Caldeira do Faial

Dominating the deserted centre of the island, the impressive Caldeira do Faial, is one of the island’s major nature attractions to visit. The Caldeira is the vast crater of an extinct volcano, from which the island originated. Reaching 1,043 m at the Cabeço Gordo, the island’s highest point, the crater has a diameter of about 1.5 km. Offering a unique landscape with green-covered slopes where junipers, tree-heather, cedars and ferns prevail, the whole area of the crater has been declared nature reserve. When the weather conditions are good, the views from the rim of the crater at a height of about 900 m down the steep crater walls to the 400 m deep crater bottom and across the island are spectacular. There is also a path leading all around the crater rim, but, as said before, it should only be undertaken when the weather is good.

Map of Faial