Family trip to Graciosa with children. Ideas on where to go with your child

Graciosa Island isn’t the largest island of the archipelago. Nevertheless, there are lots of facilities for exciting holidays with children. The best option would be to choose major hotels, as they provide clean beaches, various entertainment programs, and playrooms where you can leave your child for a couple of hours – local staff would kindly take care of them. In addition, there are diverse football fields and basketball courts where many kids also have fun, as well as some little amusement parks. However, these are the only specialized kinds of entertainment for children.

On the other hand, there is a bunch of highly fascinating places here on the island that both adults and children would like. For instance, what child would refuse to try to get into the real volcano? And one can do it here on Graciosa – the well-known Furna do Enxofre salt grotto! Its main features are an 80-meters-high dome-shaped lava roof and a salt lake. In case if your child is afraid of darkness, it’s better to plan your visit there nearly from 11 to 3 a.m. – the only time of day when daylight streams into the cave. Besides, you can also take your young speleologists to the magnificent Furna da Maria Encantada which is located not far from the volcano.

Moreover, those children who would just walk around for hours should particularly like the island. There are lots of various routes of any length and complexity. If you have a baby, a half-an-hour-walk around the neighbourhood you’ve stayed in would be pretty enough. Concerning older kids, you can, for example, go camping. What is more, ecologists have started conducting a test regarding maintenance and increase of the Azores’ animals and plants population about already 10 years ago. On this point, young explorers would definitely have something interesting to see. Copyright www.orangesmile.com

So, you can have bicycle rides enjoying local places of interest (if your children are ready for it). Roads here are good, almost no cars, so you don’t have to fear about riding from one town to another.

Those who are fond of water activities would be glad to spend their holidays on Graciosa Island too. Besides, if your kid is already 8 years old, you can offer them to have a scuba diving course after which they will get a divers' license for kids. The Graciosa’s underwater world is extremely rich and, what is more, there are also old sunken ships lying at relatively shallow depths.

What about younger children, they would probably like snorkelling. You can easily rent a mask and a snorkel on any equipped beach. Water is absolutely clear, rough waves are quite a rare occasion here and, moreover, many marine animals live even quite near the coast. Even three-year-olds are allowed to do snorkelling – but under the parents’ supervision.

An absolutely deserted Playa Beach would be an ideal place for making sand castles together with kids. So, if your child is keen on trying different new things every day, we would definitely recommend you to come to Termas do Carapacho – the local natural basin. Little travellers should also approve to get to the adjacent islands by a motorboat or a ferry. Plus, beginners in photography would appreciate a marine tour around the local picturesque scenes.

particularly curious children would enjoy their stay on the island too. You definitely have to visit the Graciosa Ethnographic Museum. Not only household items, clothes, works of art of people who have ever lived here since the island’s colonization but also diverse items connected with whaling and vineyards cultivation are exhibited there.

If your child is especially interested in art, then try to get to Vila da Praia. The São Mateus Church – which is famous throughout the archipelago due to the incredibly magnificent pipe organ. Furthermore, kids who’re fond of architecture would also really like the place, as the church was built a few centuries ago and it’s still in a highly good condition.

Marvellous red-domed mills like from cartoons are all around the island’s territory. Then, special water storage tanks would attract a child’s attention too. So, it’s really worth to devote just a couple of days to just have a walk around the streets of the capital city. Its winding streets remind of troubled times when the island was being constantly attacked. And last but not least, try to find some time to see local villages as well – you would be able to enjoy the houses of the very first settlers and even churches of the 16th-17th centuries.