On Sao Jorge island during our vacation in the Azores, we stayed at a really cool accommodation called the "Make it Happen Farm." It was sort of a cross between a hotel and an Airbnb and was the most unique and interesting place that we stayed on that trip.
We spent three nights there in total, in these modern looking single room cabins. Each out building contained two cabins set side by side with a small patio out front and separated by a large stone wall in the middle.
All of cabins were offset from each other and faced in the same direction so there was pretty good privacy among them.
Cabin
They also faced towards the island of Pico and on a clear day you could actually see the Pico mountain from the patio which you can see in the distance in several of the photos I posted.
Pico Mountain in the distance
Again, a little clearer
Inside the rooms was a single fairly large bedroom with a king sized bed (much like a hotel), with a tv, air conditioner and small bathroom with a shower.
Massive floor to ceiling wall to wall windows let in tons of light and made the space feel larger than it was.
Pico Mountain view from the cabin
They had curtains for privacy and a retractable black out curtain for at night.
The far building is the shared space and owners apartment on the 2nd floor
On the property there was also a newly built, modern shared space that was open 24 hours a day and had a full kitchen, a living room with games, books and tv, and a large table in the center where people ate meals.
There was a small pantry where food could be purchased and the kitchen was self serve, which made it more in line with an Airbnb. A minimalist breakfast was included each morning which consisted of fresh baked bread with jam and honey, some fresh cheese, and eggs that came directly from the farm on site. The eggs were raw and you had to cook them yourself which I thought was fine but what was slightly odd was that there were only enough eggs each day for each person to have one. I'm sure a single egg is standard in a lot of places but I'm very used to eggs for breakfast always being at least two. It was a good breakfast nonetheless.
The bread set up was a super smart idea that I've never seen before. Each guest house (or cabin) got it's own bread maker with their name on it and each morning a fresh loaf of bread would be waiting for you in the shared space when you woke up. You can see the bread makers in the photo above. The host of the property lived in his own apartment that was attached to the shared room but which was upstairs and separated so that guests couldn't access it. We didn't really see the owner during our stay. He had a grounds keeper (employee) that cleaned the rooms and prepared the breakfast and did whatever other daily chores that she had to do and thats who we interacted with during the stay.
The farm was actually a small working farm (a hobby farm) with fruit trees and vegetables and even quite a few animals.
There were rabbits, turkeys, goats, chickens and a few bee hives for honey.
There were also two dogs on the property that roamed freely. They actually made me a little nervous to be honest. I like dogs and am very used to them but these ones were a little unpredictable.
They both appeared to be friendly and hostile at the same time, like they wanted to be pet but if you looked at them wrong then they would attack. Some dogs give off that vibe, you know? The female appeared to be the dominant of the two and she bit me once on the hand and I saw her bite another guest at least once as well - not hard enough to break the skin but enough to be a little scary. What I really didn't like was that she did the thing where she would lay down on her back like she wanted a belly rub, but then when I started to pet her she turned around and bit my hand for it. She tried doing that a few times after but I wasn't falling for it a second time. I basically just ignore her and walk away if she approached for the rest of our stay which seemed to work.
Close to the property was a beach that we didn't check out and a brand new, nicely paved walking and cycling path that lead to town.
The farm also had bikes to borrow which we planned to do but never got the chance because it rained every day of our stay except the very first night.
That first night though we had spectacular weather and we ended up walking to town for dinner.
It was probably one of the nicest evenings for weather that we had during the entire trip actually.
There were clouds in the sky but there was also a lot of sunshine coming through and it was quite warm out compared to some of the other nights previously.
It was a 40 minute walk but we were fine with that because the views were amazing and we treated it like an activity in itself.
From the trail we could see mount Pico across the water again. It was neat seeing the peak of the mountain poking up through the clouds.
It looked like a stereotypical volcano, really. Like a perfectly symmetrical conical mountain.
I took a lot of pictures of the mountain that day as you can clearly see.
We took photos of ourselves along the trail also, both before dinner and after when the sun was setting.
To be honest, the walk that night along the path with the view of the mountain across the water ended up being an nice highlight of the trip on Sao Jorge. It was a simple thing but the nice weather and the peaceful view really left an impression on me. My wife found the Make it Happen Farm for us and I'm glad that she did. It was a unique accommodations and probably the best place that we stayed during our vacation in the Azores. It's a location that I would recommend checking out if you ever decide to visit the Sao Jorge island.
