Best time to visit the Azores

The Azores are simply fantastic islands, but I would be lying if I told you that they are fantastic to visit at any time of year. Being a nature destination par excellence, we need to be very careful when choosing when to visit the Azores, because we risk staying locked inside the hotel all day.

That’s why I wrote this guide about the best time to visit the Azores; so you can plan your trip to make the most of it. Enjoy it!

How is the weather like in the Azores throughout the year?

Before I let you know the best times to visit the Azores, I am going to share with you how is the weather like in the Atlantic islands. After all, you are probably heading there hoping for some perfect beach days and idyllic hiking conditions.

Therefore, I am going to talk about these weather factors: temperature, likelihood of rainy, likelihood of cloudy days (veeeeery important!) and wind speed (equally important but so often neglected by unexperienced tourists).

Average temperature in the Azores

(Average) highest and lowest monthly temperatures in the Azores

In the Azores islands it never gets suuuuper warm during the summer months nor suuuuper cold during the winter months. This means that, based on temperatures alone, it would be perfectly fine to visit the Azores all throughout the year. However, you can see on the graph above that the temperatures reach their high peak in the month of August.

Cloudy and Rainy days

If you are a hiker you need to pay particular attention to the weather outdoors. After all, it is not mainly the temperatures that will affect your ability to walk, but mostly the likelihood of cloudy and rainy days that will affect your ability to see. Therefore, I find it particularly important to share these two graphs with you, that depict the average amount of days with clear sky and rainy days in the Azores islands:

Likelihood of days with clear sky in the Azores islands

Likelihood of rainy days in the Azores islands

If there is one thing that really affected one of my stays in the Azores islands, during the winter, was the fact that we couldn’t see shit during the days – it was always either raining, or completely foggy, or both. Therefore, if you are looking for perfectly clear days to go hiking, I recommend you to visit the Azores islands during the months of June to August (May and September are also good days but a bit more risky).

Wind speed in the Azores

Another consideration that usually people don’t take into account is the wind speed. My dear, I can’t count the days when I had to stay indoors because the wind speed was too high for it to be safe to be outdoors hiking. So, if you’re a hiker like me, you should take that into consideration when deciding when is the best time to go to the Azores islands. And, according to the graph below, the safest months when it comes to wind speed are, once more, between May and September.

However… are the weather conditions the only factors to take into consideration when deciding when is the best time to visit the Azores? Of course not! Keep on reading to find out the answer to your burning question.

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When is the best time to visit the Azores?

May

May is a fantastic time to visit the Azores especially for animal lovers because it is the time of the year when whales start migrating for colder waters, and hence you get the AMAZING chance to witness these gentle giants on their way. 

Practically on all the Azores islands there are companies to take you to watch migrating whales, but the islands par excellence for this type of maritime activities are Pico island and Faial island.

So, if you want to do a once-in-a-lifetime activity, I highly recommend that you book your whale watching expedition in Faial island or your whale watching expedition in Pico island now, because you won’t regret it.

Furthermore, in May the Espírito Santo festivities take place on the triangle islands of (Pico, Faial and São Jorge). These are magnificent religious festivities, with processions, collective meals taking place on the street, huge carpets of flowers covering the ground, altars decorated in a beautiful way… in short, it is a time of year when the population of the three islands galvanizes to celebrate the divine. 

I personally think it is a very beautiful time to visit the triangle islands, but I recognize that there are some added difficulties: it is practically impossible to find accommodation or a car (so I recommend that you rent your car in the Azores as soon as possible!), the streets are always full of people, the restaurants are crowded; indeed, there are immense logistical problems associated with the Espírito Santo festivities, so I only recommend that you visit the islands of Faial, Pico and São Jorge in May if you are a patient person and who really like to party.

July, August and September

If your goal when visiting the Azores islands is, ultimately, to make the most of the best beaches in the Azores and natural pools, then I highly recommend that you schedule your trip in the months of July and August. September and June are also good months to enjoy the summer areas, however the weather can still be a little unstable.

In the Azores, what is truly beautiful is not just (or even mainly) the beaches, but rather the rock formations that have given rise to countless beautiful natural pools, such as the Abyss on Terceira island or Ponta da Ferraria on São Miguel island. Diving in the sea, in these areas, is an experience that touches the divine.

However, I must warn you that the Azorean islands are FULL of people in summer, because it is the time when most of their thousands and thousands of emigrants return home, and what’s more, it coincides with school holidays. Therefore, I only recommend that you go to the Azores at this time of year if you don’t mind crowds and what they imply (difficulty in renting cars, very few parking spaces available, sold out activities, crowded restaurants, etc.). Yes, it takes a good deal of patience and flexibility to vacation in the Azores in the summer.

October 

October is an interesting time to visit the Azores because, although the weather is unstable, summer has already passed and the hordes of tourists (many of them Portuguese) who invade the Azorean islands in the summer have already returned home.

It’s a beautiful time, because even though it’s no longer hot enough to enjoy the bathing areas, it’s still incredible weather to go hiking and take fantastic photos at the best viewpoints.

Tourist sites will still have a lot of people, but if you are smart and use my articles to plan your vacation, you will be able to enjoy most of the islands in peace and quiet, away from tourists.

It is also this time of year that a fantastic jazz festival takes place. It’s called Angra Jazz and takes place on the island of Terceira, generally during the 5th of October holiday (the day of the implementation of the Portuguese republic). It’s really worth it and attracts jazz lovers from all over the world.

Is it worth it to visit the Azores during winter?

My very, very honest answer is: No! I took my third trip to the Azores from October to February and at first (in October and November) it was fantastic because I was very lucky with the weather, as it was sunny during most days and the islands weren’t overwhelmed with hordes of tourists. I was able to enjoy cheap flights, empty hot baths and some of the best hikes in the island of São Miguel. 

However, as winter progressed the weather gradually turned to shit; in the Azores islands it never really gets cold, but it does rain a lot, there is a lot of fog and there are plenty of days when the wind is so strong that it is simply dangerous to venture outside the hotel. I mean it; I never witnessed such a strong wind in my life.

Moreover, you need to keep in mind that the Azores is a nature destination, meaning that there are few things to do indoors. Yes, the food is great and there are a couple of museums and shops, but the truth is that the cultural offer is very low on all the Azores islands, São Miguel included. Hiking at this time of year is difficult, because everything is full of mud and visibility is low on most days (not to mention the danger of hiking in extreme winds).

So, when the weather was bad I ended up being confined to my accommodation for most of the day, which wasn’t much fun, and which is quite lonely for solo travelers.

Therefore, with great regret, I do not recommend that you visit the Azores during the winter because the risk of not being able to enjoy the natural beauty that the islands have to offer is very high. You may try your luck in October and November, but skip the islands entirely in December, January and February.