Very enjoyable trip with excellent guide. We had some slow and some faster walkers and she judged the pace well and start times were good - usually 9.30 I would have liked the walks to be longer in some cases as I think on this type of trip you would expect to be out for 6-7 hours.
A very enjoyable trip in Madeira was had by all! Just returned from Madeira, whilst the weather was pretty miserable we still had a great time. Andre our guide had to substitute a couple of our walks due to the weather conditions. Very impressed with Madeira and the locals who very helpful, but I would suggest maybe going at a different time of the year, (Not April). The tour operator planned everything from we lifted up the phone until we were left back to the airport. The hotels, the pack lunches, the walks, flights etc.
A great way of seeing four islands The Azores are beautiful, especially if you go when the hydrangeas are looking good. This trip is a great way of seeing four islands but, since you stay in only two hotels, you’re not repacking all the time. The accommodation was very good. A smart hotel in Ponta Delgada and a good enough hotel in Horta with each room having a balcony with amazing views of the harbour, Pico island and the sunrise. The breakfasts were pretty good and provided plenty of food before the walks. Both towns have plenty of interest and the nautical side of Horta is great. There were seven of us in the group plus our Sao Miguel guide (Tony) and our four islands guide (Filipe) both of whom were very good. We all got on well. If you’re fit and mobile, and strong enough going uphill and especially downhill, the walks are good exercise and not overly challenging. There’s plenty to see and photograph along the way and each walk is slightly different from the next. The group meals are the lunches with our guides having organised three picnics and three terrific restaurant lunches - local food in Sao Miguel and Pico and very good tuna in Peter’s Café on Faial. In the evenings we generally split into two or three smaller groups. Tip: it really pays off booking restaurants in advance. As The Azores are quite some way away, we decided to stay two weeks and so followed this trip with the self-guided ‘Cycling in the Azores’ on Terciera. So we ended up seeing five of the nine islands.