In this portion of our Azores Guide, we will visit Santa Maria Island for some SCUBA diving and a jeep safari.  Santa Maria is the oldest island in the Azores archipelago, located 100km southeast of Sao Miguel.  The island is known for its great SCUBA diving, distinctive towns, and landscape diversity.  Come along as we explore the whole island, from the depths of the coastal waters, to the top of Pico Alto.

Getting There (and Back)

At one point in its history, the Santa Maria Airport (SMA) in Vila Do Porto was a major refueling hub for transatlantic flights.  Many rich and famous travelers have touched down on Santa Maria over the years.  The United States even used the airfield as a military base during World War II, with remnants of the original structures still around today.

Unfortunately, SMA is no longer an international hub.  Flights from the USA must first stop at the PDL airport on Sao Miguel.  We spent a few days exploring Sao Miguel, before booking a quick island hopper flight on SATA Air Azores.  The flights were only $68 per person!  When you fly out of PDL airport, be sure to leave extra time for security.  The lines are long, and they move very, very slowly.

The flight was quick and comfortable on a propeller plane.  I’ll cover our return trip at the end of this post.

Day 1 – SCUBA with Mantamaria

With only two total days to explore the island, we had to hit the ground running.  We planned our SCUBA day on Day 1, because it is unsafe to fly within 24 hours after diving.  Upon touching down at the SMA airport, we grabbed a quick cab ride directly to the marina in the main town of Vila do Porto.  The ride only cost 8 euros and dropped us right at the Mantamaria Dive Center.

I was very excited to dive, because Santa Maria Island is home to some of Europe’s top diving sites.  We checked in and completed the safety paperwork.  I’m a certified SCUBA diver (completed my training at the Sheraton Maldives), and my wife just wanted to snorkel for the day.  The friendly staff members provided me with a set of SCUBA gear, including fins, snorkel, mask, wet suit, BCD, and air tanks.  They also provided a quick refresher, because it had been a while since my previous SCUBA dive.

After gathering all of the gear, we boarded the boat with a group of eight other divers and three crew members.  We reached the first dive site in about 30 minutes.  This site, off the northwest coast of the island, features a sea platform that ranges from 14 to 40 meters in depth.  We spent about 45 minutes exploring the nooks and crannies of the sea floor.  Jorge, the company owner, stuck with me on the dive.  He helped me re-orient to SCUBA (after a year off), and he showed me some great sea life!

Baixa do Ambrosio

Dive site two was the real treat of the day!  This spot, approximate three miles off the coast of Santa Maria is known for large groups of manta rays that hover around a deep sea mount.  Generally, this spot is reserved for more-experienced divers, but they allowed me to come along as a relative beginner.  When we got in the water, Jorge set an anchor cable, because the current is pretty strong.

The group descended along the cable, and we used clips to hold ourselves in place.  Once I was clipped to the cable, I looked around to see five large manta rays circling around me!  Totally surreal!  For the next 30 minutes, I just drifted in place and watched the rays and fish swim around our group.

If you would like to experience this wonderful SCUBA opportunity, be sure to check out the Mantamaria website or send an email to info@mantamaria.com.  Thanks to Jorge and the crew for an awesome day on the water!

Where We Stayed – Hotel Colombo

Usually, our accommodations are listed at the top of the trip guide.  On this one, we didn’t check into the hotel until we spent the full first day SCUBA diving.  Hotel Colombo is conveniently located on the edge of Vila do Porto, Santa Maria’s main town, and approximately 10 minutes from the airport.

We used Chase Ultimate Rewards points to book this hotel, for a total of only 6,800 points for the night.  Our stay included breakfast in the morning, which was actually quite good!  The hotel isn’t particularly “modern.” (See the tube television.)  However, the pool is nice, the views are fantastic, and the restaurant makes a mean Hawaiian pizza!  If you’re in town for a quick stay, I definitely recommend the Hotel Colombo.

Day 2 – Jeep Safari Island Tour with Bootlá

For our second, and final, day on Santa Maria Island, we booked a full-day jeep safari tour with Bootla.  This tour is absolutely perfect for people with a short visit to the island.  We got to see the entire island, including parts WAY off the beaten path.  Santa Maria has a lot of biodiversity, due to its formation from multiple volcanic eruptions.  We learned all about the history of the island, its various ecosystems, and its culture from our incredible guide, Henrique.

