Things to do on Pico
What is there to do on Pico besides climbing the mountain?
Quick answer
Four things carry a visit outside the mountain and the boats: the Gruta das Torres lava tube, the whalers' museum at Lajes, the crater lake at Lagoa do Capitão, and the natural pools cut into the lava along both coasts. The wine landscape is a section of its own.
Underground and indoors
The two that work on a day the weather does not.
Outdoors
Pablosievert · CC BY-SA 4.0
Lagoa do Capitão
Lagoa do Capitão is a small lake on Pico's interior plateau, in São Roque do Pico municipality, with the mountain rising behind it when the cloud...
Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL · CC BY-SA 2.0
Natural swimming pools on Pico
Pico has almost no sand. Swimming here means natural pools cut into the lava along both coasts, usually with ladders, concrete edges and a sea...
What the island is actually made of
Almost everything worth doing on Pico is a consequence of the same fact: the island is a young volcano that people farmed anyway. The lava tubes, the walled vineyards, the black pools cut into the shoreline and the whaling economy all follow from it.
That is worth holding in mind, because it makes the sights connect rather than sit on a list.
Underground
The Gruta das Torres is the longest known lava tube in Portugal and has been a protected area since 2004, covering 0.637 square kilometres. It is a guided visit, which also makes it one of the two reliable options on a day when the weather has taken the mountain away from you.
The whaling history
The Museu dos Baleeiros is in Lajes do Pico, on the street the boats launched from. It is the other weather-proof option, and it is the context for the whale watching boats that now sail from the same harbour.
Outdoors
Lagoa do Capitão is the crater lake on the island's interior plateau, with the mountain behind it when the cloud allows. The natural pools are the island's swimming: not beaches, but pools in the lava, along both coasts.
The other outdoor half of the island is the wine country, which has its own section because the walled plots are a UNESCO World Heritage landscape rather than a viewpoint. Walking through them is the point, and hiking on Pico covers the trails.
What this page does not tell you
No opening hours, no admission prices, no tour times. The regional museums and natural parks sites were unreachable from the machine this page was written on, so none of those figures has been checked against the body that sets them. They are absent rather than copied from a guidebook. Confirm them on the day.