How to Take a Free Stopover in the Azores

While Portugal is one of Europe’s most popular destinations, few travelers have been to Portugal’s islands in the Atlantic. SATA Azores Airlines hopes to change that with their unique free stopover program. When booking any of its trans-Atlantic flights from Boston (BOS), New York (JFK), Toronto (YYZ) or Montreal (YUL) to any SATA destination in Europe, passengers can opt for as long as a week layover in the Azores.

That’s plenty of time to tour the island of San Miguel, where flights land and take a short hop flight to another island or two. The landscapes are dramatic and beautiful, largely covered in green. Blue lakes lie among the volcanic peaks, and you can explore craters and hike to rims of ancient craters for views that stretch for miles.

On San Miguel and other islands, you can visit steaming hot springs that bubble from volcanic rock. A favorite experience for kids is eating food that has been cooked inside pots buried in the volcano-heated earth.

In the middle of the Atlantic, about 900 miles from mainland Portugal, the islands were isolated until the early 20^th century, and have developed a culture rooted in the diversity of nationalities who settled there. The people welcome tourists warmly, and it’s easy to book tours to discover the highlights.

Booking a stopover is easy: when searching for your flight on the SATA website, you’ll see the option to Stopover. This is only available if both legs of your journey are on flights operated by SATA Azores Airlines. Simply choose your stopover island and decide if you’d like to add tours and other experiences (in which case you’ll be redirected to SATA partner Azores Getaways’ website).

Travelers bound for Algarve beaches often choose SATA because they can fly straight to Faro instead of flying through Lisbon and then on to Faro. Likewise, those headed for a Douro River cruise can fly direly to Porto without a change in Lisbon.

Even for those not taking advantage of the stopover option on their way, a stop midway in San Miguel is far easier than connecting through Lisbon’s large airport. The tiny terminal in Ponta Delgado may not be fancy, but it’s not confusing either. The few gates are easy to find, and there’s no worry about missing your connecting flight because of long lines at immigration.