Furnas Tours: Cozido, Hot Springs and Fumaroles
A caldera with thirty springs in it, lunch cooked six hours underground, and the last eruption on São Miguel.
Furnas is a village inside a volcano that is still warm. The caldera is four and a half kilometres by three and a half, around thirty springs come up through the floor of it, and the ground beside the lake is hot enough to cook in, which is what the village has done with it for two centuries. It is also the only part of São Miguel with a historic eruption: 1630, roughly two hundred dead. Nothing here depends on the weather, which makes it the day you keep for when the forecast is bad.
What follows is the operational half: the hour that decides whether you watch the cozido come out of the ground or only eat it, the difference between the two thermal baths, what each of them costs on its own gate, and which of the twelve products is built around which. The island as a whole, the drive from Ponta Delgada and the choice between a hire car and a guide are on the São Miguel page above.
Cruise Stopover on São Miguel: Sete Cidades, Gorreana Tea, Furnas
Built to fit a ship's stopover in five and a half hours, with pick-up inside the Ponta Delgada terminal hall. Gorreana tea and the sulphur steam at Furnas.
East São Miguel by Electric Van, Eight Seats, Furnas Lunch
An electric van and eight seats, with a traditional Furnas lunch included and a choice between the geothermal fields and the Terra Nostra thermal pool.
Furnas After Dark: the Poça da Dona Beija Baths and a Cozido Dinner
An evening in Furnas: bathing in the hot springs at Poça da Dona Beija, the cozido cooked in the steam of the caldeiras, and a guided walk as well.
Furnas at Night with Ivo: Dinner, the Baths and the Fumaroles
An evening run to Furnas with a local guide: the cozido cooked six hours underground, the 39°C baths at Poça da Dona Beija, and the fumaroles lit at night.
Furnas by 4x4: the Cozido Pits, Terra Nostra and Gorreana Tea
The cozido cooks six or seven hours in holes heated by the volcano, and Chá Gorreana is the oldest tea plantation left in Europe. Two entries not included.
Furnas by Jeep on the Back Roads, with the Cozido and Drinks
A jeep on the secondary roads to Furnas, with the cozido cooked six hours in the hot springs, wine and beer included, and Dona Beija or Terra Nostra after.
Furnas by Private Car: Terra Nostra or the Poça da Dona Beija
Choose Terra Nostra or the Poça da Dona Beija, which needs booking online in advance, with the Pico do Ferro, Santa Iria and the Gorreana tea factory too.
Furnas Day Tour from Ponta Delgada: Gorreana Tea, Hot Springs and the Vila Franca Islet
Pick-ups from 8:45, a free tasting at Europe's oldest tea plantation, hot springs at Terra Nostra and meat cooked underground in the Furnas caldeiras.
Furnas in a Day: Cozido from a Metre Down, and Pico do Ferro
Lunch is the cozido itself, lifted out of holes a metre deep by the lake, with the 1764 chapel above Vila Franca, Pico do Ferro and a tea factory after.
Furnas Shore Excursion, with the Cooking Pits and the Tea Plantation
The cozido lifted out of the ground, the boilers and fumaroles of the Furnas valley, and a tea plantation. Terra Nostra is optional and not included.
Furnas with Eight People: Stew Cooked in the Ground for Seven Hours
Eight people at most, and the cozido buried in volcanic ground for six to seven hours comes in a vegan version cooked the same way underground.
The Furnas Stew, Gorreana Tea and the Chapel Above Vila Franca
The stew comes out of the ground at Lagoa das Furnas and is eaten at a restaurant, with Europe's oldest tea plantation and Terra Nostra either side of it.
Ratings collected by Viator and Tripadvisor
The cozido, and the hour nobody publishes
Cozido das Furnas is beef, pork, chicken, blood sausage, cabbage, carrot, potato and yam packed into a metal pot, lowered into a hole in the ground at the edge of Lagoa das Furnas, covered over and left for about six hours in soil heated from below. Every restaurant in the village has its own numbered hole. The holes are in a fenced field by the lake, a couple of kilometres from where you will eat, and that separation is the entire point of this section.
The pots come out of the ground between 11:30 and 12:30. If you are sitting at the restaurant table when that happens you have bought the lunch and missed the thing worth travelling for: men with hooks and heavy gloves hauling steaming pots out of a field of numbered plots, in ground that smells of sulphur. Almost every tour on this page stops at the caldeiras during the morning. Not one of the twelve listings states what time.
