Furnas with Eight People: Stew Cooked in the Ground for Seven Hours

A full day in Furnas, the volcanic valley on the east side of São Miguel, with a local guide and no more than eight people in the group. The cozido is the reason many people book it. The stew is buried in holes dug into volcanic soil and cooked by the ground itself for six to seven hours. If you took the lunch option, that is what you eat. Vegetarian and vegan versions are cooked the same way, underground, which is not something most operators arrange. Gorreana comes earlier in the day: a tea factory and plantation producing one of the last fully natural teas left in the world, with a tasting and the rows of tea running down the valley. Ribeira dos Caldeirões was a valley of watermills and is now a natural park, with waterfalls through it and a craft shop selling dolls made from corn leaves by a method that predates all of this. In Furnas itself, the ground steams. Hot springs and fumaroles come up through the village, and several mineral waters can be tasted, each one different from the next. At Furnas Lake, the neo-Gothic chapel of Nossa Senhora das Vitórias stands with wooden sculptures around the shore. The volcanic park where the cozido is buried can be visited as an option, with a €3 entrance fee that is not included. Cancel at least 24 hours before departure for a full refund.