Madeira, Portugal
Levada walks through laurel forest, the cable car above Funchal harbour and lava pools at Porto Moniz.
A sample of the properties we quote here. Tell us your dates and we shortlist the right ones for you.
Clifftop above Funchal bay, Estrada Monumental
A grand hotel opened in 1891 on a cliff above the bay, known for its terraced subtropical gardens and its afternoon tea on the terrace.
Funchal seafront, Avenida do Infante
A large modern five-star on the Funchal seafront run by the Savoy Signature group, with a rooftop pool deck over the bay.
Clifftop headland in the Lido area of Funchal
A Porto Bay hotel on a small headland with its own sea access, home to the Il Gallo d'Oro restaurant.
Funchal, beside the casino above the harbour
A modernist hotel designed by Oscar Niemeyer as part of the Funchal casino complex, looking over the harbour.
Funchal, in its own garden estate near the Lido
A small hotel built around a nineteenth-century manor house in a subtropical garden, a short walk from the Lido promenade.
Funchal hillside, above the old town
A restored eighteenth-century quinta set in a large botanical garden on the hill above Funchal.
Lido seafront, Estrada Monumental
A large seafront hotel on the Lido strip with direct sea access and pool terraces facing the Atlantic.
We quote these and many more. Prices depend on dates and board — the quote is free and there is no payment on this site.
Madeira is not a beach destination. It is important to say that in the first paragraph, because it is the single most common cause of disappointment on this island, and it is entirely avoidable.
The island is a volcanic peak rising 1,862 metres out of the Atlantic roughly 900 kilometres south-west of Lisbon. Its coast is mostly cliff. There is almost no natural sand: the two golden beaches you may have seen photographed, at Calheta and Machico, were built with sand imported by ship. Elsewhere you swim in natural lava rock pools at Porto Moniz and Seixal, in engineered seawater lidos along the Funchal coast, or off concrete platforms with ladders into deep water. It is excellent swimming. It is not lying on a towel with your feet in the shallows.
Told in advance, almost nobody minds — the island offers something else entirely and does it better than anywhere in Europe. Told on arrival, people spend a week annoyed. So: if your holiday requires sand, either book Porto Santo, the sister island two hours away by ferry with nine kilometres of golden beach, or choose a different destination and let us suggest one.
It is a walking island, and it is the best one in the Atlantic. In the fifteenth century settlers began cutting levadas — narrow irrigation channels that carry water from the wet north to the dry, terraced south. There are now roughly 2,000 kilometres of them, and the maintenance paths beside them form a walking network that contours around the mountains at a near-constant gradient. That is the trick: you get high-mountain scenery on paths that a reasonably fit person can walk in trainers.
It is also a garden island. The mid-Atlantic climate and the altitude range mean bananas, sugar cane and vines below, laurel forest in the middle, and heather trees and bare rock above. The Laurisilva, the relict laurel forest covering the northern slopes, is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is genuinely primeval — the closest surviving thing to the forest that covered southern Europe before the ice ages.
And it is mild rather than hot. Funchal sits at around 19 degrees in January and 25 in August, and it almost never freezes and almost never scorches. That is why it has been a winter destination since the nineteenth century, when British and Austrian visitors came for the air.
Most visitors stay in Funchal, and most should. The city runs up an amphitheatre of hillside above its harbour and has the restaurants, the markets, the museums and the transport links. The hotel zone along the Estrada Monumental, west of the centre, is where the majority of four and five-star properties sit, most of them with sea-water pools or lido access rather than a beach.
Staying in the old town, the Zona Velha, puts you among the painted doors, the fish restaurants and the cable car station for Monte. It is livelier and cheaper and the walk back uphill is real.
Ten minutes east, quieter, popular with long-stay winter visitors and with a marine reserve offshore that makes it the diving base. Good value, but you will use the bus or a car to reach Funchal in the evening.
The sunny south-west. Calheta has one of the two imported-sand beaches and a marina; Ponta do Sol is a small town in a ravine mouth with a genuinely good micro-climate and a growing remote-worker scene. This coast gets more sun than Funchal, and it is quiet in the evenings.
Near the airport in the east. Machico has the island's other sand beach and a real town centre that is not built around tourism. Practical, unglamorous and often the cheapest bed on the island.
Dramatic, wet, green and thinly hotelled. Porto Moniz has the famous natural lava pools; Seixal has black sand and its own pools and is arguably the prettiest spot on the coast. Stay here if you want weather with character and are happy to drive.
Santana is known for its triangular thatched houses and sits close to the trailheads for Pico Ruivo. If walking is the point of the trip, a night or two up here saves an hour of driving each morning.
The natural pools at Porto Moniz are lava basins that fill with the tide, with a paid section that has steps, showers and lifeguards, and a free section next to it. Seixal has similar pools with fewer people. Along the Funchal coast, the lidos — Lido, Ponta Gorda, Barreirinha, Doca do Cavacas — are seawater complexes with pools, sunbathing decks and ladders into the ocean, and locals use them daily.
Praia Formosa west of Funchal is the biggest natural beach and it is grey pebble and black shingle. Bring beach shoes; it is perfectly usable and the water is clean, but it does not look like the brochure.
