Things to do on Faial Island, Azores

While Pico is often called the black island of the Azores, Failal is known as the blue island—thanks to the many blue hydrangea hedges bordering the fields during the season.

Mostly though it’s very green, apart from only the westernmost corner (pictured in the header image) where a volcano erupted just some decades ago.

It’s an island where you can find both dramatic landscapes and quiet rural lands, and where the pace of life seems wonderfully slow.

Overlooking the bay at Faial’s main town, Horta

Like the comings and goings of the tide, Failal has seen many industries come and go.

It used to be an important whaling base, until the practice of whaling came to an end in the 1970s. It was also once a key strategic location for telegraph companies, whose undersea cables required a relay station on the Azores to connect the European mainland and the US. That, of course, eventually came to end as well.

A couple of small museums near the town of Horta give you…