There are nine islands in the Azores from which to choose, so a couple of days is not worth stopping. Try to dedicate a couple of weeks for your first visit, but if you can stay longer, even better. I have visited during the months of April through October. Mid-June to early September is the busiest time for tourism.

As I have been traveling to these islands since 1994, I definitely can attest to an explosion of tourism since about 2018. However, there is nothing even approaching ridiculous crowds ANYWHERE in the Azores. Aside from Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, nowhere comes even remotely busy as this city. Angra do Heroismo, Terceira is the second largest and busiest city in the Azores, and to me still has a village like atmosphere.

Regarding Ponta Delgada...

You could easily use up two full days walking around and exploring the city. Nighttime walks are exquisite! I assure that no site would have more than a few visitors, if that. Many times you will be alone while visiting the interior of a church or museum. There might be some locals praying in a church. The only time that the city would feel crowded is when more than one cruise ship is docked. My family, who live in Ponta Delgada, avoid driving near the harbor because of the pedestrians.

Once you are in your car to explore the rest of the island, which in my opinion would take a few weeks, you will, within five minutes or so, feel as though time has slowed down to a snail's pace. The most crowded sites will probably be Cha Gorreana and the Vista do Rei overlook at Sete Cidades. Outdoor spots, such as the miradouros between Ribeira Grande and Nordeste, Parque Terra Nostra, Caldeira Velha, and Poca da Dona Beija might be busy with large groups. The last two require reservations because they are so popular. Again, almost everywhere on the island will have only have a handful of visitors at any given time and location.

May weather is generally nice. The sun is quite strong during the day. Sunglasses and a hat are necessities. You might need a light jacket at night. You can never be certain of the weather at any time of the year, so I recommend to travelers to pack and wear layers.

Regarding the other islands, well, you will certainly feel as though you have stepped into an older century or more. They are each beautiful and unique. Some deserve at least a week or so.

Save the Azores islands to "savor" for a future trip. :-)

I'm following this thread because our June trip to the Azores might be bumped to July -- so thank you for your question, Beth. And Carl, your answer was mostly extremely helpful. The comment about "don't bother if you don't have a lifetime" though is unrealistic, but also the hallmark of this website in general. Yes, it's wonderful to be able to deep dive into each great destination, but for most people, it's not possible. I've seen "what are the top sites to see for my 3 days in Rome?" and the poor person with limited holidays being told "you can't do Rome in 3 days! You must take a month" . . . replace Rome with Paris, London, Switzerland, etc. and so on.

Anyway, I was about to give up on my Azores part of my trip because of the difficulty of getting reasonable information for the time I had available to plan. But then someone gave me the tip of finding a high-end tour and just following what they do. So I found
www.abercrombiekent.com tour of the Azores and Madeira over 8 days, and all of a sudden my planning go so much easier. I really want to go to the Azores, but there is no way I'm going to get my husband to agree to over a week there. I'd rather go for 3 or 4 days then never. In 1992 I spent 2 days in Salzburg and I've never been able to get back there. But I have wonderful memories of those 2 days. And I think the hotels, shops, and restaurants would prefer me to come for 2 days than to never come at all.

Anyway, Carl, the rest of your information is solid gold so thanks very much for that. But after a decade on this site, I'm so done with the "if you don't have a week so spend on Lake Como, don't even bother" attitude.

I too think that we should be adapting our advice to the time that someone is available. The 'you need a lifetime' thing can actually put people off going to a destination- which is counter productive.

My advice for what it is worth is that you can do a lot worse than look at the itineraries of the cruise ship excursions. I am not suggesting that you take one- but they have been carefully crafted to show you the most possible in a day.

