Faial Active Holidays

Learn more - Faial island:

The sea and nautical sports are the main attractions of Faial for those who want holidays that are lived with intensity. Horta bay and the Faial-Pico channel are privileged areas for practising sailing, windsurfing and rowing. The indented coasts, the volcanic bottoms and the wealth of flora and fauna provide divers with hours of pleasure. But it is yachting that best defines its vocation as an island that lives for the sea.

Horta, on the route of the yachts. At the beginning - and only a few years ago - you could count them on the fingers of your hand and their arrival was an event. Now there are hundreds of yachts that make Horta their compulsory port of call for crossings of the Atlantic or the vertex of a triangle that ends on the coasts of America or Europe. Famous names in yachting such as Joshua Slocum, the first lone navigator to sail round the world, Tabarly. Sir Francis Chichester, Malinovsky and Fougeron have anchored their boats in the blue waters of the port on their historic voyages. And Horta has been the port of arrival or call for international regattas. A marina has expanded the capacity to receive and support the yachts that call at Horta, Thus consecrating the town's nautical and sporting tradition and consolidating its role as a sate and welcoming port on the North Atlantic.

Azores, The yachtsman's paradise. Horta is the ideal starting point for a dream cruise round the archipelago. To unravel its secrets, spend pleasant days in good company, appreciating the vast clear horizons shaded by the greenery and masses of flowers of the islands.

The myth of the paintings. No one knows how and when it started But one day, several years ago, a crew member of a sailing ship anchored at Horta decided that he should leave a souvenir of his stay there on the thick wall of the dock. The first painting was followed by others until now they take up the whole length of the wall. New ones are painted over old ones, and that irregular dark surface has been transformed into a colourful mosaic of drawings and words recalling the yachts that have called at Horta.
Meanwhile, a superstition has arisen. According to it, boats which, for one reason or another, have failed to leave a record of their presence have suffered accidents. Therefore every yachtsman picks up brushes and paint and sketches out drawings and words referring to his boat, true "works of art" of modern sailors.

The fish and the records. The triangle made up of the islands of Faial. Pico and São Jorge, with the respective channels, constitutes one of the richest big game fishing reserves of the Atlantic, a challenge to the skill of sports fishermen who want to break the European and world records already set in its waters. Combative, large-sized sharks, besides oceanic bonitos, pecos and tuna fish, are the most frequent catches.
Fishing from rocks and line fishing from boats make it possible to catch the species that are most abundant in the waters of the Azores: common sea bream, sword fish, barracuda, amberjack, oceanic bonito, bluefish bream, snapper bream, tuna, congerl, moray, Jack Grevale and mackeral, the area of Laginha, Castelo Branco, Costa Brava, Cedros, Almoxarife and Espalamaca.

Pico - the neighbouring island.

Only a few miles separate Faial from Pico. A distance that is overcome by speedy boats several times a day, with regular sailing from the port of Horta to the town of Madalena which lies opposite it. You can leave for Pico in the morning and come back in the evening.

The pleasure of walking. Faial does not have heights and scarps that present a challenge to the climber. But its lovely green landscape, cut by masses of hydrangeas, is an invitation to invigorating walks that offer the possibility of enjoying its charms, and discovering small treasures of beauty that can be found at the top of a hill or on the slopes of a valley.