Azores Diving

Picture a velvety-green Hawaiian island rising straight from the vast and empty surrounding sea. Now perch a quaint northern Italian hill town right on top — Renaissance glories intact — and there you pretty much have Angra do Heroísmo, a 15th-century Portuguese town (and UNESCO World Heritage Site) on the island of Terceira, one of the nine islands that make up the Portuguese territory of the Azores.

Virtually unknown to Americans, the Azores — Corvo, Faial, Flores, Graciosa, Pico, São Jorge, São Miguel, Santa Maria and Terceira — and its more than 100 named dive sites are virtually unknown to European divers too. An important way station at the dawn of the golden age of navigation, the Azores today reveal their historic past above and below the waves; topside also offers many rewards for adventurous travelers, who have unlimited ways to work up an appetite for the varied local cuisine.

On the island of Graciosa — one of the five islands that make up the Azores’ so-called Central Group — dive tourism from North America is new, so expect an adventure on this completely unspoiled, lush, temperate island that is home to about 5,000 residents. At the renovated 100-year-old stone inn Casa das Faias, you’ll find warm hospitality, and the rustic Gracipescas dive shop (gracipescas.com) right out back — but there’s nothing rustic about its brand-new high-tech RIB, which also is used for whale watching, a signature activity in the Azores.

Accommodations elsewhere run from B&Bs in picturesque windmills to the new Graciosa Resort & Business Hotel (graciosahotel.com) — the island’s only American-style hotel — which offers 44 rooms, two suites and six villas plus a restaurant, bar, pool, gym and more. Dine as locals do at the Green Light, where heaping platters of local beef and seafood are served family style, and at Apolo 80, near Nautigraciosa dive shop, where the lunch buffet can include an amazing octopus stew. Do not leave these islands without checking out Azorean wine, a fantastic value for the modest price.

Après-dive, Graciosa’s restored historic thermal baths — the Termas do Carapacho — are now a high-tech spa managed by the Graciosa Resort & Business Hotel; relax in style with a water massage, in the spa’s chill lounges or in the swimming-pool-size mineral bath. Or experience a different sort of submersion as you descend 100 meters into an extinct volcano at Furna do Enxôfre, for a scene right out of The Lord of the Rings.

On the more-populous island of Terceira, you can dive the growing underwater archaeological park and many other sites around the island. At fisherman’s haunt Beira Mar, just outside of Angra, experience a typical Portuguese meal of seafood, beer and hours of friendly, boisterous conversation. Terceira offers nightlife and restaurants at the newly redeveloped waterfront in the town of Praia da Vitoria, on the island’s eastern side; or dance till dawn at cliff-side Copos & Companhia, a restaurant that turns into a nightclub after 10 p.m. Daytime highlights on Terceira include hiking — popular throughout the Azores — the Algar do Carvao volcanic formation and the lava tubes of the Gruta do Natal, a cave system named for the Christmas Eve services once held there. Spend your last few hours here just strolling the black-cobblestoned streets of Angra, where it’s easy to believe you’ve traveled straight back in time.

GRACIOSA AND TERCEIRA DIVES NOT TO MISS:
Terceirense (Graciosa): Attractions in these crystal-clear waters include the Terceirense wreck not far out of Santa Cruz harbor; get there with Nautigraciosa (divingraciosa.com). The wreck, which is split in two, is guarded by enormous purple conger eel; it’s also a good place to spot the lovely local dusky grouper, called meros here, along with amberjack, bream and wrasse.

Lidador and Anchor Graveyard (Terceira): Angra do Heroísmo was an important stop for sailors; today its ancient harbor shelters pleasure craft and divers who want to experience the shallow 19th-century wreck of the Lidador, part of Terceira’s underwater archaeological park. The developing park includes a deeper “anchor graveyard,” where divers of all levels can thrill to more than 40 enormous anchors of all description, many amazingly intact, and imagine the tall ships they once were attached to, exactly where you fin today among schools of Atlantic barracuda, stingrays and slipper lobster. Access the wreck and graveyard with PADI Five-Star Arraia Divers (arraiadivers.com) — a modern, American-style dive shop located in the Hotel do Caracol, and the Azores’ only PADI shop.

Octopus Reef (Praia da Vitoria): Let the outstanding Octopus Diving Center (octopusportugal.com) show you its namesake reef, where you’ll dive under a sheer volcanic cliff wall through a tumbled stone landscape that looks like it was cut by giant hands.