Travelling to far flung islands in the middle of the ocean is in many cases, inhibitively expensive, especially if you are young. Many places such as Hawaii, the Maldives, Iceland or the Faroer, just to name a few, are far out of budget for most backpackers, who are used to a 1000€ a month in South East Asia. But here in Europe there is still one place that it quiet unknown among backpackers and budget travellers. The Azores offer a wide variety of things to do, given that you like to be away from big cities and surrounded by beautiful exotic nature. I wrote this guide as an orientation for all backpackers, as there is nothing on the topic of budget travelling in this area yet. In the end I will show you the cost breakdown of our 2 person trip, so you can see how much we spent.

Where are the Azores?

The Azores are an island chain in the middle of the Atlantic about 1500km off the coast of Portugal and around 2000km from Newfoundland, Canada. Administratively it belongs to Portugal and is distinctly portuguese in its culture. The islands are no small archipeligo but consist of 9 main islands, that can be divided into the western group, the central group and the eastern group. The islands are Sao Miguel, Santa Maria, Terceira, Graciosa, Sao Jorge, Pico, Faial, Flores and Corvo.

Getting to and from the Azores

Getting to the Azores is pretty straightforward, as there is no other option of getting there than flying. There are many different airlines offering flights to and from the islands, most of which connect the Azores with most of Western Europe and even a couple of places in North America. But speaking from a budget perspective, many places are not an option, as they are only serviced by full service carriers like TAP or Lufthansa. Flights from many places, especially outside of Portugal itself, cost at least 100-150€ if you are lucky. Generally I would advise to fly to Lisbon, Faro or Porto first, spend a couple of days there and then continue to the Azores, as it is in many cases cheaper and you get to see something on the way. Two airlines though offer cheaper flights to the islands without breaking the bank. One is Ryanair, as expected and the other is Azores Airlines, the airline with its home base situated in Ponta Delgada on Sao Miguel, the main island of the Azores.

Ryanair offers flights to Terceira and Sao Miguel. Each destination is served from Lisbon and Porto. It is in theory the cheapest option as there are flights starting around 15€. But this is with a catch. If you want to get that 20kg luggage, which you most likely will with the unpredictable weather on the islands, it costs an upcharge of at least 30€. Additionally the 15€ flights are uncommon on those routes, even in the off season, so don’t get your hopes up. I would say it is worth taking a look on the Ryanair website, but in most cases, travelling with luggage is actually cheaper and far more comfortable with Azores Airlines. They offer flights to and from the Azores from Lisbon, Porto, Faro, Praia, Funchal, Barcelona, Paris, Montreal, Boston, Toronto and New York. They have pretty cheap flight packages starting from 42€ without checked baggage and 54€ with checked baggage from the portuguese mainland. When we flew to the islands, we chose them and were pleasently surprised. New aircrafts, comfortable seats and even a small snack was served, which we did not expect.

All in all I would advise everybody to do an intermediate stop on the Portuguese mainland and then continue onwards. We spent a couple days on the Algarve before we took the flight to Ponta Delgada and that in itself could have been our holiday destination.

How to travel between the islands?

To travel between the islands you have two choices. Taking the plane, which offers more flexibility and and actually connects all islands or take the ferry if you are travelling in the summer. During the winter, almost all ferry services are cancelled, mostly because of the stormy seas, so flying is your only option. Azores Airlines is the only airline serving inter-island transport needs and operate a fleet of De Havilland Dash-8 and Dash-4 aircraft. When choosing islands to visit, we oriented ourselves around our 40€ a day maximum budget, which is pretty tight for the Azores, when including the flights. What we did was book through their website and basically let the price decide, what places to visit, as they have a mechanic that allows you to book multiple flights at once and if you play around a bit, you can get a pretty interesting roster of combinations, that dont brake the bank. As practically all islands are worth visiting, you cannot go wrong. What we decided on in the end was to to from Sao Miguel to Flores and from Flores to Faial, which cost us 143€ with checked baggage. You can go cheaper but we wanted to visit Flores, the most western island, which is further away. Ending in Faial also gave us the possibilty to visit Pico, as that Ferry operates year-round.

