Where to swim on an island with almost no sand: imported beaches, black pebbles, lava pools and municipal lidos.
The Azores are volcanic islands, so the coast is cliffs and boulders rather than sand. What they have instead is three different kinds of swimming place, and knowing which is which decides the afternoon: bays of black volcanic sand, natural pools that the Atlantic fills and refreshes, and built lidos with ladders into the open sea. A coast facing the swell closes often; the sheltered side of the same island is calm on the same day.
José Luís Ávila Silveira/Pedro Noronha e Costa · Public domain
Piscina do Carapacho
Santa Cruz da Graciosa
Natural poolsBlue Flag
Tidal pools in the lava under the Carapacho thermal baths, at the foot of the Caldeira.
Carapacho is a hamlet on the south coast directly below the Caldeira, and its bathing place is a set of pools in the black rock that the tide refills, with steps and rails built in. The thermal baths beside them have been drawing on the warm mineral spring here since the nineteenth century and are open Tuesday to Sunday in season; there is a campsite and a bar at the top of the slipway. Bandeira Azul for 2026.
Worth knowing: The pools face south and the Ilhéu de Baixo is straight out in front; it is the warmest water on the island and the last place to close when the wind turns.
José Luís Ávila Silveira/Pedro Noronha e Costa · Public domain
Baía da Folga
Santa Cruz da Graciosa
Bathing platform
A fishing cove below Luz with a slipway and deep, clear water.
The Portinho da Folga is a small harbour in a bay on the south coast, reached by a dirt track down from Luz through the vineyards. There is a slipway, a concrete edge and nothing else — no café, no lifeguard, usually nobody — which is why people who know the island swim here rather than at Praia.
Worth knowing: The easy way in is on foot: PR03GRA runs down from the chapel in Luz and takes an hour, and the bay is where it ends.
José Luís Ávila Silveira/Pedro Noronha e Costa · Public domain
Praia de São Mateus
Santa Cruz da Graciosa
SandBlue Flag
Graciosa's only real sand beach, in front of the village of Praia.
The beach runs along the front of Vila da Praia on the east coast, with the Ilhéu da Praia — a nature reserve and the main storm-petrel colony in the Azores — sitting a kilometre offshore. It has the full set: lifeguards in season, showers, toilets, a café and a ramp, and it is a Bandeira Azul site for 2026.
Worth knowing: The village's windmills are behind the beach and the queijadas da Graciosa are sold two streets back, which is the island's other reason to come to Praia.
José Luís Ávila Silveira/Pedro Noronha e Costa · Public domain
Barro Vermelho
Santa Cruz da Graciosa
Natural poolsBlue Flag
A pebble pool closed off by a basalt reef, under red clay cliffs.
Barro Vermelho is a wide bay on the north coast where a ridge of lava seals off a shallow lagoon of rolled pebbles and red sand — the colour is the rock, thrown up by an explosive submarine eruption offshore. At low or half tide the protected water is barely waist deep and full of fish, which has made it the island's snorkelling place; beyond the reef it is open sea over basalt slab. Concrete paths, a big car park and a picnic ground sit behind it, and it is a Bandeira Azul site for 2026.
Worth knowing: Go on a falling tide: the pool is at its widest and clearest, and the reef is exposed enough to see where the open water starts.
The island capital's sea pool, at the Calheta below the town.
Santa Cruz da Graciosa does its swimming at the Calheta, a built seawater pool on the rock shelf below the town with decks, ladders, a lifeguard in season and a café. Around the corner is the smaller natural pool of the Boqueirão, part of the same bathing front. It holds a Bandeira Azul for 2026, listed as Zona Balnear Santa Cruz (Calheta).
Worth knowing: It is a ten-minute walk from the main square, which makes it the swim to fit in between the ferry and the museum rather than a place to spend a day.
Facilities and lifeguard cover follow the municipal bathing season, which runs roughly from May to October and varies by council. A red flag is a closure, not a warning: it means the sea is beyond what the lifeguards can cover.
