The city of Ponta Delgada, in São Miguel Island, Azores, was considered the fourth most environmentally friendly and sustainable city for a vacation in Europe, according to a ranking released by Forbes Magazine, which evaluated more than 400 European capitals, as part of the vote carried out by the “Best Destinations in Europe” organization, which involved the participation of 57,804 travelers from 139 countries around the world.
This ranking identifies and values destinations that are leading the way in terms of decarbonization policies, the creation of green spaces, and innovative cultural and natural events, placing Ponta Delgada in fourth place in Europe, just ahead of Maribor in Slovenia, Copenhagen in Denmark, and Riga in Latvia.
Ponta Delgada beat the ranking of cities such as Stockholm, Amsterdam, Bern, Vienna, and Oslo.

To encourage the use of public passenger transport, the mayor recalls that the municipality has made the minibus network free for students of all levels of education and for citizens aged 65 and over and is planning to create new lines and a connecting circuit between the public parking lots and the city center in 2026.
And noting that the City Council has acquired two electric vehicles to provide transport for people with reduced mobility in the historic center of Ponta Delgada from next week, the mayor also pointed out that the implementation of a shared mobility system by Bolt, which makes electric bicycles and scooters available at various strategic points in the municipality, is currently in the experimental phase.
Meanwhile, Pedro Nascimento Cabral is pleased with Ponta Delgada’s growing attractiveness over the last few years, becoming more appealing to digital nomads, attracting foreign investment, emerging new tourist developments, and creating new companies.
“We’re taking concrete steps to become a smart city and it’s good to note that turnover in the city of Ponta Delgada grew by 800 million euros between 2021 and 2023, allowing us to create 2,000 more jobs in the private sector, as a result of the favorable tax environment we’ve created,” he says.
But all of this, the mayor stresses, “without giving up the necessary balance between leveraging our main economic sectors – such as tourism today – and the conservation of nature, our tourist attraction.”

In Diário dos Açores – Osvaldo Cabral, director

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