Taking the ferry is interesting, as they are much cheaper than flying, thought it is, as said, only an option in the summer months on some longer lines. You can book ferry tickets on Atlânticoline. Basically ferries are tricky, because of the rough seas around the islands. Even in the summer ferries can get cancelled. To understand, where you can find which destinations by ferry, you have to understand the location of the islands. In the western group, so between Flores and Corvo, there exists a ferry line, though it runs only in the summer months. When we visited Flores in February, the only option was flying to Corvo, which we did not do, as the costs where too high for us. In the central group there are multiple year-round ferries operating between Faial, Sao Jorge and Pico, as all 3 islands are pretty close together. I recommend taking the ferry here, as you save a lot compared to flying, it does not take ages, 1,5h at max, and you get to enjoy the stunning views of the Pico volcano and the cliffs of Sao Jorge from sea. It is an experience in itself. The tickets cost between 12€ and 25€ depending on the route here, though keep in mind, that apart from the connection between Faial and Pico, connections to Sao Jorge are not that often. There are some days, where no ferry departs for the island. Ferries to the islands of Terceira and Graciosa are seasonal, though depart often in the summer. Definetely a better choice than flying, although it takes multiple hours to reach your destination, so keep that in mind, when planning your trip. When we visited in the winter months there was only the option of flying, because of the rough seas. In the eastern group, there exists a seasonal ferry connection twice a week between Sao Miguel and Santa Maria, though I read reports, that it is out of operation right now, but I cannot check, whether that information is true and when it will be running again. There is no ferry connection between the different island groups !!!

How to get around on the islands?

To keep it short, no you cannot really use public transport to get around apart from Faial island. There are some occasional busses, but they are far between and not useful for tourists at all. You have to get a rental car. And that is where most people look at the prices for those rentals and quit their plans to go there, as in summer, they can skyrocket to astronomical proportions. To give you an idea, in peak season you pay at least 700€ for the car for the week on some islands with limited supply like Flores. My tip here is again to travel in the off season. We actually got the cheapest rentals out of all of our trips here in the Azores. We rented 3 times and paid 9€ a day on Sao Miguel, 13€ a day on Flores, and 16€ a day on Pico, excluding gas. The only island where we did not get a car, was on Faial. The island is not that big and as we got accomodation in the biggest city Horta we could take the bus to basically any destination from there. We also rented bikes here, there is an amazing rental service, I can highly recommend.

How to find cheap accomodation?

I recommend book your accomodation far in advance, when travelling in the high season, as they can sell out especially on the smaller islands like Flores. In the off season, your best bet is actually to book on short notice, as all the summer accomodations are empty and they lower prices on websites like Booking.com when you book just a couple days in advance. For example we got an accomodation with a private room and a jacuzzi for just 26€ per night on Sao Miguel. Fantastic value for money. Another recommendation would be the Azoris Faial Garden Hotel on the island of Faial, which in winter offers some good deals. For 27€ per person per night we stayed there two nights. They have a Spa area and the most amazing breakfast view of the bay and Mt Pico, that I have ever seen. My biggest recommendation goes to an AirBnB on Flores the Casa Citrina, where you can stay in a cozy guest room in a green farmers estate with a welcoming french family. It was very high quality and we immediatly felt at home. They gave us tips on the island and connected us with local farmers, where we could get some fresh produce, as the last ship from the other islands was many weeks ago and supermarkets where pretty much out of all fresh stuff.

