Published on Jul, 2024

My father and I spent the day with Pedro, who was delightful and a wealth of knowledge about geology, history, culture, flora, fauna…the list goes on! We were able to see some incredible sights, enjoy a refreshing swim, and lunch was delicious. We would recommend the tour to anyone!

Published on Jul, 2024

We did a private half-day tour of Faial with Luis of “Our Island”. The tour was great; Luis, our guide, showed his strong knowledge of the islands covering both the topics on the tour and all our random questions about the Azores. The tour was a highlight of our trip around the Azores. We’d recommend Luis’s tours, and expect that other tours by Our Island would be equally good. We’d hoped to do Our Azores “Azorean Roots” tour, but the tour required three months lead time for them to do additional family research. Because we knew some of our family story, we instead asked for a half-day tour focusing on stories of emigration and rural life, and focused on the villages where our family had come from. Luis came through perfectly, giving us a quick overview of the island and combining scenic locations, visits to the villages and local cemeteries, talk about traditional houses, and stories about the 1998 earthquake. He also helped fill in the gaps in our family knowledge with both stories from his family and friends, and stories about whaling that he’d collected when making a film about Azorean whaling. Luis did a great job of covering both the topics we’d asked for, but also got us interested and curious about whaling which we hadn’t had an interest in previously.

Published on May, 2024

Altough some of us knew the island, following a guided tour was a real opportunity to understand much more about ... a bit of everything. Our guide (whose English was superb) knows each and every stone of the island and its history. Above sharing the knowledge about the island, he shared his love for this little paradise and his willingness to preserve it. We spent an excellent moment (teenagers included!).

Published on Sep, 2023

Luis is a fantastic guide! We had such a nice time learning about Faial and the island of Horta. There was never a time where we weren’t exploring something. One of my favorite experiences was when we were walking down the ramp and stairs in Porto do Saleo and there was a spear fisherman with his catch. Although we don’t speak Portuguese, Luis shared the fisherman’s enthusiastic story with us about his catch of the day. Lunch at Snack Bar Aldina was delicious! Afterward we walked down to Praia do Almoxarife. On our way down we met a lovely family that showed us their vineyard, and showed us how it was made and let us sample the wine. They even invited us into their home! We had a great day with Luis. All I can say is, if your in Horta and looking for a great guide, Luis is it!

Published on Aug, 2023

Pedro, our local guide, was excellent, with a great sense of humor. He was raised on the island, and showed us sights that we would not have discovered on our own.