Azores, Portugal

Pico Vineyards

Price per night from$127.30

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR113.56), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Pico Vineyards Photos

Style

Basalt of the earth

Setting

Pico’s volcanic vineyards

Explore

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The clue’s very much in the name of Pico Vineyards, a small-scale, village-style complex where walls hewn from volcanic rock shelter young vines from the north coast’s salty sea breezes. This old-school Azores architectural artistry is echoed throughout the hotel’s 12 basalt-built dwellings, geyser-warm pool, and rock-solid sun terraces with scorching Mount Pico views. The wealth of wine-tasting wonders that await in its subterranean cellars are pretty hot stuff, too.

Free Smith Extra

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A glass of Vulcão, the hotel’s own wine, on arrival

Facilities

Photos Pico Vineyards facilities

Need to know

Rooms

12, including five suites with private pools.

Check–Out

11am, and check-in is at 3pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability.

More details

Rates include à la carte breakfast served in the dining area by reception. Expect local cheeses, breads, honey and jam, plus eggs cooked to order.

Also

One of the Vineyard Rooms with Terrace is adapted for wheelchair users and guests with limited mobility. There’s step-free access to the reception, and restaurant but some of the more uneven rock and gravel surfaces around the grounds may prove challenging.

At the hotel

Charged laundry service and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: air-conditioning, TV, coffee- and tea-making kit, minibar, free bottled water, bathrobes, slippers and Portus Cale bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Rustic-chic minimalism is king at Pico Vineyards where sleeping quarters make the best of the island’s natural resources: volcanic rock, homegrown woods and a minibar starring several varieties of Pico wine. Vineyard Suites are our pick of the bunch, thanks to the addition of private infinity pools with movie-star Mount Pico views. If there’s a more apposite spot for uncorking a chilled bottle of the local Verdelho, we’ve yet to find it.

Poolside

There’s a tranquil, glassy pool in Pico Vineyards’ wellness area, cocooned in the hotel’s signature basalt rock and cryptomeria wood. It’s open 9am–10pm daily.

Spa

Alongside the heated pool, the dedicated treatment room offers a range of massages, including hot candle and signature Pico Vineyards options.

Packing tips

Rubber-soled reef shoes to aid a graceful (and pain-free) entry into the north coast’s lava-formed natural pools; solid hiking shoes for scaling the slopes of Mount Pico.

Also

The monolithic table in the Stone & Wine tasting room was hewn from a single chunk of volcanic rock excavated during construction. Its journey from buried boulder to spectacular centrepiece is celebrated in a series of framed photographs.

Pet‐friendly

Dogs are not allowed at Pico Vineyards. See more pet-friendly hotels in Azores.

Children

Pico Vineyards’ timeless terraces and subterranean wine-tasting experiences are mostly geared towards grown-ups, but kids aged 14 and up are welcome at the hotel.

Sustainability efforts

Constructed almost exclusively from island materials, Pico Vineyards is rooted firmly in its surroundings. You’ll spot warm cryptomeria woods and moody basalt rock throughout, from the walls that protect the hotel’s young vines to timber cladding in rooms; a huge hunk of excavated stone even doubles as a tasting table in the hotel’s wine cellars. The wine selection leans local, with an extensive selection from the Azores and the remainder coming from the Portuguese mainland; tasting experiences are run by expert Pico islanders. Dining is also reliant on local produce, including locally caught tuna and octopus, regional cheeses, island honey and more.

Food and Drink

Photos Pico Vineyards food and drink

Top Table

Source an alfresco table for sunset or mix it up with dinner on your own private terrace, for vineyard or volcano views and silent starlit solitude.

Dress Code

None, but don’t let that stop you from rocking poker-hot prints and patterns — ravishing reds and passionate pinks — that really pop against all that charcoal-grey basalt.

Hotel restaurant

The hotel’s reception space doubles as both breakfast room and, in the evenings, Gastro Bar. Traditional objects from around the Azores — pots, plates, bottles and books — pepper the backdrop and terrace views stretch out across vineyards to the horizon. As you’d hope from an island restaurant, the menu leans heavily into the local bounty, with grilled tuna and octopus and other traditional Azorean dishes. Naturally, there’s an extensive local wine list too. 

