Azores? The first thing most people ask is “where?”  We didn’t know until a few years ago!  The Azores are a group of volcanic islands 1000 miles off the coast of Portugal ~ almost due west of Lisbon.  These lovely, tropical islands have great mountain biking, hiking and horseback riding.  We went to the island of São Miguel for a week of exploring ~ ladies by horses and men riding mechanical horses! 😉  We cannot imagine a better way to explore  the Azores.   We added in a day of whale watching on the Atlantic which was another lovely way to see the islands (and also plenty of whales and spinner dolphins).  One of the nicer takeaways from the Azores (and Portugal in general) was that they didn’t feel overrun by tourists and we were there in the busiest month, August.