In this post, I’ll share our experience of 5-days hiking named “Great Route of Santa Maria” in Santa Maria island, Azores, Portugal because not many people know about that:)
Santa Maria
Santa Maria is an island located in the eastern group of the Azores archipelago and the southernmost island in the Azores. The island is primarily known for its white sand beaches, distinctive chimneys, and dry warm weather as you’ll see pictures soon.
Santa Maria Grand Route
We chose The Santa Maria Grand Route which is going around the island for 5 days. The route begins and ends in Forte de São Brás (fortress) in Vila do Porto. The distance is around 78km.
On the government site, they said,
This route uses sections or all of the five small existing trails on the island, goes through all terrestrial protected areas of the Island Natural Park, and all the geosites. It consists of four stages, and is proposed to be made in four days, each stage corresponding to a day.
However, we didn’t know how to book a hotel in each place. When we look at the hotels, we didn’t it still opens or not… That can be a problem. We wanted to avoid going there without any booking. After searching the solution, we found the website called Ilha a Pé. They already have great shelters which is an empty house specifically for Great Route in Santa Maria. You can see house marks in each place. This means that you have to stay the houses for 4 nights except for the first one which is their office and the starting point.
As far as I know, this is the best way to do the route since they have everything what we need. If you want, you can ask them to bring food delivery. Here is the altitude on the way. The peak is Pico Alto which is the highest point in Santa Maria. Don’t be afraid of the steep path:)
I really like the route I see many untouched nature and path. There are not many people there especially when at the beginning of April I did. This made us so isolated in a good sense. I would say the weather there is relatively unstable as you may know. We also had one rainy day, which was pretty bad and cold. After finishing the route, we though the rainly day as fun memory, though. I felt the path is a bit un-organized. It means there are so many shits by cows! My hiking shoes was covered by those shits. This is not a joke. If you embrace such a thing, you’ll definitely enjoy the route.
I’d like to share my experience a bit because people may want to know something like my experience. I always check a blog post or an article when I travel. So, I wanted to do the same thing for someone else as I talk my friends about my experience. I don’t know why do I need to keep it secret? This is the reason I love sharing my experience:)
Photo
Here are some photos while the hiking.
