Ribeira Grande is small — you can walk the historic core in a couple of hours — but it makes a good base for the wilder north of São Miguel. The town itself has the old bridge, a handful of baroque churches, and the broad cobbled square at Largo da Matriz. Outside town are the surf beaches at Santa Bárbara, the hot springs at Caldeira Velha, and the Gorreana tea plantation, which is the only one still producing tea commercially in Europe.