Tiger's Azorean Get-Together
8 days · 1 Table · Golden Mermaid Villa · São Miguel · 3rd Week of May
Every one of you has told me you'd come and visit. I believe you meant it. I also know exactly how someday works.
So I've stopped waiting for someday and put a date on it.
For twenty years I was in pirates. Then, in my sixties, I crossed the Atlantic and took on a nine-bedroom house on the north coast of a volcano in the middle of it. There's a garden, a sauna, a hot tub, and nine bedrooms named after things I'll explain when you're sitting in one of them.
May 15th to 22nd, 2027, I'm filling it with you.
Eight days. One table. Every meal, every ticket, every mile of driving and me, for all of it. There are two ways to do the week and you can swap between them any morning you like.
That's the whole thing. Now come.
Two ways to spend the same week
One is slow and relaxing. The other is physical and adventurous. Same house, same table, same places, same evenings — the only thing that differs is two or three hours in the middle of the day.
Your Choice!
Take it easy
Take it on
Sat · May 15 · Arrival
Sleep, genuinely, you've flown overnight
An hour on the bikes at 3pm, if you'd rather not nap.
Sun · May 16 · The half day
The morning is yours
There's also a van into town to the sporting-goods shop for anything forgotten; water shoes with grip are the usual culprit, and this afternoon is where they earn it. Lunch out west at Oh Solo Mio, Ginetes.
Then FERRARIA, on the tide's schedule rather than mine. It is the far western tip of the island, where hot volcanic springs come up through the rock straight into the open Atlantic. You swim in the seam where the two meet — there is a ladder and a rope, and the water goes from hot to cold in the length of your own body. The sea only lets you in for the couple of hours around low water; the rest of the day the swell owns it. That is the one thing this week bends around.
Then Porta do Diabo — the Devil's Door, where the Atlantic drives into a gap in the cliff and comes back out as an explosion. On to Mosteiros and the four islets for photographs. Home for paella, then mahjong and a game night.
One short climb, and only if you want it
Come on the shop run. Water shoes with grip you will use all week: Ferraria today, the islet kayak tomorrow, the gorge on Tuesday. The guides supply wetsuits, helmets and harnesses; they do not supply your feet.
Then west with everyone for the hot-and-cold swim at low water. The difference is how you reach it: park at the upper car park and walk down the lava road to the lower one — switchbacks, the whole western cliff face, the lighthouse above you the entire way. Then back up at the end of the afternoon, which is the half you will feel. Twenty minutes down, rather more coming up, and the van takes anyone who'd rather ride. Porta do Diabo, Mosteiros and the islets after, then paella at home.
Mon · May 17 · Vila Franca Whale Watching
Three hours on the open Atlantic
Queijadas do Morgado for breakfast on the way out. The 08:30 boat circles the drowned crater offshore — a perfect ring of rock with the sea inside it. Lunch at the Black Whale in Vila Franca. Then everybody climbs the hundred steps to Nossa Senhora da Paz: ten landings, blue tiles, and you look down on the islet you were floating in that morning. The Lima & Quental liqueur factory after it. Steak at Casa do Abel in Caloura for dinner, and a stop at Pingo Doce on the way home for the week's picnic food.
Kayak out to the islet
Everyone back together for lunch at the Black Whale, then the hundred steps up to the chapel — ten landings, blue tiles, and nobody drives up — and the liqueur factory after. Casa do Abel for steak.
Tue · May 18 · The river and the tea
The river park on foot
Picnic at the Parque de Merendas dos Liberais. Then Gorreana and Porto Formoso — the only tea grown in Europe, and you walk straight into the factory — with the big shop at Continente on the way home. Dinner is ours tonight: the family cooks. And after dark, LED spinning in the garden — glowing poi on cords, swung in circles around the body until the patterns appear. No flame, nothing to burn, and everybody has a go.
Canyoning, which means going down a river, the hard way
Picnic with everyone after, the tea factories on the way home, and the LED spinning in the garden after dark.
Wed · May 19 · Furnas
The volcano's own valley
The interpretation centre first, then lunch at A Queijaria. Terra Nostra in the afternoon — the garden, then its iron-red thermal pool at 38 °C / 100 °F. Then the caldeiras, where you watch a cozido lifted out of the earth — which is the dress rehearsal for Friday. Dinner at Caldeiras e Vulcões, where that stew is the thing they are known for.
