Furnas Travel Guide

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This was a charming small grotto with 7 meters long and 3 meters width, but now it is almost completely destroyed by local authorities. They say this grotto had no security... In my opinion, this is a shame!
Thermal swimming pools with temperatures around 30ºC, with ferruginous mud’s, were (re)built in front of this grotto.

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Caldeiras/fumarolas [small geisers and spots] decore this village.
Spots around the lake are used to make traditional dishes: cozido à portuguesa "cooked meats", cozido de bacalhau "codfish", feijoada "beans", polvo "octopus" and arroz doce "rice pudding".
All these dishes are available when the local festival takes place. Most of the time only cozido à portuguesa and cozido de bacalhau are available at local restaurants: Vale das Furnas Restaurant, or Terra Nostra Garden Hotel, Tony's and Miroma. You are advisable to make a booking in advance.
If you wish, you can prepare at home your dish, but you have to leave it to cook early in the morning to get a free spot.
Among the mineral waters, Gloria Patri is the only one without gas.
Cooking time
From 4 to 6 hours.

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Sometimes there are religious festivals on Sundays. Furnas was having a big religious procession later that afternoon when we were there. The streets were covered with flowers for blocks and blocks, and we watched people who were still working on them. Each family does the area in front of their house, and the designs vary. One design that went on for several blocks was a cooperative project.

Note: be careful where you park! Once the flowers go down, cars can't use the street.

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The privately owned garden behind the Terra Nostra Garden Hotel is open to the public for a fee. (Entrance to the gardens may be included if you eat there-I'm not sure.) The garden has been there since 1770. It originally covered 2 ½ acres, but the family later acquired another 10 adjoining acres. There are 2500 species of trees from around the world, 14 full-time gardeners, a pond with black swans, and a lake-size warm mineral pool. In one area, plants covering lots of animal-shaped mesh frames made a green zoo.

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Lagoa das Furnas is a lake in a volcanic crater, with some incredible scenery along the way from Ponta Delgada—a rocky coastline, checkerboard fields, and pineapple and banana crops surrounded by hedges to protect them from the wind. Just across the road from the lake, steam rises from the caldeiras.

Restaurants and local individuals use the caldeiras to cook a mixed dish of meats and vegetables. The covered pot of food is lowered into one of the holes, and a mound of dirt goes over the top to keep the steam in. It takes about 6 hours to cook it. Restaurants have assigned holes; the public ones are first-come, and they get a stick with an identification number on it to put in the top.

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The origin of this park comes back to 1780 when Thomas Hichkling, then the US vice-consul in São Miguel, built a summer residence. After the middle of the 19th century, the garden saw remarkable develompment, spurred by owners, the Visconts of Praia, and later the Bensaúde family.
This swimming pool, whose contrucion was orderd by Vasco Bensaúde, is served by hot iron water.

It's a recomended restaurant by the tourism association. But it's not so good as Tony's. Food is quite spicy for me. And, Portuguese food is not spicy!

But you may try here the "Cozido das Furnas".

I paid 12,15€ for 2 people.