Sete Cidades (Azores)

LakesAzores,Portugal

Two lakes side by side in one crater in Portugal's Azores, one mirror-blue and one deep green, with a rim path looking down on both.

September·Peaking now

Jun–Sep

The hydrangeas are fullest in late July and August. These are the driest, sunniest, warmest months, giving the best odds on the sharp blue-and-green contrast before midday cloud, and it is warm enough to swim from the marked zones.

Year-round The blue-and-green twin crater lakes and their rim viewpoints are here year-round, and they are clearest before the midday cloud comes in. Blue hydrangeas line the roads from June to September.

Sete Cidades is a crater five kilometres across on São Miguel, in the Azores, holding two lakes side by side — one blue, one green — with a village on the strip between them. They are the same body of water, joined under a low bridge. The green one is shallower and throws back the crater walls; the blue one is deeper and mirrors the sky. Before anyone explained it that way, the islands had a love story: a blue-eyed princess and a green-eyed shepherd, kept apart, who wept two lakes of tears. The colours belong to the morning. Cloud spills over the rim as the day goes on, often within three hours of sunrise, and both lakes flatten to the same grey. The rim walk starts at Vista do Rei, the king's view, with the village and the bridge where the two colours meet straight below you. The path climbs the crest to Boca do Inferno, where you get four lagoons: the two big ones and smaller ponds in side craters, the ocean on the other side. All of that rim is working pasture. Its dirt tracks run for kilometres between stands of cryptomeria and hydrangea hedges that flower blue from June into September, and stables in the parish take you along them at walking pace. Down in the village the ground drops to the water in a few metres, and a flat path follows the shore past the canoe landing and cattle grazing to the edge. This is the one place in the caldera where you look up at the rim instead of down from it, and from a kayak the viewpoints shrink to notches on the skyline. One building was put up to sell all this. The Monte Palace, the first five-star hotel in the Azores, opened on the rim in 1989 and shut eighteen months later, the same week it was named the best hotel in Portugal. Its gutted shell still stands behind the railing at Vista do Rei, facing the view.

Worth knowing

Good to know

The colours hold only until the caldera clouds up — that is usually within three hours of sunrise in summer, and an overcast morning flattens both lakes to the same grey.
The hydrangea hedges run blue from June into September — late July and August are the fullest, with the heads still greening in June and browning off by late September.
Swim only from the marked zones — the lake is warm enough in high summer, but stretches can turn murky with algae, so choose a spot the signs point to.

Things to do

1
Walk the rim from Vista do Rei to Boca do Inferno
Vista do Rei looks straight down on the village and the low bridge where the two colours meet, with the gutted shell of the Monte Palace hotel standing behind its railing. Keep going along the rim and the ground climbs to Boca do Inferno, where four lagoons come into view at once — the two big ones and the smaller ponds held in side craters. Go early, before cloud rolls up the caldera and swallows both.
2
Ride the pasture tracks on the caldera rim
The caldera rim is working pasture, and the dirt tracks that serve it run for kilometres between cryptomeria stands and hydrangea hedges. Stables in the parish take riders out along them at walking pace, and the twin lakes drop in and out of view as the track swings through the trees.
3
Walk down to the lakeshore in the village
From the village street the ground drops to the water in a few metres, and a flat path runs the shore past the canoe landing, reeds, and fields where cattle graze right down to the edge. This is the one place in the caldera where you look up at the rim instead of down from it.
4
Paddle across the green lake
Rent a kayak or canoe by the village and push out onto Lagoa Verde, the caldera walls rising green all around you. Look up from water level and the rim viewpoints shrink to small notches on the skyline.