The deep Atlantic around São Miguel and Pico is a whale motorway: sperm whales live here year-round, and spring brings blues, fins and seis on migration. Trips run with marine biologists aboard and lookouts on clifftops directing the boats, so sighting rates are excellent. April and May are the jackpot months. Book a morning departure for calmer seas, dose anyone susceptible before boarding, and fill the afternoons with crater lakes and thermal pools.
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