Azores: Two Coasts, One Island
São Miguel has a north coast for people who want to be in the water and a south coast for people who want to hear it. Two houses that take that seriously.
The Azores lie so far out in the Atlantic that the weather doesn't have opinions, it has moods. You land in Ponta Delgada after a four-hour flight on an island greener than Ireland, with crater lakes, steaming ground and hydrangeas growing at the roadside like nettles elsewhere.
São Miguel is fifty kilometres long, and its two coasts could not be more different.
North: Santa Bárbara, the beach
The north coast is the wild one. Near Ribeira Grande lies Santa Bárbara beach: black sand, waves that draw surfers from Lisbon, cliffs. Directly above it, since 2015, stands a resort that means its name — eco-beach here means cryptomeria from the island's own forest, cork, bamboo, studios and villas with kitchenettes and verandas, all facing the sea.
You step out of your room in the morning and stand in the wind. There's an indoor pool for days when the Atlantic isn't willing, a garden that supplies the kitchen, and an experience manager who knows which crater lake is clear today. A house for families and for people who want to get wet.
South: White, the rock
The south coast is gentler, and Lagoa is where the island once kept its summer houses. Out of the ruin of one such house, right on the rocks above the water, White has grown: nine suites and two villas, whitewashed, with small kitchens and terraces from which you hear the sea but can't get into it — too rocky for that.
White takes guests from 14 and is thus the counterpart to the north: no beach, no surfing, but a pool on the rock, yoga, a restaurant with a view, and the calm that comes from having no plans. For couples who stay a week.
Practical
Direct flights to Ponta Delgada from Lisbon, Porto, Frankfurt and London. Hire car from the airport; both houses are thirty minutes away. Best time: June to September. Rain jacket and swimming trunks — both will be needed on the same day.
