White Exclusive Suites & Villas

This is a small property by any measure: nine suites and two villas on a shelf of black volcanic rock at Atalhada, on the south coast of São Miguel near Lagoa. The architecture is deliberately stark, white cubes set against dark basalt and the Atlantic, with every unit angled at the water.

Suites come with compact kitchens, which suits the Azorean rhythm of long days out and late returns. There is a small wellness programme covering yoga, massage and alternative treatments, and the kitchen draws on the hotel's own organic farm project, a serious undertaking on an island where almost everything else arrives by boat.

São Miguel rewards the effort of getting there. The crater lakes at Sete Cidades and Furnas, the thermal pools, the tea plantations and some of the best whale watching in the North Atlantic are all within an hour's drive. The hotel's guest relations team arranges most of it.