So if the cozido is the reason you are coming, ask the operator one question before you book, and ask it in writing: what time are we at the caldeiras. Before eleven and you get the steam, the plots and no pots. After half past twelve and the pots are already on the table. The window is an hour wide and it is the difference between a lunch and a thing you remember.
Booked directly at a village restaurant the cozido runs 15 to 25 EUR and wants at least twenty-four hours' notice, because the pot has to be buried before dawn to be ready by noon. Bought inside a tour it disappears into an 80 to 90 EUR day, which is fair value but hides the fact that you are paying about 20 EUR for lunch and 60 for the transport and the guide.
Two thermal baths, and they are not interchangeable
Terra Nostra is a garden with a pool in the middle of it. The park has been laid out since 1775, covers twelve hectares, holds more than six hundred camellias, and the pool is a wide brown circle at about 37 °C. Adult entry is 17 EUR and the gate runs 10:30 to 16:30. The water is iron-bearing and it stains swimwear permanently. The park does not hide this and most visitors read it afterwards anyway.
Poça da Dona Beija is the other one, and it is a different proposition: a set of small stone pools in the village at about 39 °C, open late, last entry 21:30, everyone out of the water by 22:30, tickets sold online only. It is warmer, smaller and much better after dark. Both evening products on this page are built around it, which is why they all end at roughly the same hour.
Neither entrance fee is included in most of these tours. One operator states the position exactly: it has reserved your Dona Beija ticket for you, and the ticket is not in the price.
| Parque Terra Nostra | Poça da Dona Beija | |
|---|---|---|
| Water temperature | About 37 °C | About 39 °C |
| What it is | One wide pool inside a 12-hectare botanical garden | Several small stone pools in the village |
| Adult entry | 17 EUR | Online only, sold on its own site |
| Hours | 10:30 to 16:30 | Last entry 21:30, out of the water by 22:30 |
| Swimwear | Iron-bearing water, stains permanently | Take the same dark costume |
| Best for | An afternoon, with the garden and the camellias | After dark, after the cozido |
| Included in the tours here | Rarely | Rarely |
The valley itself
The Furnas caldera collapsed about thirty-five thousand years ago and measures four and a half kilometres by three and a half. Around thirty springs rise inside it and no two are alike: some are bottled and sold, some sit at boiling point behind a fence, some are mud. The village is built among them, which is why gardens in Furnas steam in the morning.
This is also the only part of São Miguel with an eruption in the historical record. Furnas erupted in 1630 and killed around two hundred people, on an island that had been settled for less than two centuries. Nothing on São Miguel has erupted since.
Lagoa das Furnas lies at 359 metres at the western end of the valley with the caldeiras along its northern shore, and above it Pico do Ferro is the viewpoint every tour stops at. It is the one place you can see the whole caldera at once, and it takes about five minutes, so nobody sells it separately.
Day tour or evening tour
The twelve products split cleanly. Nine are day tours that reach Furnas as part of an eastern loop, usually with the Gorreana tea plantation, the Nordeste coast or a waterfall attached. Three are evening tours built around the baths.
The evening ones are what people talk about afterwards. Furnas after dark is a village with steam coming out of the gardens and almost nobody in the street, and both of the evening products pair the cozido as dinner with an hour in Dona Beija at 39 °C. Six hours, 79.90 to 90 EUR. They are the only things here that put you in the water at the hour the water is best.
The day tours have the opposite advantage, and it is the one from the top of this page: they are the only ones that can get you to the caldeiras while the pots are still in the ground.
| Type of day | Price | How long | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern small group: Furnas, Nordeste and lunch | 85 EUR | 8 hours | 5.0 across 1,296 reviews |
| Furnas with the tea plantation and a waterfall | 65 to 80 EUR | Full day | 4.7 to 4.8 |
| Full-day jeep with the cozido included | 90 EUR | 8 hours | 5.0 |
| Evening: thermal baths and the cozido as dinner | 79.90 to 90 EUR | 6 hours | 4.8 to 5.0 |
| Cruise shore excursion | 79 to 98 EUR | 5 to 6 hours | 4.5 to 4.6 |
| Private guided day with the thermal baths | 90 EUR | Full day | 4.9 |
| Private full-day 4x4 | 285 EUR | Full day | 5.0 |
Towels, flip-flops and a dark swimming suit due the iron origin of the thermal waters or alternatively a old one are recommended for the hot springs baths.