Activities to do on a budget

Where should I begin, the Azores are an outdoor destination, there are no big cities and although they have a rich culture with amazing summer festivals, people mainly visit for the nature. They have the greenest gras I have ever seen and the freshest air I have ever smelled. Most nature activities include some sort of hiking around the mountainous islands. That in itself is always free apart from the climb on top of Mt Pico, which costs 15€ per person. Every trip also includes a visit to one of the many lava rock formations around the coast line where you can swim in the ocean water. Really cool, just watch out for jellyfish and the Portuguese Man-o‘-war, a small blue fish the sting of which can really hurt. Other free activities include a visit to the pineapple plantations in Ponta Delgada or watching the surfers in Ribeira Grande, which is definetely worth a visit for sunset aswell. Things that cost money include the thermal pools on Sao Miguel (around 6 to 12€ each). I would recommend to go to one in the mountains and visit the free one on the western most point on Sao Miguel. This one is not only free but special in the way that it mixes hot spring water with ocean water. It is only warm and accessible at middle to low tide and with calm sea conditions, so in the winter keep in mind the wave forecast. If you visit Flores, I would highly recommend a visit to the Big Love by Monica’s Café, as it has amazing (and sheltered) views out to the sea.

Travel in the Off season, there is still a lot to see

My biggest tip overall here is to travel in the off season. Prices for cars, flights and accomodation are really low, we managed our 23 day Azores trip with 46€ a day (a bit more than we planned) with all expenses included. Furthermore flights and ferries sell out quickly in high season, which requires a lot more planning. We planned our trip around 1 week in advance, so we really had that flexibility. Also attractions like the thermal springs on Sao Miguel are not booked out far in advance, you can just go the same day in many cases, it does not feel crushed by tourism. On many hikes we did, we were the only ones there. Basically, seeing islands with almost zero tourists was a really relaxing experience. We got to experience it the way, the locals get to. Another tip: If you have an activity or a hike that ends in a place other than your car, don’t refrain from trying to hitchhike. We always got rides in 10 minutes or less. And you get to talk the people actually living there.

Something, that might not everybody will like, but we enjoyed a lot, is the roughness of the island weather conditions. I would compare it to visiting Irelands west coast or Iceland, so be prepared, but we liked exactly that.

What drawbacks does the Off season have?

Travelling in the Off season has some obvious drawbacks. One is the weather. It is not a cozy 26°C but more around 16-22°C. Still not cold at all, but keep in mind, there will be short episodes of rain and stronger winds on any given day, so pack rain jackets and warm clothing. Talking about the weather, we did not have a single day, when the weather was so prohibitively bad, that we were stuck indoors. If it rains in the morning, it will be sunny in the afternoon, and the other way around. We even had two blue bird days.

Also the nature may not be as you expect it from Instagram posts. There will be a lot of tropical greenery and lush fields, but none of the famous flowers so keep that in mind. In my opinion that is not a reason to not come here. It is no less stunning than in summer.

Another drawback is, that some activities are not really possible. The Azores are famous for whale-watching which is not possible in the winter due to the rough seas, as we saw with many ferries that are not in operation. We were more into hiking, so this was not a problem. We still managed to climb Pico by planning our hike and other activities on the island around the weather. Also keep in mind that flights can and will get cancelled if a storm with strong winds passes the islands. They will just rebook you at no extra costs, but you may be stuck for a bit. That is another reason why i recommend booking everything through the same airline. Especially when you want to visit Flores in the Off season, it can be very risky. When we visited, we stayed on the island for a week and during that time on 4 out of the 6 days the flights in and out were cancelled!!!

One thing that surprised us, but that only seems to be a thing on the eastern islands is the supply of food. As food only comes in by ship and the seas prohibite deliveries for weeks in the winter, the supermarket was all out of fresh food, we only could get canned goods and long lasting products there.

Our cost breakdown (per person):

• Accomodation: 428,63€ (15,76€ per night)
• Flights to and from the islands: 114,87€
• Inter-island flights: 153,76€ (but around 10€ of this is for the busses to get to and from the airport in Pico and Faial)
• Car rentals: 209,52€
• Daily costs (food, entry into attractions): 348,57€