Faial Island: Full Day with Local Guide, Volcanoes and Landscapes
Description
Discover the best of Faial Island on a full-day tour with your local Guide Ramiro, combining stunning landscapes, stunning volcanoes and authentic culture. Explore the most iconic spots in a comfortable vehicle while enjoying a relaxed pace. Visit Caldeira, the huge volcanic crater, and admire panoramic views, then head to the Volcano dos Capelinhos, where the 1957 eruption remodeled the coast. Along the way, discover panoramic viewpoints, beaches, traditional villages and island secrets, with stories and curiosities that give life to Faial. With flexible time at each stop and multiple opportunities for photographs, this tour is the ideal way to enjoy Faial in a single day. The groups are small to ensure a more personalized experience, so the places are limited - we recommend booking in advance to secure your seat.
Tour Options
Itinerary
The suggested itinerary is the normal for this tour. However, there may be changes (in the duration of the places to visit and the places to visit), taking into account the season of the year and the state of the weather. In case we have to change any of the places to visit, we will show others, such as natural volcanic pools, forest parks, among others. Our goal is to provide you with the best possible experience!
Monte da Guia is a volcanic cone with two semicircular craters. From this place you will have a privileged view to the beach of Porto Pim and to the city of Horta.
Monument of Nossa Senhora da Conceição, from this place you can see the historic center of the city and the bay of Horta on one side and, on the other, Praia do Almoxarife. You can also see the neighboring Pico Island and the highest point in Portugal, Pico Mountain. On days without clouds, you can still see the island of São Jorge and Graciosa. Without a doubt, a place with a privileged view!
Visit to one of the most beautiful beaches on the island with views of Pico, S. Jorge and Graciosa islands. This is the largest volcanic sand beach in Faial and one of the largest in the Azores. You will have free time at this location. You can choose to have a drink at a local cafe, take a walk along the beach, around the parish, or take a swim in our temperate waters. From here we will head for lunch at a local restaurant, away from the typical tourist routes so you can have a more authentic experience.
On the route to Caldeira do Faial, we will take a road with excellent views of the entire parish of Flamengos. This is the only parish on the island that does not have direct access to the sea and is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes.
Located in the center of the island, the Caldeira is the true ex-libris of Faial. It is one of the largest volcanic craters in the Azores, and which was at the origin of the island, measuring around 2000 meters in diameter, 7000 meters in perimeter and 400 meters deep. In this impressive place you will have the possibility to take a short walk, take unique photos or simply observe what the force of nature can create.
A place of great volcanic beauty. The Capelinhos Volcano is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the Atlantic, particularly in the Azores. Its landscape takes us to a lunar environment. Enjoy the contrast of the grey sands with the green of the mountains and the blue of the sky and sea. In this unique place you will have free time to explore the area. You can choose to visit the Capelinhos Volcano Interpretation Centre, stroll through the sands and volcanic ash, see the Capelinhos Lighthouse with its first floor still underground, or take a walk on the Costado da Nau (the area where the island of Faial ended before the eruption).
We will visit the Natural Pools of Porto do Comprido. These pools were formed by basalt rocks, which resulted from the solidification of incandescent lava in the sea. We will pass by the whaling village that once existed in this location but is now almost completely buried by sand and volcanic ash. In the 19th century, Porto do Comprido was one of the most important whaling stations in the Azores archipelago.
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
• Your pick-up for the tour will be between 9h15 and 9h30. Please be ready and waiting at the pickup site during this period. As we will gather other participants in different locations, the Guide will not be able to wait long. You can easily identify the Guide, which will be in a grey Opel van. * Airport pickup is only available for private excursions. If you booked a private tour, please indicate your flight number at the time of the Reservation so that we can track your arrival.
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Please share your WhatsApp number to facilitate communication.
- The tours usually end at 16:30, but we are flexible with the schedule. A good solution for travelers who wish to return to Pico at the end of the tour.
- For reservations without lunch included, the tour provides for an approximately 1 hour stop at a local restaurant, where a buffet with traditional Azorean dishes is offered. The lunch is optional, with a fairly affordable cost between 12,50€ and 13,50€ per person, including soup, fish and meat dishes, salads and bread. Drinks, dessert and coffee have a separate cost. Participants who choose not to have lunch should wait during this period. However, if the whole group prefers not to make the stop for lunch, the tour will continue uninterrupted and may end about 1 hour earlier.
- In the summer, there is the possibility of taking a dive at Almoxarife Beach! Don't forget to bring bathing suit and a towel. There's a place to swap on the beach. There is only one rule: you have to be dry before you go back to the cart.
- If you travel with luggage, you don’t have to worry, the trunk luggage compartment has plenty of space to accommodate everything with comfort, so you can enjoy the experience to the fullest.
Reviews(241)
Great experience by our guide informative helpful, attentive and very kind. He talks to is around to all the places. When I told him I was born in Faial and left at 12 he asked do you remember were you lived I told yes. He took me to the town of Castelo Branco so I can see the house and took me to the church were my parents attended and are buried. He was excellent.
We spent just one day on Faial Island, arriving by ferry, so we decided to choose a guided tour — and we couldn’t have made a better choice! Everything was very well organized and professional, with clear instructions and even a WhatsApp message the day before, giving us the opportunity to ask any additional questions. Excellent service! Ramiro is very kind and friendly, and his English is very good and easy to understand. He shared lots of interesting information about the island and the places we visited. The lunch at a local restaurant was absolutely delicious and a real highlight. A great experience from start to finish. We highly recommend this tour!
Ramiro was great! Very knowledgeable and very friendly. Went above and beyond to accommodate us . Definitely worth it!
I had an amazing day touring the island with Ramiro. His depth of knowledge and good humor made the day just magical. We saw a fair amount of the island and had an absolutely delicious lunch midway through the day. We talked about so many topics about the island life. I highly recommend this tour, don’t hesitate to book with Ramiro! Obrigada, Ramiro!
A tour worth taking that hits the best spots on the island of Faial without renting a car. We had planned the day in Faial. The guide, Ramiro, is a native of the island and speaks about it with passion and respect. The van limits the number of clients. There were 5 of us with Ramiro. We could stop for photos wherever we wanted, and on the way back, we were dropped off at the port where we were taking a ferry. Thanks, we loved this tour. It went by too fast.
This tour was amazing! I was staying on Pico and only had a day to explore Faial. This was the ideal way to see so much of the island. Ramiro is GREAT! Professional, friendly, and excited to share his stories and knowledge about the island. We saw a nice mix of spots. Highly recommend!
We had a great day with Ramiro with just the 2 of us. Ramiro is a local with great knowledge of the island and very enthusiastic in showing us all the main sights. One of the best one day tour we had in our 40+ years of travel; highly recommended for first timers in Faial.
We had a great day with our guide Ramiro and two travellers from France. Ramiro was knowledgeable and enthusiastic when discussing the island. Whether discussing history, culture, fauna or other aspects of the island, Ramiro was very easy to understand and we enjoyed spending the day with him. We also enjoyed hearing some of his personal stories.
We had a great day exploring Faial. We managed to see all the main sights, made better by Ramiro’s local knowledge. Lunch was great too, especially as it’s not somewhere we’d have thought to go.
Great tour of Faial island. Saw all the highlights. Included was a nice lunch at a local restaurant. Our tour guide Ramiro was wonderful.
