Best Hotels near Parque Terra Nostra, Sao Miguel

I just returned from a three night stay at this hotel with my girlfriend and our teenage daughter. We have been countless times in S. Miguel as we consider it such a pleasant and beautiful island. This time we opted for a hotel outside the main towns and in fact we managed to do just that. At the same time it is only 20 minutes away from the airport and 15 minutes away from Ponta Delgada or Ribeira Grande, the two main towns. We already visited the nine islands of the Azores archipelago and always get a rental car at the airport (exception at Corvo Island). If you are staying in this hotel, it is paramount that you do the same. As to the hotel itself, we booked it only four weeks in advance on high season, thus we had to pay the full rate of the stay at that moment. Upon check-in on room 206, we were given two identical cards without any distinctive element, one to open the door and the other to insert into the slot for lightening. That is odd, generally, hotels give two identical keys to open the door and one of them, if necessary can be left on the slot when we are out. We were assigned a spacious accommodation with living room, bedroom and bathroom. We did not have sea view and the living room had lots of glass walls overlooking the adjacent condo. All those glasses made it very hot on the sun shining days and we had to keep the AC on during the day. The décor of the room was unstylish and lacking attention to details. The bedroom had a big closet but no clothes rail or hangers. Besides that, one of the doors of the closet could not be opened fully, because it bumped into the shelves that are installed as bedside tables. The safe was old style, that is to say, it closes with a key that we had to ask for at the reception at no charge, along with a cumbersome key ring that we had to take with us whenever we were out of the room. The living room had a well equipped kitchen, that we did not use but it was constantly patrolled by half a dozen ants. We had bought previously some good looking fruits and had to fill a big dish with water and in the middle of it we put a small dish with our fruit so that the ants weren’t able to cross the water in order to get to fruit island. The bathroom was very spacious and pleasant looking even if the washbasin was more stylish than efficient. This room lacked tremendously of a place to put one´s belongings (toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, electrical razor and so on). Amazingly no one foresaw the installation of a shelf. The social areas of the hotel such as the lobby are, again, unstylish, corridors have shabby carpeting. The room where breakfast is served has a view to an outside wall and lacks natural lightening. Breakfast itself has a reasonable variety of items, but by no means is it worth 12 euro per person per day, that in our case we were asked to paid in advance, precisely at the same moment we made the reservation. There is a restaurant at the hotel, called Dragoeiro but it features mainly sushi. It is in

The location of this hotel is absolutely stunning. Everywhere you walk on the grounds, you are offered another beautiful, yet different view. Looking out over the ocean and the black sand beach from all the different vistas and viewpoints never grew old for us. There are small lounge areas at varying levels from the top of the hotel and down towards the beach. They all offered quiet and private places to lounge and relax. We had a 2 bedroom “retreat.” The “retreat” was not as lovely as the grounds. First off- the door to the retreat is a massive, wood door. However, being an eco lodge- I think someone may have just chopped a tree down and hung it on some hinges. While it looked beautiful- it did not seal or close properly. So there were giant gaps between the door and the frame and we watched bugs fly in constantly. The second issue with the rooms were a complete lack of privacy. Both bedrooms had sliding doors on them, again nothing really truly shut. The master bedroom had a sink area and bathtub when you walked into the room, no shower and if you wanted to use the bath- you would have had to do so literally right next to the bed. The main issue in this room though was the toilet. It was in a cubicle but the cubicle was see through so anyone could see you going to the bathroom! The second bedroom had 2 twin mattresses laying on a concrete platform. Nothing else was in the bedroom area at all. When you entered the room you were immediately in the bathroom area. This time there was a closet and 2 sinks, there was a sliding wood door here to separate the toilet and shower but you could not shut a door between the sink part of the bathroom and the sleeping area. So if someone needed to turn on a bathroom light during the night, anyone in the room would wake up. The service at the hotel was good and it was a relaxing place to stay for a couple of days after a busy week on the rest of the island. There is not much in the immediate area, but if you are looking for a beachfront place to relax in San Miguel, this is a solid choice.

The team at White made us feel instantly at home, we were welcomed and well taken care of for the entirety of our stay. We’ve fallen in love with Sao Miguel and it’s all thanks to each person at White. Every day we’d get personalised recommendations on where to go, what to see and what to avoid to make the most of our time on the island. Communication was effortless as the team gave us a phone to talk to them with - very responsive and helpful every time we spoke. The suite was beautiful and uncluttered with rich details and textures - a real calm retreat after a day filled with lots of sites and scenery. Every person that works at White are friendly, helpful and accommodating even our airport pickup created such a wonderful impression. This was by far our most favourite part of our holiday. Thank you to Sandra (for helping us arrange a rental car and welcoming us to white), João (for personalised tips on where to go on the island), Rodrigo (for making a proper martini and chatting to my husband for hours while I was resting and recovering from a flu) and each and everyone of you for treating us so special during our stay. Highly recommended for amazing service and incredible suite.

The Caloura Hotel Resort impressed us all round. Super nice room with a great view of the sea from the balcony. Beautifully landscaped grounds all around with lots of flowers and flowering shrubs. About 15 minutes by car from Ponta Delgada, it is in a beautiful, quiet location, except for the merry chattering of seabirds at night. Very, very great breakfast buffet - my personal favorite the carob bread rolls, I have never eaten such delicious rolls! The evening buffet was too expensive for us at €28, because we stuck to the salads and desserts in the evening, the main courses were not to our liking, and the a la carte food was more recommendable. The staff is super friendly and helpful, the rooms are super clean! We will come back next year! 100 recommended!!! Das Caloura Hotel Resort hat uns rundum begeistert. Super schönes Zimmer mit toller Aussicht vom Balkon aufs Meer. Rundum schön angelegtes Gelände mit vielen Blumen und blühenden Sträuchern. Etwa 15 Autominuten von Ponta Delgada entfernt liegt es in schöner ruhiger Lage, bis auf das nächtliche lustige Geschnatter der Seevöglel. Sehr sehr tolles Frühstücksbuffet - Mein persönlicher Favorit die Johannesbrot Brötchen, noch nie habe ich so leckere Brötchen gegessen!!! Das Abendbuffet war mit 28€ uns zu teuer, weil wir uns Abends eher an die Salate und den Nachtisch gehalten haben, die Hauptgerichte waren nicht unser Geschmack, da war das Essen A la Carte eher zu empfehlen. Das Personal ist super freundlich und hilfsbereit, die Zimmer tipptopp sauber! Wir werden nächstes Jahr wiederkommen! 100 empfehlenswert!!!