When are you planning to go? I love Costa Rica and highly recommend it. (We're headed there in a few weeks)

I have been there 3 times. My DH was actually born in San Miguel, the largest of the 9 islands. We have also been to Madeira which is an island owned by Portugal but not part of the Azores. A winter vacation would be better in Madeira as the temp would be warmer than the Azores at this time of the year.

I visited my friend who was living on Terceira Island in the late '90s.... it was for a week in July and it was amazingly beautiful!!! The entire island was covered in blue hydrangeas and dotted with tiny pink roses. :) The weather was *perfect*, golf course was *perfect*, coffees wonderful and food fantastic -- one drawback for me was the limited availability of vegetables, because Terceira is primarily a dairy island -- otherwise I might have wanted to move there. lol! I doubt if much has changed since then... the locals were *extremely poor*.... and paper products hardly existed (e.g., restroom facilities weren't exactly to US standards. lol!).

Travel to/from is also severely limited... basically limited-schedule charter flights from Boston/Logan and now Toronto has been added too. Supposedly, the larger islands are set up to better handle tourists, so some problems I encountered shouldn't exist there now.

Thought you wouldn't mind if I posted a photo from the trip. I'd love to go back. :)

This post was edited by party_music50 on Wed, Dec 31, 14 at 9:06

Thanks ellendi, we've been to CR and had a great time. Took a land tour followed by a sail boat cruise down the pacific coast and through the panama canal. We're looking to go someplace else, this time, though.

Roseabbey, I'm thinking San Miguel would be the place to go, at least for our first trip. We'd be looking to go spring/summer. DH is reluctant to travel in the winter...

party-music, I hope it's a little more up to date now...it seems to be more visited these days as there are direct scheduled flights from Boston and Providence.

I'm thinking though that, for this trip, I'd be happier cruising the Rhone in France. I've never been to Paris, and figure it's about time.... But I definitely want to keep the Azores on the list...I want to hit that sweet spot of more updating for American tastes, but not too discovered to destroy the charm and the beauty...

San Miguel in the summer especially late summer, early fall would be absolutely gorgeous. As someone mentioned, the hydrangeas are in full bloom, grow wild, colours range from blue to reds to pinks. The harvest and grape/wine seasons is then, also a lot of parades and festivals celebrating the harvest. Weather is perfect. San Miguel has modern hotels as well as lots of bed and breakfast places, it is absolutely GORGEOUS , OH, I already mentioned that!

Thanks roseabbey. I'll definitely keep it in mind. It sounds fabulous. It sounds to me like it's the Hawaii of the east coast...volcanic islands with lots of hiking and natural beauty...

However, I've just booked our trip to France in July. So it's a fait accompli (gotta practice my French now!!)