Treetop ropes course
Same lake as everyone else, thirty feet up. Then A Queijaria for lunch, Terra Nostra's garden and its 38 °C pool, the cozido coming out of the ground, and the volcanic stew for dinner.
Thu · May 20 · Green & Blue Lake
Sete Cidades
A short hike first to the Miradouro da Grota do Inferno — the view everybody has seen in a photograph and almost nobody has stood in. Picnic at the lakes. Then the King's View above them, and the ruin of a hotel with a story I'll tell you there. Dinner is Korean barbecue at Han Table in Ponta Delgada, because eight days of Azorean food has earned one night off. Sauna and hot tub when we get back.
Electric bikes around the crater rim
Picnic at Sete Cidades with everyone, the King's View in the afternoon, and Korean barbecue in <Ponta Delgado.
Fri · May 21 · Crater of Fire
Emigration museum
in the morning — about the Azoreans who left for America. Which is to say, about us.
Lunch at the villa, and the gumbo goes into the ground. Then Lagoa do Fogo from the viewpoint above, and Caldeira Velha — a waterfall and thermal pools in the forest.
Cajun gumbo, cooked in volcanic ground.
Into the earth at lunchtime, out at 18:45. An American dish, cooked the way this island cooks — and you watched the Portuguese version come out of the same ground on Wednesday. Last night of the week, and everybody is at the table.
Surf at Santa Bárbara
Back to the villa for lunch while the gumbo goes into the ground, then Lagoa do Fogo and Caldeira Velha, which you will have earned.
Sat · May 22 · Fortress
Out of the rooms by ten
The islet at Rosto de Cão, then the pineapple glasshouses at Arruda, grown under glass on this island since the 1800s. Sushi in Ponta Delgada for lunch, the sixteenth-century Forte de São Brás on the harbour, and then the airport. Evening flight at 18:05 to Boston or New York — home the same night.
With everyone for the last day
Hawaii of the Atlantic
Columns with images
Take it Easy · Per Person
Seven nights · May 15 – 22 · everything included
A single bed in a twin room
Kailani · Naida — two of you, a bed each
€1,110
Sharing a big bed · bathroom across the hall
Fand · Lorelei
€1,160
Sharing a big bed · en-suite
Marina · Calypso · Delphine · Tara
€1,210
A big bed to yourself · bathroom across the hall
Fand · Lorelei
€1,310
A big bed to yourself · en-suite
Marina · Calypso · Delphine · Tara
€1,410
Every room in the house has a bathroom of its own — four are in the room, four are across the hall. Nobody is queuing for anything.
The room is about a quarter of what you are paying — and I am charging you half of what I would charge anyone else for it. Everything else in the price is the same for all of us: every meal, the whale boat, the tickets, the driving and my eight days, which are free. So two of you in the twin room pay about €79 a night for the room, and two of you sharing an en-suite king about €107 — against the €654 a head the same week costs a family who rents this house. The difference between the rooms is €100 across the whole week. It is not worth anyone's argument at the table.
Children under 4 come free — they just need a seat in the van, so tell me early. Ages 4 to 11 sharing with you come at half price.
Want an extra night either side? €40 for the room. Come in on the Friday and sleep off the flight before the week even starts.
Take it On · Per Person
Seven nights · May 15 – 22 · everything included
A single bed in a twin room
Kailani · Naida
€1,400
Sharing a big bed · bathroom across the hall
Fand · Lorelei
€1,450
Sharing a big bed · en-suite
Marina · Calypso · Delphine · Tara
€1,500
A big bed to yourself · bathroom across the hall
Fand · Lorelei
€1,600
A big bed to yourself · en-suite
Marina · Calypso · Delphine · Tara
€1,700
One fee, all five adventures — the islet kayak, the canyoning, the treetop ropes course, the surf lesson and the crater-rim bikes. It is €300 on top of the easy-going rate and it covers the lot.
You sign up when you pay your deposit, not on the day. These are firm reservations I have to make and pay for months ahead — the guides, the wetsuits in your sizes, the harnesses, the boat slots — and once they are booked they are booked whether anyone turns up or not. That is why I need the number long before anybody lands, and why it cannot move afterwards.
But I book places, not names. If six of you sign up, I reserve six — and who uses those six places on any given morning is entirely up to you. Fancy sitting out the gorge and letting your brother take your harness for the day? Do it. Trade among yourselves, square it up among yourselves, and just tell me at breakfast so the guide has the right sizes waiting. All I need is six bodies at the meeting point.
