Where to swim on an island with almost no sand: imported beaches, black pebbles, lava pools and municipal lidos.
The Azores are volcanic islands, so the coast is cliffs and boulders rather than sand. What they have instead is three different kinds of swimming place, and knowing which is which decides the afternoon: bays of black volcanic sand, natural pools that the Atlantic fills and refreshes, and built lidos with ladders into the open sea. A coast facing the swell closes often; the sheltered side of the same island is calm on the same day.
José Luís Ávila Silveira/Pedro Noronha e Costa · Public domain
Praia do Porto Pim
Horta
SandBlue Flag
Horta's sheltered town beach, in the old bay behind the isthmus.
Porto Pim is the bay on the far side of the neck of land that Horta is built across, closed by the Monte da Guia at one end and the São Sebastião fort at the other. The sand is dark and the water is as flat as anywhere in the Azores, because the bay faces away from every prevailing swell. The old whale factory at the back is now a museum.
Worth knowing: Ten minutes' walk from the marina, which makes it the swim for anyone off a boat; the PRC08FAI circuit starts from the same car park.
The small beach immediately north of the Horta ferry terminal.
A short strip of dark sand and rock in front of the Conceição parish, between the passenger terminal and the sea wall, with the promenade and the town directly behind. It is the most convenient swim on the island and the least remarkable, and it is where Horta itself goes on a weekday.
Worth knowing: Two minutes from the ferry terminal — the beach to use when the crossing to Pico is late, which it sometimes is.
Bathing platforms on the south coast, under the trachyte dome of the Morro.
The bathing area sits beside the Morro de Castelo Branco, the pale dome that forms the peninsula the PRC05FAI circuit walks out to and a seabird reserve in its own right. Swimming is off concrete terraces and ladders into deep water, with a bar and a slipway; the dome shelters it from a westerly.
Worth knowing: Look up rather than out: the Morro's cliffs are a breeding site for Cory's shearwater and the birds come in at dusk.
Black sand on the east coast with Pico filling the view across the channel.
Almoxarife is the island's proper beach: a long stretch of dark sand ten minutes north of Horta, with a campsite, a bar and the mountain of Pico directly opposite, which is the reason people come at six in the evening rather than at noon. It is open to the channel, so it gets chop when the wind is easterly.
Worth knowing: The view is the point and it is best in the late afternoon, when the light is behind you and the mountain is usually clear of its own cloud.
A small harbour bathing area on the east coast, at the foot of the Pedro Miguel graben.
Steps and a platform into deep water beside the little port of Pedro Miguel, recently rebuilt by the municipality. There is no bar and no lifeguard; what there is is Pico straight across the channel and almost nobody else. The graben above it is one of the archipelago's principal geosites and the PR07FAI route climbs it.
Worth knowing: Unpatrolled and deep from the steps. It is the quiet alternative to Almoxarife, five minutes further north on the same road.
Walled sea pools on the west of the island, below the old spa at Varadouro.
Varadouro's pools are cut into the lava at the foot of the Capelo peninsula, with decks, ladders and a bar above. The village grew as a summer resort around the thermal spring here, and the whaling station at the end of the shore is where the PR10FAI trail finishes. It is the furthest bathing area from Horta and worth the half hour.
Worth knowing: Combine it with Capelinhos, twenty minutes north along the same coast — the two together are the island's west-side day.
Facilities and lifeguard cover follow the municipal bathing season, which runs roughly from May to October and varies by council. A red flag is a closure, not a warning: it means the sea is beyond what the lifeguards can cover.
