place, basic hotel, we just needed a clean place for one night. Nothing special, but definitely convenient to the main town.
A restaurant walking distance to the hotel that we loved and returned a second time was.
Acores Grill
No. 1 Rua do Calhau
Sao Pedro
You order the meat dish and grill it yourself,
side servings of either fries, rice/beans, salad.
We LOVED the special olive oil/herbs sauce
that you pour on the meat.
FURNAS
We did take out a few times at Tony's b/c it was so easy, pizza, chicken/rice dishes, soups etc
Worked out really well when we had full days and wanted to just chill out.
We really liked the bakery Gloria Moniz. They have a bakery but they also have a cafe. They have these little Gloria Moniz round small little tart thing called QUEJIDAS and the local Furnas ones have coconut in them, delicious! Wrapped in white paper and sold single or a box of six.
Bolos Levedos is the local Azorean bread and there are 3 bakeries who make it locally in Furnas (I'm sure more around the island) but our favorite one was Rosa Quental. They have a cafe but we got them at the bakery which is basically just one small door and you walk up and order the bread you want. It is like an English muffin but way bigger, more moist, and a little sweeter.
Interesting to go and visit the Caldeiras which is basically these hot steaming geo thermal pools and geysers. Early in the morning like 4 or 5 am some of the restaurants put big pots of food to cook all morning and they are pulled out at 11 am and then again at 12.30 for second seating. I really wanted to see this but we were never at that time.
We did love the thermal baths in Furnas. There are a few but the main one that is paying and quite organized Poça da Dona Beija
We stayed at Filipe's Airbnb and I would highly recommend this place.
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/36976731?source_impression_id=p3_1667932660_chdelJ9q56jizKt6
We did a couple nights at this POD type of concept b/c Mateo wasn't with us and it was available and actually it was a really fun/pretty place to stay, and plenty comfortable.
https://worldsnests.net/en/
We pretty much went all over the island and stopped at every look out, beach, view, waterfall etc. Highlights would be in the north part of the island the waterfall hike at Miraduoro de Salta de Farina. You park and walk only about 20 min downhill then a little uphill to get to the waterfall. To the west it's just a simple light house but it's so pretty to see from the view of
Miradouro da Ponta do Arnel. Going south there's a coastal town called Povoação and it's quiet and lovely. We ate lunch at Jardin and would recommend it. By the beach there is a public pool that's open to the public, would probably be really nice in the summer.
The kids had their surf lessons at Agua de Alto. This is not the usual surfing area but the swells were too large in the north. We liked the simple cafe by the ocean that had excellent hot chocolate that is thick like Angelina's. My kids liked the pancakes and eggs/bacon breakfast there. Super casual and relaxed place.
I looked up all the surf companies and we used
