Is it realistic to do Portugal, Madeira and the Azores?

Let me give you a quick synopsis of the answers you are looking for.

Please read the first 52 pages (FREE) of my Azores guidebook to learn about these islands. The link is in the post at the top of this Portugal forum. That is answer #1.

Sao Miguel is a must visit on a first trip the Azores. A week is minimal to enjoy and somewhat discover the Azores. Just walking through Ponta Delgada and seeing all there is will take at least 2 days. With more time (at least 3 days) another island can be added. More time, more islands.

Flights to from The Azores to Lisbon take about 2 hours. SATA/Azores Airlines offers nonstop flights from Ponta Delgada to Funchal, Madeira. I have flown this route. A week in Madeira is my suggestion. Madeira is quite different than any of the 9 Azores islands. All of them are similar, but unique in what they offer a visitor.

I describe all 9 Azores islands in detail, including over 60 days worth of self-guided driving and walking tours. There are literally thousands of places to visit in the Azores, and I have visited and write about them. I so write about bugs in the Azores!

If you would like to learn a little about Madeira, I have a PDF of our trip back in 2010 I can send you. I would need your email in a private. message.

Tell your husband that you are not dreaming, and now found a helping hand to assist and guide you on your visit to the Azores islands. 😊

Your husband does have a point, though that's not how I would suggest he make it...

We spent almost three weeks in the Azores a couple summers ago, which wasn't enough (we visited 6 of the 9 islands). We had a full week on Sao Miguel, and we didn't get to everything on our list. From what I observed, it seemed that many tourists completely underestimate Sao Miguel - we overheard more than one couple in restaurants sadly lamenting that they had only allocated 2, 3 or 4 days there, thinking that was plenty of time, and they regretted short-changing the place so much, grousing that they had to leave the next day.

Our week on Sao Miguel was great but still felt a bit too short for us. I would suggest 10 days as a good minimum for Sao Miguel alone; that would still be moving pretty quickly to cover the top sights. The other islands have plenty to offer, too - each deserves some time.

Of course, mainland Portugal has plenty to offer and would easily be worth at least a couple weeks there.

I think a better way to approach this would be: how many days/nights do you really have for this trip? I assume you have some upper limit...begin with that and see what fits. Unless you have time for a very long trip (lucky you...), I would definitely not try to cram the Azores, Madeira AND the mainland into the same trip. For me, that would be three separate trips (we've been to the mainland several times already, I have not made it to Madeira yet, we are planning to return to the Azores when we can to catch the islands we missed and revisit several that we short-changed). We may split 2-3 weeks across Madeira and a re-visit to the Azores we skipped/short-changed.

It's a big world, and blazingly fast drive-by visits do not do these places justice.

And yes, Carl's book is highly recommended.

Funny you should mention ants...we actually did see some ants in a few of our hotels (3 out of 6 we stayed in, now that I think of it, including a very fluffy, five-star luxury place in Ponta Delgada), but the bugs were not particularly bothersome. OTOH, birds were VERY loud at two of the places we stayed, loud enough to keep me awake for hours at night (Cory's Shearwater...sounds exactly like this, seriously!...we were kind of freaked-out by this for a while, it was a bit too Hitchcockian...).

You can fly to Madiera from Lisbon. July is high season there so more expensive and crowded. My son and his wife just spent two weeks there in February on their honeymoon. They had great weather (one day of rain) and a wonderful time. Their accomodations were inexpensive. They did a lot of hiking, some swimming, and visited a vineyard. I haven't been there yet but having seen their pictures and talked to them about their trip, I would spend less time than them, probably 10 days, mostly because I wouldn't want to do that much hiking. I would think it would not be worth the trouble for less than a week.

Original poster here:

Oh wow! So much great information, and so encouraging. Thank you everyone for all your generous help. This site is the best for Euro travel

Hi,

I'll share what my family did last April as we visited Portugal (Lisbon & Porto), Madeira, and the Azores in one trip. Yes it was a whirlwind and not for everyone but we like to see as much variety as we can on our trips.

We flew from Boston to Lisbon and stayed 3 nights in Lisbon.
Took the train from Lisbon to Porto and stayed 2 nights in Porto.
Flew from Porto to Madeira and stayed in Funchal for 3 nights.
Flew from Madeira to Sao Miguel and stayed in Ponta Delgada for 2 nights.
Flew from Sao Miguel (Ponta Delgada airport) to Boston.

We loved out trip, had a wonderful time and hope to return. Our personal favorites were Lisbon and Madeira. You can absolutely spend a lot more time in each of these locations. And if you have more time and want to do this kind of aggressive itinerary I would suggest tacking on longer stays especially if you plan to visit more than one island in the Azores.. But to your original question yes it can be done to visit Portugal & the islands.

Thanks. It's nice to see someone's actual itinary.

We are meeting a group of friends in Portugal (we did Queensland, Australia) in November 2023 and had a blast. So I think I will first see what the group has planned and which of those activites we want to participate in, and then I can see how much time we have for the islands.

I appreciate the encouragement

Okay, I'm back because the group part of our trip has now been booked . . .

We are arriving in Lisbon for a night on June 25, 2025
Go to Cascais for 2 nights, and then a resort on the Silver Coast for 4 nights. So that's 7 nights for our friends portion of the trip. Overall, we are looking at approx a 3 week trip (max). I'd prefer to do more of the traveling in June than July due to crowds.

Goal: Portugal, including the Azores, and maybe Madeira. We'd like to see more of Lisbon. Also maybe Porto and Nazare.

We have been to Portugal once before, so not our first trip. We are both fine with not going back to the Algarve. We did the 20-something backpacker trip and now are in our late 50s so don't need to watch our $$ so much.

Obstacle: my husband doesn't want to go to the Azores, partly because of the remoteness, partly because he doesn't think it's a place worth visiting. I think I need to search for a bunch of short videos to sell my husband on it. Also, flying from western Canada, it's significantly quicker to fly directly to Europe than to fly through Toronto or Montreal. He doesn't want to fly to Europe and then fly back into the Atlantic. But I think flying through Toronto to the Azores is the way to go and sometimes we have to just suck it up. But I have to sell it.

The other complication is that we have close family in Europe, so all of this may be moot. But maybe we can get them to join us in a Portuguese - Azores - Madeira trip.

Interests: we love just hanging out and enjoying life. Typical day: get up, casual breakfast, activity, home to a balcony for aperitif late afternoon, wander around, dinner . . . . Also, my husband is athletic, so he will need to fit in a 50k road bike ride a few times, and he might drag me out on a hike. I prefer reading a book or looking in a few shops. We like museums and culture. The epic bookshops of Portugal are a must see.

Question: Suggestions for a max. 3 week trip, flying from Vancouver. Would prefer the group 7 nights to be near the end of the trip. Add more Lisbon, Nazare, Porto. Add Azores. Maybe even Madeira. If you had to pick Azores or Madeira, where would you go?