Thirty studios and villas, set low above a dark beach.
The house is best value in January, from approx. €160 a night. It is most expensive in July and August, up to approx. €700.
JanuaryBest value
Typically €160 a night
Around 77% less than in July
Climate16 °C by day, 14 °C at night · about 10 rainy days
Check a date in January with the hotelOpens the hotel’s booking page with 2 nights in this month. You book there.
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The beach came first. The hotel just borrowed its name.
João Reis is an entrepreneur and a surfer. Above Praia de Santa Bárbara near Ribeira Grande, a long stretch of dark volcanic sand on the north coast of São Miguel, he opened what the hotel calls the first eco-beach resort in the Azores on 1 June 2015. It now belongs to Singular Properties, the group he runs with Catarina Reis; its sister hotel, WHITE, is on the south coast.
It was built from scratch and kept as low as possible. The buildings follow the lie of the land so they take up little room in the landscape. Outside, they are clad in cryptomeria, the Japanese cedar that grows all over the islands, and in cork panels that double as insulation. Most of the work was done by local firms.
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All 30 units have a kitchenette with a microwave, fridge and kettle, a dining table and a deck outside the door. Choose your studio or villa by what’s outside: a shared plunge pool, a private hot tub or a garden. The twelve Blue & Green Studios share one long saltwater plunge pool that runs past all of them; every other category has its own hot tub. The Garden Villas also open onto a shared garden of native plants with a small lake, while the rest look sideways to the sea and the mountains.
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Behind the buildings is the farm, about one hectare in three plots with greenhouses. Nobody digs here: the beds are built up with compost instead. Whatever the group’s restaurants don’t use goes to the staff and their families.
It is cooked at the Santa Bárbara Restaurant, where Bruno Schmatz runs the kitchen and Vítor Sobral shapes the group’s menus as consultant chef. The summer 2026 dinner menu lists a vegetable soup from the garden, beef cheek braised in Lajido wine, and massada, a fish and shrimp stew with short pasta. For something simpler there is a prego: beef tenderloin in the sweet Azorean bolo lêvedo. The wine list is Portuguese, with several bottles from the islands.
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Rain runs off the roofs into a basin at the edge of the grounds and is used to water the gardens. When it runs low, the resort tops it up from the natural lake on the property. The planting is mostly native and needs little watering. In the villas, the key card switches off lights and appliances when you leave, and the breakfast buffet is gone: breakfast is served à la carte so less goes to waste.
Down on the beach, the maintenance team regularly clears whatever the sea has washed up, and a school from Ribeira Grande and a group of scouts have joined the staff clean-ups. In 2019 alone, the team collected 350 kilos of rubbish.
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At the centre of the resort is a large heated saltwater pool with stone loungers set below the surface. On the cliff above the beach, the hotel has built a wooden deck for massages, and small patios with thatched parasols sit between the buildings. Down on the sand, the Beach Club serves light meals for a break between swims; it closes from November to May.
The wellness area has an indoor pool, which is also used for water therapy; the treatments themselves are given at 35 to 39 °C. One treatment is only on the menu from January to April: for “Breath of Fire”, glowing charcoal heats metal cones, and the warmth passes to the body through towels. The hotel links it to the islands’ volcanic origins.
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For anything beyond the grounds, there are Andreia and Heloísa, the hotel’s experience guides. They will put together a plan for the island on request; the tours themselves are run by licensed partners, out to Furnas and Vila Franca do Campo, Sete Cidades and Mosteiros, or across to Povoação and Nordeste, with tea and wine tastings too. If you would rather stay put, roll out a yoga mat at one of the resort’s viewpoints, with the sea on one side and the ridge above Lagoa do Fogo on the other.
Dinner at the hotel, with Azorean produce and vegetables from the farm behind the studios and villas. A way to stay in after a day out on the north coast.
At the Santa Bárbara Eco-Beach Resort · Dinner 7–10 pm; book a table in advance and ask whether non-residents can also dine.
Plan a visit ↗Tea in Porto Formoso, a beach bar on the doorstep, an evening on a farm: our places on the north coast, plus a day of its own in Furnas.
Explore São Miguel →Researched from the hotel’s official information, editorially checked on 6 October 2026. We do not claim to have stayed here. Prices and availability directly from the hotel.
Home · The Resort · Studios & villas · Eat & Drink · Summer 2026 dinner menu (PDF) · Farm-to-table · Why Eco? · Wellness Area · Wellness menu 2026 (PDF) · Experiences
The hotels provide these images for editorial use. Where a photographer has been confirmed to us, they are named here.
Farm restaurant · Rabo de Peixe · approx. 10 min by car
The vegetables cooked here at night grow on this farm outside Rabo de Peixe. Dinner is a tasting menu of six to eight courses, from 60 euros, with optional wine pairings, served at white-clothed tables on a covered terrace facing the garden.
Steakhouse · Ribeira Grande · approx. 5 min by car
São Miguel's farmers' association runs this restaurant on the fairground at Campo de Santana. The kitchen grills beef raised on the island's pastures, and the steak is what people come for; there's also fish, Azorean cheese and Portuguese wine.
Restaurant at the Terra Nostra Garden Hotel · Furnas · approx. 35 min by car
In an Art Deco dining room overlooking the Terra Nostra park, Nuno Gonçalves cooks with herbs and vegetables from the hotel garden and the island's pineapple, cheese and honey. The menu includes cozido das Furnas, meat and vegetables slow-cooked for hours in the volcanic ground.
Beach bar · Ribeira Grande · approx. 5 min by car
A timber building on Areal de Santa Bárbara, the surf beach in front of the hotel. The bar mixes cocktails, the kitchen sends out petiscos and small plates, and the terrace looks over the dark sand and the surfers.
Chosen by CINCIN, not paid for. Travel times are approximate. Opening hours and menus change, so please check with the venue before you go.
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