Hotel bar

The Gastro Bar stays open for drinks until 10pm. Pick your poison from a wide range of Azorean and Portuguese wines. Local Verdelho, Saborinho and Terrantez do Pico for the win.   

Last orders

Breakfast is served 7am–11am and dinner from 7pm–10pm.

Room service

Room service is available during breakfast and dinner hours. If you fancy stocking up on snacks, there are a couple of sizeable supermarkets a few kilometres west along the ER1 highway, on the outskirts of Madalena.

Location

Photos Pico Vineyards location
Address
Pico Vineyards
Rua da Igreja Canada do Mato Bandeiras
Madalena
9950-026
Portugal

Pico Vineyards lies in the far north of its namesake island, a couple of kilometres from the coast, with sweeping views across verdant volcanic landscapes to Mount Pico.

Planes

Pico Airport is less than three kilometres from the hotel, about five minutes by taxi. A one-way ride costs €5–10.

Automobiles

Public transport is rather limited on Pico Island, so seekers of far-flung fishing villages, remote vineyards and natural coastal swimming pools should rent their own vehicle at the airport. Taxis can also be sourced if you can’t agree on a designated driver for your vineyard tasting tours. There’s free parking at the hotel.

Other

You can ferry-hop between several of the Azorean islands, but there’s no service out of mainland Portugal.

Worth getting out of bed for

Oenological pursuits are the toast of the terroir at Pico Vineyards, where local experts lead tours of the grounds and run wine-tasting masterclasses in the estate’s extraordinary subterranean rooms. This duo of serene spaces is comprised of Stone & Wine, with its monumental tasting table hewn from a single enormous lump of excavated basalt, and Soul of the Cave, a meditative space where wines mature slowly in natural lava bags. Booking is recommended to secure a place on these guided forays into Pico’s crisp, mineral whites and rare fortified wine varieties. 

Liquid diversions of a different kind await along the north coast, where impossibly scenic lava-sculpted swimming pools include Pooça Branca and the Piscina do Cais do Pico. There are also year-round whale- and dolphin-watching cruises, several of which depart from nearby Madalena. Inland, lace up your boots for epic hikes up the slopes of Mount Pico and around the mirror-like waters of Lagoa do Capitão. 

Local restaurants

The pretty coastal town of Madalena, five kilometres west of Pico Vineyards has a smattering of decent budget tavernas serving seafood by the ocean. But, if you want to push the boat out a little, try atmospheric Atmosfera at the elevated Alma do Pico residence for well-presented Azorean fare and equally eye-catching views of the mountain. East of Pico Vineyards, O Farrobo is all rustic woodland charm, with an intimate setting and a small but perfectly formed menu of chargrilled meat and seafood. 

Local bars

The Azores Wine Company kills several birds with one stone thanks to its Latitude restaurant, with a lavish 10-course tasting menu that includes paired Pico wines. But you can of course also just go straight down the wine-tasting route. Either way, there’s plenty more to savour in those widescreen vineyard and volcano views. Over in Madalena, Cella Bar is as notable for its eye-popping architecture as its drinks list. Kick back with a cocktail inside the space-age-cruise-liner cabin or step out on ‘deck’ for close-up sea views.

Reviews

Photos Pico Vineyards reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this grape-growing getaway near Pico’s north coast and unpacked (and uncorked) their stash of crisp island whites, a full account of their oenological escape will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Pico Vineyards in the Azores… 

Local flavour runs through the very veins (or should that be vines?) of Pico Vineyards. Its juvenile grapes grow cosseted between higgledy-piggledy basalt walls, an Azorean tradition as old as the hills that surround the estate. Unearthed volcanic rock as building material, furniture fashioned from the wood of native conifers, traditional colour-block Azorean quilts, sculptural pieces by local artists and, of course, bottle upon beautiful bottle of Pico-produced wine are everywhere you look.

The many guided wine-tasting experiences here are all led by Azorean oenological experts, meaning your own mental and physical exertions need only extend as far ambling from breakfast room to massage room to tasting room to bedroom. Take in views of Mount Pico — the highest point in the Azores — from the terraces and immerse yourself in the gentle whisper of sea breezes, the soft scent of lemon trees and the cathedral-like hush of silent, starlit nights. Oh, and the wine too; don’t forget the wine. 

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Price per night from $127.30

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