Driving in the Azores

No, I have never been to the Azores. According to Wikivoyage renting a car is the best way to get around: https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Azores.

I have driven on eight of the Azores islands since 1994, except on the island of Corvo. Corvo does not have rental cars.

Each island, for the most part, is very easy to drive on. Some of the islands definitely have the occasional white knuckle roads, where you must pay attention to your speed and vicinity to the edge of the road. Nighttime driving can be a bit challenging depending on where you are traveling to. Foggy and rainy weather at anytime of the year will slow you down to a crawl. The most common traffic jam is due to cows using roads to change pastures.

Almost all car rental companies come with a fair share of negative reviews. I have rented from lots of them and use due diligence when reserving, as well as when picking up and dropping off. I would not make any recommendations. Unless a visitor does the same as I do and takes the same precautions, there is a good chance that an issue (could be very costly) will inevitably take place.

If you are not EXTREMELY comfortable driving a stick shift (manual), definitely rent an automatic vehicle.

Public transportation is sparse on the islands. To most outlying towns, there maybe 1 or 2 buses per day, so you either have to rent a car or rely on taxi which is quite reasonably priced, but still could add up to a lot of money if you want to go to various viewpoints or hiking trails.

I have rented twice on Sao Miguel, the biggest island. I opted to pay more for an automatic. Make sure you make reservation early - preferably 6 months ahead, especially if you are going there during the peak season (May-Sept).

The driving itself is pretty easy, since road surfaces are usually quite good, but parking or navigating through the narrow streets in the cities may be tough -- it's not unusual to see cars parked on the side of the street with 2 wheels on the curb and the other 2 wheels on the road, in order for there to be enough room for the traffic to go by. Once, when looking for free parking, I got myself stuck in a narrow dead-end street off a busy road, and it literally took me a 12-point-turn (instead of the usual 3-point-turn) to turn the car around in order to get back out.

On my first trip, I had a brand new compact SUV and I scraped the passenger side against a street corner somewhere (didn't even know when it happened until it's time to return it). Rental car company charged me 500 euros for the damage. Fortunately my Chase Sapphire card covered it. The second time I had a compact sedan and it was already dinged and scratched when I got it, so the rentar company didn't really check for any new dings when I returned it. You just have to assume that you will have some kind of minor damage to the rental car, so make sure you buy the extra coverage, or use a fancy credit card that includes free rental car damage insurance.

Thanks all!