I took a tour walking all the way to the top and then down to the lake. I was by myself so I went with a guide from Fun Activities Azores Adventures. I was very glad I did this because my guide Daniella was very informative about all the plants and things we saw. She was a great source of knowledge about the island in general and we had an amazing conversation the whole time. I don't really like tours but I thought that for a first time it was much more secure and interesting to do it this way.

Most of the reviews of Lagoa do Fogo insist that a hike is required to view this majestic site, that's not accurate. It's important to note that for visitors who are unable or don't have the time for a 2 hr hike and/or dealing with the shuttle, you can view this lake by car and from a couple of viewpoints. The easiest way to see Lagoa do Fogo without hiking is to input Miradouro da Barrosa on your GPS, the views from this viewpoint and the others on the way down give you the full vantage point of this beautiful lake.

The views are INCREDIBLE. Jaw dropping. At first we were worried about the shuttle bus you need to take to get up to the best views but those worries are no longer valid. The bus runs every half hour ( we did get lucky with our arrival time in the parking lot)...but still...no 70 minute wait as some of the reviews from 2023 said. The bus is 5 euros pp and makes 3 very nice stops

This is another of the islands truly stunning volcano lakes which is best visited when the clouds are not shrouding the top of the hills, and this they do often. Although the ‘lake of fire’ got its name from the 1563 eruption the name sticks because it is frequently shrouded in low lying cloud, giving the impression of an erupting volcano. It is accessed via the EN5-2A which will take you past the Miradouro do Pico da Barrosa and Miradouro Lagoa do Fogo, the two best points to stop to get a stunning vista of this lake. There are several tracks down to and around the lake, which we did not do, but our guide mentioned that the descents get quite narrow near the bottom and should be attempted by competent hikers with the correct footwear. The tracks are fine once you are at lake side. We were on a guided tour so could drive directly to the various view points for this glorious lake, but there are restrictions at certain times of the year ( I believe June to September) for anyone without a guiding permit, and this was definitely the case in August when we visited, when other tourists in hire cars are not permitted to use the road after 9.00am and you have to park in the car parks at the bottom on each side and take either the red or blue shuttle busses to the lake viewpoint’s ( charge of 5euros). I can certainly relate to the negative reviews from last year about this shuttle service. Glad to hear that the previous reviewer had no problems but when we parked in the main Caldeira Veira car park to visit the Monumento Natural da Caldeira Veira, it didn’t look like the situation has improved and it was clearly obvious the half hour bus service from here is woefully insufficient for the amount of people that want to visit the lake and from the length of queue I saw a wait of 90 minutes would be most likely for some.