The things that are not in the listing
Furnas is the Azorean day with the most hidden costs on it, and none of them are large on their own.
Park and pool entrances are excluded almost everywhere. Terra Nostra is 17 EUR, Dona Beija is separate again, and one operator simply lists "Park Entrance fees" under what is not included. Budget 20 to 30 EUR per person on top of a full day.
Lockers and hot showers are rented at the springs. One operator lists both as optional extras rather than inclusions. Take the shower: you have just been in iron water and you are getting back into a vehicle.
Towels are yours. Dona Beija has suspended its towel hire, and no tour on this page provides one.
The cozido is not vegetarian, and the alternative has to be ordered in advance. Two operators ask for vegetarian requests at the time of booking, and one shows a vegetarian version cooked the same way in its own photographs. It exists. It does not exist if you ask for it on the day.
One more, which is not a cost. Furnas is the only volcanic site on São Miguel that works in rain. The fumaroles steam harder when it is cold, the pools are outdoors and hot either way, and the cozido is underground. Keep this valley for the worst-looking day of your trip and put the crater lakes on the best one.
Questions people actually ask
What exactly is cozido das Furnas?
A stew of beef, pork, chicken, blood sausage and vegetables sealed in a metal pot, buried in volcanic soil at the edge of Lagoa das Furnas and cooked for about six hours by the ground itself. No fire, no oven. Each village restaurant has a numbered hole in the same fenced field. Booked directly it costs 15 to 25 EUR and needs at least a day's notice; inside a tour it is folded into an 80 to 90 EUR day.
Can you watch the pots being dug up?
Yes, and it is the best part, but only if you are at the caldeiras between 11:30 and 12:30. That is when the pots come out. The field is open and free to walk into, so a hire car does this easily; on a tour it depends entirely on the running order, and no listing on this page states the time. Ask the operator directly before you book. It is a one-hour window and nobody will move it for you.
Terra Nostra or Poça da Dona Beija?
Terra Nostra if you want an afternoon: 17 EUR, one large pool at about 37 °C inside a twelve-hectare garden with more than six hundred camellias, open 10:30 to 16:30. Dona Beija if you want the evening: smaller stone pools at about 39 °C, tickets online only, last entry 21:30. Doing both in a day is possible and the evening tours are built around the second one.
Does the thermal water really ruin your swimsuit?
Yes, at Terra Nostra. The water is iron-bearing and brown, and the stain is permanent rather than a wash-out. This is not folklore: one of the tour operators here puts it in its own pre-departure notes and tells guests to bring a dark costume or an old one. Take an old dark swimsuit, flip-flops and your own towel, and do not wear anything white into the water.
Is Furnas worth doing in the rain?
It is the one place on São Miguel that is. Everything here is either underground, outdoors and hot, or steaming harder because the air is cold. The crater-lake viewpoints in the west of the island are 650 to 950 metres up and fail whenever the cloud is below them; Furnas sits at around 300 metres in a valley and does not care. If you have one bad-weather day, this is where it goes.
How much does a day in Furnas cost?
65 to 98 EUR for a shared full day with lunch, 79.90 to 90 for one of the evening tours with the cozido as dinner and an hour in the hot springs, and 285 for a private 4x4. Then add the entrances: Terra Nostra at 17 EUR, Dona Beija separately, and lockers or a hot shower at the pools. A realistic total for a full day with both baths is around 110 to 130 EUR per person.
Can I do Furnas without a tour?
Easily, with a car. Furnas is about an hour from Ponta Delgada, the caldeiras field and Pico do Ferro are free, Terra Nostra and Dona Beija sell their own tickets, and the restaurants take cozido bookings directly with a day's notice. What you lose is the tea plantation, the Nordeste coast and the second driver on an evening that involves wine. What you gain is being at the caldeiras at 11:30.
Data verified on. Prices, ratings and inclusions read from the twelve Furnas products here. Bath temperatures, hours and fees as published by Terra Nostra and Poça da Dona Beija; 1630 eruption from the record.