If you are wondering whether driving in the Azores is easy, the short answer is yes, and this guide is here to put any nerves to rest. São Miguel, the largest and most visited island, has good main roads, almost no traffic, no toll roads at all and famously courteous local drivers, which makes driving

The Nordeste scenic drive takes you to the wild, green far East of São Miguel, the oldest, least developed and most flower-filled corner of the island, where waterfalls tumble through fern valleys, manicured clifftop viewpoints hang over the Atlantic, and the roads are blissfully quiet. This is the part of the island most day-trippers rush

The North Coast Sao Miguel scenic drive is the island’s gentlest great day out: a run along the rugged northern shore taking in Europe’s oldest tea plantations, a thermal waterfall in a jungle of ferns, clifftop viewpoints over the Atlantic, and the handsome old surf town of Ribeira Grande. Where Sete Cidades and Lagoa do

The Lagoa do Fogo scenic drive takes you to the wild heart of São Miguel: a crater lake of turquoise and deep blue, ringed by 300-metre green walls, sitting alone in the centre of the island with no village, no cafe and no road around it, just the view. Rated the island’s top natural attraction,

The Furnas scenic drive is the one that gives you the Azores in concentrate: a volcanic valley where the ground steams, lunch is cooked underground, and you can soak in an iron-rich thermal pool under tree ferns, all in a single day from Ponta Delgada. Furnas sits 43km East of the capital, a 45-minute drive

The drive to Sete Cidades is the one every visitor to São Miguel comes for, and the one that needs a hire car more than any other. The twin crater lakes of Sete Cidades, one blue and one green, sit in a vast volcanic caldera in the West of the island, ringed by viewpoints that

Drive the classic Cotswolds villages loop, from Broadway and Chipping Campden to Bourton-on-the-Water and Bibury, with the best stops, pubs and tips for hiring a car.