My family and I have been stationed at Lajes for little over a year now. First off let\'s start out with the good. The views from the base and the island are absolutely amazing. I haven\'t been to a more beautiful location in my life and I\'ve been to quite a lot of places. The base is small and everything is within walking distance. Currently the base is undergoing a transformation and Lajes is now an unaccompanied short tour. If your an outdoor person, you\'ll love it here. Whale watching, scuba diving, 4x4 adventures, trails, beautiful beaches. The summers are amazing and the world famous Praiafest is a must. Last year AWOLnation performed. The Portuguese people around the island are hit and miss. While I have met quite a few that are absolutely amazing, I also have dealt with others that probably could care less if we were here if it wasn\'t for the jobs that the base provides. The base mission is to refuel aircraft and provide a rest stop for traveling crews. So it tends to be pretty slow for some jobs. So much so that we have a saying called \"Lajes Goodness\", which to me means we have nothing to do so let\'s fill everyone\'s day with a whole bunch of activities to pass the time. Which can get annoying for those of us who actually have work to do. The winters on the other hand are filled with rainy and very windy days. There is nothing to do indoors during the winter so island fever starts to creep in. But we have hops to Italy every other week and back to the states weekly to escape the \"Goodness\". Most of the time the planes are pretty empty as well. There are some great places to eat, but good luck finding them as most are hidden and do not have signs posted. The closest major city to the base is Praia, which has most of the clubs and bars. Overall the base has been a pretty good tour that I recommend to try out. It\'s now only 12 months and you get short tour credit.
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