Horta on Faial: marina murals, Peter Café Sport and Porto Pim

Horta is Faial's harbour town and, for a short stay, the place to sleep. The ferries to Pico leave from its seafront, and Peter Café Sport, Porto Pim beach and the Monte da Guia walk are all within a half-hour walk of its 300-berth marina, where crews paint their boat's name on the quay wall. Quieter parts of the island make sense for a longer stay or when you have a car; the trade-offs are below.

Horta sits roughly in the middle of the North Atlantic, and yachts crossing between the Caribbean and Europe stop here to rest, make repairs and take on supplies. The municipality opened a 300-berth marina on 3 June 1986, and it has flown the Blue Flag since 1987 according to Visit Portugal. Regattas such as ARC Europe and Les Sables-Les Açores-Les Sables call here, and those are the weeks when the pontoons are fullest.

The town itself is modest. The urban centre has about 7,000 residents, and Horta was a stop on the Atlantic long before the yachts came: in 1893 the first submarine telegraph cable came ashore on the peninsula south of town, and it stayed in service until 1969, through both world wars.

Visit Portugal calls Horta the most colourful marina in the world, and a walk along the breakwater shows why. Almost every surface of the wall and the walkways is covered in small paintings left by visiting crews: the boat's name, the crew and the year of the visit.

The custom comes with a superstition. A crew that leaves Horta without painting its mark is supposed to be inviting trouble on the next passage. Nobody agrees on exactly when the habit started, but the stories point to the late 1960s or early 1970s.

• The paintings are along the marina's public walkways, so you can see them without a guide or a ticket.
• Look for the dates: the wall is a rough logbook of who crossed the Atlantic in which year.
• Give the crews room when they are painting; for them it is part of leaving.

Facing the marina is the sailors' bar. Henrique Azevedo opened Café Sport here in 1918, naming it after his love of football, rowing and billiards. The "Peter" came later. His son José got the nickname in the late 1930s from a British Royal Navy officer serving on HMS Lusitania II, who missed his own son and asked to call the boy Peter. The name stuck to the man and then to the bar.

For decades the café did far more than pour drinks. It held mail for yachts, changed money, passed messages between boats and posted weather information. The family is now in its fourth generation, and the Scrimshaw Museum in the same building, opened in 1986, holds a large collection of carved whale teeth and bone from the whaling years.

• Go in the evening if you want the sailors' atmosphere, and earlier in the day if you want a quiet table.
• Expect a crowd when a regatta is in port.

South of the town centre, a narrow neck of land runs out to two volcanic hills, Monte da Guia and Monte Queimado. Monte da Guia is a tuff cone from a submarine eruption about 11,000 years ago, and at 145 metres it looks down on the whole town. The white chapel of Nossa Senhora da Guia on its summit was completed in 1943. From the top you can see Porto Pim bay, Horta, and on a clear day Pico and São Jorge.

Porto Pim is the bay tucked behind that neck of land. It faces away from the prevailing swell, so the water is calmer than almost anywhere else on the island, and it is Horta's town beach, with dark sand, a lifeguard in season, showers and a café. It is about ten minutes on foot from the marina. The island's other beaches, from Almoxarife to the Varadouro pools, are compared in beaches on Faial.

At the back of the bay stands the old Porto Pim whaling station, now a museum. It reopened after restoration in October 2018 and keeps the original machinery used to process sperm whales, along with the 10-metre skeleton of a female sperm whale. Whale watching as it is done today, and the lookouts the whalers used, are in whale watching from Horta.

The easiest way to see all of this is the Entre Montes trail, PRC08FAI. It is a 3.4 km circuit that starts at the Porto Pim beach car park, takes about an hour and a half, and is graded easy. It passes the Lira viewpoint over the bay and the São Sebastião fort, the chapel, and the Monte Queimado summit that looks down on the marina.

Faial is small, but where you sleep decides whether you walk or drive every evening.

• Horta centre and the marina. The best base for a first visit or a stay without a car. You can walk to the ferry terminal on Avenida 25 de Abril, the restaurants and Peter Café Sport. The trade-off is that the beach is a walk away rather than outside the door, and the seafront avenue carries most of the town's traffic.
• The Porto Pim end of town. Still walkable to the centre, with the beach and Monte da Guia on your doorstep. Away from the seafront traffic, with fewer places to eat nearby.
• Praia do Almoxarife. A sand beach in a bay on the east coast, less than 3 km from Horta in a straight line. It suits a beach-first stay in summer. You will want a car, and dinner in town means driving back in.
• The west of the island, around Capelo and Castelo Branco. Closer to Capelinhos and to the airport, which is at Castelo Branco, 9.5 km south-west of the centre. It suits walkers who plan to spend their days on the Caldeira and Capelinhos and the western trails, but everything else becomes a drive, including dinner in town.

If you plan to cross to Pico more than once, stay in Horta. The ferry terminal is in town, and a room within walking distance saves you parking every morning. Crossing times and the seasonal lines are in ferries from Faial to Pico and São Jorge.

Spring and early summer are the eastbound season, when yachts cross from the Caribbean towards Europe and the wall gets its fresh paintings. The ARC Europe rally, for example, left the Caribbean on 9 May 2026 and reached the Azores at the end of the month. Outside that season the town is quieter, but the weather that shuts the Caldeira rim in cloud can also cancel the Pico ferry, so leave slack in a winter itinerary. Swim at Porto Pim in summer: lifeguards are on duty in the bathing season only.

Is Horta worth staying in, or should I base myself elsewhere on Faial?

For most visits, stay in Horta. It has the ferry terminal, the restaurants and most of the sights within walking distance. The west of the island makes sense for a walking holiday with a car.

Who paints the Horta marina wall?

The crews of visiting yachts, who paint their boat's name, crew and year before leaving. The superstition says a crew that skips it is asking for trouble on the next passage.

How far is Porto Pim beach from the marina?

About ten minutes on foot. The beach sits in the sheltered bay behind the neck of land that leads to Monte da Guia, and the Entre Montes trail starts from its car park.

Can you swim at Porto Pim?

Yes. It is Horta's town beach, and because the bay faces away from the prevailing swell the water is calmer than almost anywhere else on Faial. There are showers and a café, and a lifeguard in the bathing season only.

Why is it called Peter Café Sport?

Henrique Azevedo opened Café Sport in 1918. His son José was nicknamed Peter by a British Royal Navy officer in the late 1930s, and the name passed to the bar.