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Madeira’s Sister Island of Porto Santo

Porto Santo is a small island discovered by Portuguese navigators in 1418. It was the first of many islands to be discovered by Portugal’s maritime power during the 15th and 16th centuries.  The island is located 29 miles northeast of Madeira Island, the larger of the...
Azores Shopping Ponta Delgada Stores

Shopping in the Middle of the Atlantic Ocean

A quick 90-minute flight out of Lisbon is all the time it takes to get to Europe’s westernmost island destination. The Azores Islands, an autonomous archipelago of nine islands that belong to Portugal, are home to just over 240,000 residents. These nine islands have been...

The Da Câmara family of Madeira and the Azores

Joao Gonçalves Zarco was a knight in Prince Henry the Navigator’s court, during the Portuguese “Age of Exploration” in the early 1400’s. Joao Zarco led the first fleet to discover uninhabited lands in Europe, fueling the exploration age that spread through...

The Sweet Secret to Pineapples in the Azores

On the Azores islands, located in the mid-Atlantic ocean, one of Europe’s only regions produces the exotic, aggregate fruit known as the pineapple. On the island of Sao Miguel, which in Portugal is referred to as Ilha Verde, ‘the green island’ is home to the...

Surfing on the Volcanic Island of Sao Miguel in the Azores

The nine islands located in the Mid-Atlantic ocean about 850 miles west of Portugal (Europe’s westernmost region) is the autonomous region known as the Azores. The Azores are one of Europe’s unspoiled and low-key surfing hot spots recently rediscovered as an ideal...