A Full Day in Furnas: Hot Springs, Volcanic Stew and Gorreana Tea

The Furnas valley is where you understand that São Miguel sits on an active volcano — and where that fact, rather than being alarming, produces hot baths and a very unusual lunch.

You begin with a stop in Vila Franca do Campo, the island's first capital, then head for the Terra Nostra botanical garden. There you will find a park of plants from across the world and the famous rust-coloured thermal pool, rich in minerals, which you enter slowly and leave reluctantly.

At midday you watch something that happens nowhere else: the cozido das Furnas being lifted out of the caldeiras, where it has cooked for hours buried in volcanic soil. Then you eat it at a local restaurant.

The afternoon is a walk through the village among steaming fumaroles, a taste of the naturally sparkling Água Azeda, and a return by way of the Pico do Ferro viewpoint and the Gorreana tea factory — the oldest still working in Europe.