General Information about Ponta Delgado.

Ponta Delgado is Portuguese territory, however it appears that EU customs regulations do not apply here and the the same restrictions apply to importing goods from here to the UK as those from other none EU countries. The currency is the Euro.

We were only in The Azores for the morning. There was a shuttle bus (April 2003) to the port gates for which a charge of £3 was made and you had to book by 6pm the previous night. What they did not tell you was that there was a further walk of 10-15 minutes to the town. A van was at the gangplank selling souvenirs and there were plenty of taxis to hire by the ship

First Visit in April 2002 on Arcadia Homecoming cruise The Azores are a Portuguese archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean consisting of nine islands, they are approximately the same latitude as Lisbon and lie some 760 miles west of Portugal. The largest and most important of the islands is Sao Miguel with a population of 150,000. Climate is temperate due to the Gulf Stream with annual mean temperature of 18 degrees C. Cruise ship docks in Ponta Delgada, and courtesy coaches take you to the main town Centre ( but this may have changed since 2002 see above), this is quite a long and sometimes hazardous walk, so advise you to take the coach. Town has many churches as very strong Roman Catholic community,main roads very good but back streets narrow and cobbled. (Thanks to Roger Cooke)

Most cruises only stop here for half a day so tours are limited but P&O have recently added two new tours, one of which is Dolphin and whale watching. The main tours are to either Sete Cidades or Fire Lake(extinct crater) We went on the Sete Cidadas Crater lakes tour which lasts approx 3 hours. Tour takes you the main botanical gardens which has a large selection of unusual trees which came from various parts of the Portuguese colonies You then pass through pictureque villages where you see houses built from rough, undecorated lava and pass lush meadows bordered by hydrangeas to nearly 2000 feet above sea level before reaching the extinct volcanic crater. Sete Cidadas (Seven cities) has a circumference of eight miles and there are two lakes. One is bright blue, reflecting the colour of the sky, and the other bright green like the vegetation of the crater walls. At the observation point you can buy postcards, drinks and snacks and they also sell the locally brewed lager, which is very good. The coach then returns back to Sao Miguel. Most of the ships that stop here are either sailing to or from the caribbean, but this year, for the first time P&O have incorporated The Azores into a new 14 day cruise taking in Madeira, Canary Islands, Portugal and Spain. (Thanks to Roger Cooke)

Click here to return to main page.