These islands, although out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, are part of the territory of Portugal. They really do provide an opportunity to "get away from it all".

Although we don't have any original walking stories yet from the Azores, there was an interesting article in the Guardian on 5 March 2005

Tim Ecott describes a walk to the Fire Lake - a volcanic cadera - and it sounds idyllic:

" To regain the coast we walked down through the valley of the Ribeira da Praia, a timeless rural landscape where a solitary whitewashed cottage stood out from a brilliant emerald hillside. "

The hiking is safe but often spectacular, on islands which produce almost a third of Portugal's milk and cheese, and where almost half the population still work on the land.