Henrique – Tour Guide Extraordinaire & Overall Cool Dude

Before I get into the particulars of the tour, I have to say how wonderful Henrique is, as a guide and as a person.  First off, he knows his stuff!  Henrique is not originally from Santa Maria, but he has been guiding tours there for many years, and it shows.  He explained the origins of the island, how it was discovered, and how the various towns came to be.  His real passion, however is the natural beauty and biology of the island.  During the tour, he named every single flower, tree, and animal by its scientific name and told us how it arrived on Santa Maria.

Beyond his vast knowledge, Henrique is simply a cool guy.  He spent all day with just the two of us, so we got to know him pretty well.  At the end of the tour, he drove us to the port to catch our ferry back to Sao Miguel.  I gave him a tip for being an awesome tour guide.  He immediately decided to use that tip to buy beers for us, since we had time to kill before our ferry departed!  He hung out with us for a while longer, sipping beers and talking about life… what a guy!

Jeep Safari

We spent the day driving all over the island.  The tour started in the main town of Vila do Porto, passed by the former US Air Force Base, and proceeded through each town.  We traveled along fence-lined gravel roads, muddy jungle paths, and cut through the side of a mountain.  I won’t write about every single thing we did, but the following things really stood out to me:

Vila do Porto

Vila is the first port on the island that gave enough cover to build a fortified town.  This allowed the tiny settlement to become the most populated area on the island.

Former US Air Base

The USA used Santa Maria as an Air Force base in the mid-Atlantic during WWII.  Many of the old structures still remain and have been re-purposed into living spaces.

Towns

We spent time exploring each town, and we learned about a unique tradition where people can become “king for the day” by serving free soup for everybody.  Henrique explained that each town is known for a different color of paint used to stripe the mostly-white buildings.

Barriero de Faneca

As I mentioned above, Santa Maria features a wide variety of ecosystems.  The first evidence of this was our stop at the Barriero de Faneca, a red-sand desert that appears out of nowhere.

São Lourenço

The viewpoint overlooking Sao Lourenco is stunning.  We ventured down into the seaside town for a delicious lunch at Esplanade Ponta Negra.

Aveiro Cascade

We walked a short trail through a ravine to the Aviero Cascade, a tall waterfall.  

Ribeira de Maloás

Another brief trail brought us around the edge of a sheer cliff to see some cool geological formations, similar to Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland.

Pico Alto

Pico Alto is the highest peak on the island.  From the top viewpoint, you can see the entire coastline and look back on a day spent exploring the whole island.

Praia Formosa

One of our final stops was another viewpoint overlooking Praia Formosa.  One more view of a beautiful coastal town before heading to the ferry port.  

As you can probably tell, I highly recommend booking the full day jeep safari with Henrique at Bootla!  Visit their website to learn more, and send an email to info@bootla.pt to set up your booking.  You’ll have a great time learning all about this little island with Henrique!

Return to Sao Miguel – Atlanticoline Ferries

For the return trip to Sao Miguel, we had a couple options.  We could fly, but the flights on our dates were quite expensive at $200 per person, for a 30-minute flight.  Ugh.  I did a bit more digging and found the ferry option.  Atlanticoline Ferries offers a few weekly ferries between Sao Miguel and Santa Maria Island.  The schedule can be a bit variable, depending on weather, so nothing is set in stone.  However, you can save a lot of money if the ferry fits into your schedule.  Our two tickets cost 75 Euros total!

The ferry itself was actually quite comfortable.  We found a large table with padded seats to stretch out and relax for the 3-hour ride.  The ferry arrived into Sao Miguel port at midnight, and we grabbed a quick cab over to our AirBNB in Sao Roque for the night.

Final Thoughts

Santa Maria Island is a real treat!  We really enjoyed our two days there and wish we had a bit longer to explore.  Mantamaria offers some excellent SCUBA diving experiences, and the Bootla jeep safari will give you a great look at everything the island has to offer.  If you’ve got some extra time, check out some of Bootla’s other experiences… coasteering looks like a lot of fun!  I hope you enjoy your time on Santa Maria as much as we did.  Tell Henrique and Jorge that Jesse from Loophole Travel says “Hello!”  Cheers!