Yesterday we visited Sete Cidades again and successfully reached the top and best lookout point - Miradouro de Candelária! This is perhaps the most popular and iconic view of the Azores Islands (if you search Azores in Google images, you will mostly see photos of Sete Cidades). The lakes are within craters of dormant volcanoes. One is blue and one is green. There's also a smaller one to the left as you can see here:
To reach the lookout point, you go along this trail:
On the way up to the lookout point, there is an abandoned hotel - Monte Palace Hotel. It was constructed in 1989 and closed a year and a half later due to lack of business. It's not surprising, considering the location (it's pretty remote and there's no stores or restaurants around). The major draw would be the spectacular views. It was also quite large with 88 rooms, restaurants, hair salon, night club, etc inside. I guess they wanted it to be like a resort. It was meant to be one of the top luxury hotels of Portugal. However Azores was quite an unknown travel destination in the past (even if it opened now, I doubt it would have much success) and leisure travel in general was not so popular. So the owners had declared bankruptcy and now, the hotel structure remains for visitors to explore.
Actually there is a sign that says something like "DANGER! DO NOT ENTER" but that didn't stop us (and lots of other people). There is a locked gate at the entrance so we had to climb up over a ledge on the side to reach it.
I love abandoned places and had always wanted to explore one so I was really excited. I wish they kept furniture and decor inside though..it would've been a lot more creepy. We went during the day so I didn't feel it was creepy at all. I also think if the hotel had a long history, then it would feel creepier as well. I wish I could see photos of it back then and compare to now though.
It's covered in graffiti
We made our way up to the rooftop to see this view
Before heading back to the city, we went down to the lake where this duck/turkey looking thing came over to say hi.
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