Hello and sorry I haven't had a chance to reply to your prior posting about your trip to the Azores. You and I briefly emailed and I'm the person who lives in Lincoln, CA. I'm still doing project work, which is few and far between right now, so I need to make money while I can :). Anyhow, with our recent trip in June, I would love to give my input for you on a hotel. To break up our trip, we stayed at various locations and it really was different at each. I'm glad we did and so was our family.
First, unless you really need to stay at the Angra Hotel for a festival or street activity, I would love to recommend an alternative. During our trip we stay at three different location while visiting Terceira. The first being the best was the Quinta do Martelo. I'm sorry that I deleted my lodging folders on my computer, so this is all from memory. Gilberto (I believe this was his name) is the owner. His wife, Lisa, is from the US. In fact, if I remember correctly she's from California or lived in California as well. They have a person who works for them and his name is Francisco. Was a pleasure he was - he was our server for our wonderful breakfast each day! They all speak English, so that's a plus for you. Here's there website. Breakfast is included and it's delicious (especially compared to the breakfast offered at the Angra Hotel of canned fruit and more processed foods which I prefer to stay away from). Gilberto arranged our rental car as well. http://quintadomartelo.com/pt/index.htm We did have a room at the Angra and it was nice. We only stayed there because of the festival and we purposefully asked for a suite facing the street so we could watch the parade. Other than that, it was just a hotel and I prefer something more quaint when traveling. I did see Celeste mentioned in a reply to you about a hotel she stays at. I did contact them, but wasn't able to make the dates work for what we need, but we did go over and take a look at the hotel and it was nice. I believe it's the sister hotel for the Hotel Bara Mar. For the life of me, I can't remember the lady I spoke with on the phone there, but she's speaks excellent English! Her father was from the US stationed at the military base and her Mother was from Terceira. Funny thing happened, we went to a bull fight in Sao Bento. Our son ran with the bulls! OMG!!! Anyhow, our cousin told our son that the Portuguese people "welcome" the runners into their homes. So, here comes my husband back to get me, since he and our 18 year old son are being invited into various homes for food and drinks and wonderful conversation. So, I find my parents, and we end up in this one house where there's a trophy room. The husband is a famous bull fighter. I noticed one of the posters in his home and mention that I've seen this photo before. He tells me it was taken at a bull fight in Gustine (been there before) and then he tells me that he was presented a award in Turlock, CA (WHERE I WAS BORN!!). Too small of a world. Out of all the homes we could have gone too, here was a connection all the way back home. But, it get's better. The lady I had never met who spoke perfect English from the Hotel Bara Mar sister hotel, was there! She's the Sister-in-Law to the owner of the home, the famous bull fighter. I want to say her name was Annette or Veronica, but I honestly can't say for sure. Her husband isn't Portugues and I believe was from another country. She didn't have email, but used the rental car email to communicate with me. I guess the ladies offices were right next to each other. I remember Celeste saying it's very reasonable to stay there. Plus, the Hotel Bara Mar's restaurant across the street is wonderful too. A couple more things I would mention would be to use the library in Angra for accessing your email. My Mother's laptop was damaged during our trip, so this was our access to emails and messages from home. Another tip, scan and email yourself your passport, copies of your plane ticket, etc. so you can access it online. We never had to use this, but did it just in case. Someone told us just in case your luggage is lost or stolen, then you have a backup copy. Bring light weight clothing, since most places don't have dryers to dry clothes. Bring a wind breaker-type light jacket and very small umbrella. Depending on if you need a blow dryer or curling iron, you'll need electronic attachments to convert the electricity. Lastly, who's your cell service thru? I've seen this talked about before, and I would highly suggest using international phone cards or purchasing a disposable phone to use if need be. We only made limited calls between our OWN phones and it still cost us several hundred dollars and this was with the international rate. Most carriers don't even have international useage, we were lucky AT&T did. Angra Hotel does have a website and you can call direct to make direct reservations over the phone. Martha was the person who help me and also spoke English. http://www.angrahotel.com We made our travel arrangments from the local SATA office in Angra. Remember to tell them you already have SATA tickets that you used to get to Terceira. Then they'll give you a DISCOUNT! If you don't mention this, they won't automatically give the discount. Also, there are boat trips, but no body seems to know anything about them, until you actually arrive in Terceira and ask around or go to the "tourist office" - not a travel office. We didn't go this route, due to the amount of time it takes to get to the various islands. I think our inter-island flights ran about $200 round trip. This office is on the same street if I remember correctly that the residential of the Bara Mar hotel is located on. If you're facing the ocean, it's on the left side of the street. Across the street from where they sell bull fight tickets. Also, keep in mind that the luggage limit requirements for inter-island flights is less than your actual international flight. We left half of our luggage at one hotel since we didn't want to pay the extra cost to take all our luggage. SATA can tell if you you call them what the actual limits are, but they are different. Hope this helps. Enjoy your trip....we're ready to go back! Robin (Borba) Besotes [email protected] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