Certainly you need a day in Ponta Delgada itself, and if it's still running the HoHo bus is a pretty good introduction. My first visit there, on a transatlantic passage, I didn't even know there was a HoHo, and just stepped off the ship with a blank piece of paper ready to explore. I'm not a HoHo person, but the bus was sat there waiting so jumped on- a seriously good idea. Another nice thing was that we were calling at Lisbon on the way back across the Atlantic a few weeks later and the Ponta Delgada HoHo ticket also gave a huge discount on the Lisbon HoHo (or vice versa). That of course may no longer be the case.

Then choose whichever cruise ship excursion or excursions you like the look of, adapt a bit to suit you and away you go.

On the same theme as the HoHo Steve Marsh (a you tuber much liked on here) was there recently for two days. And on Day two he just chose a random bus route (yes, public buses exist) across Sao Miguel island and explored what he came across there with no idea what he would find.

I am guessing that part of Carl's point (without stated explicitly), is the "friction" when you add a stop to your itinerary. If you are going to mainland Portugal but add a stop in Azores, you can do it, but you will likely lose almost 2 days if you taking into account the time spent on planes, to and from airports, and getting settled in a new place.

My family went to Azores twice in 2024. We only stayed in Sao Miguel, and still felt there were more places we haven't explored. But if we get another chance (say a stop on a cruise itinerary), we would be very happy to spend more time there, even if it's just one day.

I will tell you this: go to Azores if you are a nature lover, i.e. hiking, swimming in the ocean or waterfall, dipping in the natural thermal pool, etc. If you are not into these things, then the trip may not be worth your time. Yes they have nice viewpoints, and old churches, and charming old town and narrow streets, but honestly, you can get these experiences in dozens of other places in Europe, but if you truly want to have some unique experiences, here are a few top to-dos:

1 is the town of Furnas. The famous Terra Nostra Garden has a huge geothermal pool (size of a football field) with rust-colored water and 100 degrees temperature. Admission is 16 Euros per person, which includes unlimited time in the pool and access to a beautiful garden (several acres, equivalent of most city's main botanical garden). Beware that the place closes at 4:30 PM.

After a couple of hours in the pool and the garden, you can then walk around the town itself. In one part of the town, you can see and smell dozens of geothermal vents with smoke/steam/water bubbling out of the ground. Locals cook meals at the vents, and you can go to a restaurant and eat the food cooked at the vents if you want. You can also taste the water from various spigots -- they helpfully have labels to tell you what temperature the water is at -- some are cold (maybe 10 C) while some are ambient temp (25 C) and some are nearly scalding (80C).

2 is Ponta da Ferraria -- a cove in the ocean that's fed by underground geothermal spring. In the back of the cove, the water temp can be as high as 110 F, and the ocean water outside the cove is about 70 degrees. It's super interesting to feel the hot water coming from your back and cold water coming from your front. The best time to visit is during low tide, but based on my personal experience, if you are 2 hours before or after low tide, the experience is still well worth it. It's free to enter, and there are free changing room and bathroom nearby. The area around the cove is also great for hiking -- black volcanic rocks and cliffs.

3 is Sete Cidades -- a mountain that you can drive up and stop at various viewpoints. Some are right at the side of the road, some require maybe 1 mile of hiking. The views are breathtaking, as long as you have good weather. There is also an abandoned resort hotel next to one of the viewpoints. It's very interesting to walk through the dilapidated building -- it's like the set of a horror movie.

All 3 are on the island of Sao Miguel. You can get a hotel or Airbnb in downtown Ponta Delgada (which is central and takes about 30 minutes to each of these places). Allocate one day for each place, and if you have time/energy after the main event, you can walk around downtown, but as I said before, what you can see in Ponta Delgada is not going to be much different from what you can see in Lisbon or other old European cities.

Also, OP's posting said May, but later it said July. Not sure what time you are actually planning to go. July is going to be busy and expensive. Our 2-bedroom Airbnb in May cost $100 per night, and in July it goes to $250. Rental car is also likely to cost twice as much in July. So you should take that into consideration in your planning.

Phaser - those spots sound fabulous. Definitely on my to-do list