Terceira Island, Azores

Portugual’s Hidden Treasure

Terceira is an island in the Azores archipelago filled with beautiful lush, green rolling hills, rocky coastlines, and amazing vistas. Inhabited by lots of happy cows, it is also home to loads of friendly people, and surrounded by deep blue Atlantic waters.

Located smack dab in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, the Azores is a place that not many people have even heard of. It is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal, composed of nine volcanic islands situated about 1,360 km (850 mi) west of continental Portugal, about 880 km (550 mi) northwest of Madeira (the other autonomous region of Portugal), and about 1,925 km (1,196 mi) southeast of Newfoundland. When you look at a map, you can see that it is literally located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. 

This unique location provides plentiful rain in the winters which gives the islands very lush vegetation, perfect for farming and agriculture. A lot of dairy cows live happily here, and the Azores is famous for it’s dairy products, cheese in particular. Rightfully, so — the aged cheese they produce here is incredibly delicious!

The Azores are famous for their natural beauty, many people come here for hiking, biking, camping, boating, fishing, whale watching,  even to swim with dolphins. There are also opportunities for diving, but my tropical water-trained butt was a little unsure about diving in these colder waters… 😀 But I’m sure there’s some good diving to be had… I’d be curious to hear from others who have dove here. How was it? 😀 It seemed Pico Island was more famous for the whale watching and dolphin tours.

My family is actually from Terceira, and I had the pleasure of visiting for the first time last year. It was like stepping back in time… no big box stores, no McDonalds or Starbucks, no brand names at all. Just small villages, fishermen, dairymen, lots of open space, and more nice people than I could count 🙂