Which means nobody is dragged into a canyon they've gone cold on — you join the easy-going group that afternoon instead, and somebody else gets your spot.
What the price actually covers
You are helping me preview this
Not because your week is a smaller one. Because you are the people I built it for — and because I would rather find out what is wrong with it from you than from a stranger who paid full price. All I ask in return is that you tell me what didn't work.
And before anyone tells me €2,700 is a lot for the Azores — it is, and here is why. A yoga retreat advertised on this island at €2,400 is a room, a mat and simple food cooked in-house. This is not that week. Every meal is in the price and most of them are in restaurants — the steak at Casa do Abel, the volcanic stew, the Korean barbecue in town — with wine on the table. Every ticket is in it, the whale boat included. Every mile of driving is in it, with me at the wheel. You land, and there is nothing else to pay. Compare it to a week of hotels, car hire, restaurants and tickets booked yourself, not to a retreat that hands you a mat.
Included, both weeks
- Every meal, from your first breakfast to your last lunch
- Wine and drinks at the table
- All the driving, in my own van, with me at the wheel
- Every entrance ticket and every thermal pool
- The whale boat, three hours on the open Atlantic
- The gumbo, and the hole in the ground it cooks in
- A copy of my book, posted to you in January
- Airport pick-up and drop-off
- Me, all eight days
- Not included: your flights, and anything you can't resist carrying home from the island.
The Practical Part
Getting here
Saturday 15 May, morning
One flight, no connections. Boston and New York land at 6:50 and 7:50 in the morning — you'll be at the villa by 9, and I'll come and get you.
Toronto flies direct too; take the earlier one if you can.
Getting home: read this
Book the 6:05pm, not the 8:35am
Saturday the 22nd has an evening flight to Boston and to New York. It lands at 7:50 that same evening — you're home the next day either way.
It buys you a whole extra day on the island for nothing. Take the morning flight and you'll spend your last day in an airport.
Saying YES
By 31 January 2027
Let me know by the end of January so I can book everything properly — the boat, the ropes course, the tables for fifteen.
Six of us minimum, fifteen at most.
Paying
A quarter, a quarter, a half
25% when you say yes, 25% in mid-February, the rest a month before you fly. In euros.
The first payment isn't refundable — but it is transferable, so if life happens you can send someone in your place or use it another year. Please take travel insurance.
What to pack
A rain shell. Shoes you can walk a crater in. Layers for three hours at sea. Water shoes with grip.
Swimwear for hot water only — the ocean is about 17 °C / 63 °F in May. The thermal pools are 38 °C / 100 °F, and that's where you'll actually be swimming.
Forget something? It is not a crisis. Sunday morning is free and I'll run a van to the sporting-goods shop for whatever's missing — water shoes being the usual culprit. Don't buy specialist kit at home on my account.
Coming early, staying late
€40 a night
Just the room, either side of the week — my normal rate. Meals are on you those days, and the island is full of good places I'll happily point you at.
Worth it if you're flying from Toronto, where the later flights don't land until nine-ish. Come in on the Friday and start the week rested.
The rooms
Nine bedrooms, each named for one of the nine waters. All eight guest rooms have a bathroom of their own — four en-suite, four across the hall.
A word on beds, because the word means different things either side of the Atlantic. Ours are UK kings — 150 × 200 cm, which is what you'd call a queen at home: an inch narrower and an inch shorter than one. Not a US king, which is seventeen inches wider. The singles are 90 × 200 — a US twin is two and a half inches wider and three and a half shorter, so near enough the same bed.
Marina and Calypso have two big beds each, so a couple can share or take one apiece. Kailani and Naida are twin rooms — the easy answer for two people who'd like a room but not a bed.
Two rooms are downstairs
Tara and Naida are on the garden level, half a storey down, windows at lawn height. The ceilings are about seven feet where the rest of the house is nine.
They're cooler in the afternoon and quieter at night — and my own room is down there with them, so I'm not putting anyone anywhere I wouldn't sleep myself. Say the word if stairs are a problem and I'll sort the allocation before you arrive.
The house itself
A proper kitchen with two big refrigerators for us, plus one just for drinks. A long table that seats all of us at once. A sauna, a hot tub and a cold shower in the garden.
And a cinema room — plug a phone in and it's on the big screen.