Sea temperature runs roughly 18 to 19 degrees in late winter and 23 to 24 in September, which is cooler than the Mediterranean in summer and considerably warmer in January.
Levada das 25 Fontes and Risco (Rabaçal) is the most popular: laurel forest, waterfalls, a couple of hours each way, and now with a booking system and access controls because of crowding.
Levada do Caldeirão Verde (Queimadas) runs through tunnels — bring a torch and a rain jacket — to a waterfall in a green amphitheatre. Longer, quieter, superb.
Ponta de São Lourenço is the opposite of everything else: a treeless red and ochre peninsula at the eastern tip, fully exposed, no shade, and the best coastal scenery on the island.
Pico do Areeiro to Pico Ruivo is the high route across the ridge between the two highest peaks. Stairs, tunnels, exposure and about three hours one way. Do not start it in cloud, and check whether the sections are open, because storm damage closes them periodically.
Two honest warnings. Levada paths often run with a channel on one side and a long drop on the other, with no railing; if you have a real problem with heights, choose your route carefully. And the north and the mountains hold cloud when Funchal is in full sun, so a walk can be in mist while your hotel is bright.
In the city itself: the Mercado dos Lavradores for fruit and fish, the Sé cathedral, the Museu CR7 for football tourists, and a wine lodge tasting because Madeira wine is the reason half the island exists. Blandy's on Avenida Arriaga is the accessible one.
Take the cable car up to Monte for the botanical garden and the church, then come down on a carro de cesto — a wicker toboggan pushed by two men in white with rubber-soled boots. It is touristy, it is short, it costs more than it should and it is still worth doing once.
Then there is New Year. Funchal's fireworks display on 31 December is one of the largest in the world, launched from barges and headlands all around the bay, and cruise ships anchor in the harbour to watch it. This is the peak of the Madeiran year: hotel rates in the last week of December exceed August by a wide margin, minimum stays of five to seven nights are normal, and the good rooms with a bay view are committed many months ahead. If you want that week, ask early. If you do not, avoid it, because you will pay for it either way.
Elsewhere in the calendar: Carnival in February, the Flower Festival a couple of weeks after Easter, the Atlantic Festival with fireworks on June Saturdays, and the wine harvest festival in early September.
Madeira Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport, code FNC, sits at Santa Cruz about 20 kilometres east of Funchal — roughly half an hour on the expressway. The runway is famously built out over the sea on concrete columns, and pilots need a specific certification for it. Crosswinds do occasionally cause diversions to Porto Santo or the Canaries, which is worth knowing when you plan a tight connection, though it is a small minority of flights.
Direct flights run year-round from Lisbon and Porto and from most of northern Europe, with winter schedules that stay full because the island's high season is not summer. From further afield you connect through Lisbon.
Our role, stated plainly: we quote your accommodation through partner agencies. Transfers, car hire and excursions on Madeira are arranged locally and included in the offer where you want them. Our own vehicles and drivers have run airport transfers in Turkey since 2016, and Turkey is the only country where we drive.
If you intend to walk, yes, or at least for part of the stay. Trailheads are scattered and buses to them are infrequent. If you plan to stay in Funchal, eat well and take organised excursions, no — the city is walkable, taxis are reasonable and every trail has a tour running to it.
Be warned that Madeiran driving is not ordinary. The expressways are a feat of tunnelling and are easy, but the old roads are extremely steep, some at gradients that will frighten a driver used to flat countries, and hill starts on a slope with a bus behind you are a genuine skill. Take an automatic. Parking in central Funchal is difficult and mostly underground.
December to March is high season for a reason: mild, green, whale-watching, and the northern European escape. New Year is the peak and priced accordingly.
April and May bring the Flower Festival, the best wildflowers and reliable walking weather.
June to August is warmest for swimming and busiest with Portuguese and mainland European families, though Funchal rarely gets uncomfortably hot.
September and October are the quiet sweet spot: warmest sea of the year, good walking, lower rates.
November is the wettest month and the cheapest, and the north can be genuinely stormy.
Anyone whose holiday needs a sandy beach and a sun lounger by the sea. Anyone travelling with small children who will be bored by walking and cannot yet swim in deep water off a ladder. Anyone with a serious fear of heights, because the good trails have exposure. And anyone hoping for cheap: Madeira is not expensive by Atlantic standards, but it is not a budget package island either, and the last week of December is in a class of its own.
The difference between a February half-board room in the Funchal hotel zone and a bay-view suite over New Year is enormous, and the right answer depends on whether you are here to walk, to swim, to sit still or to see the fireworks.
Tell us your dates, how many of you are travelling, whether walking or swimming matters more, and whether you want to be in the city or somewhere quiet. A consultant comes back within one working day with two or three properties and the reasoning behind each, including which ones actually have decent sea access. The quote is free and commits you to nothing, and no payment is taken on this site — if you accept, you pay the partner agency that issues the booking and the voucher, and that agency is named before you decide.
Almost none in the sandy sense. The coast is cliff, and the two golden beaches at Calheta and Machico were built with imported sand. You swim in natural lava pools at Porto Moniz and Seixal, in seawater lidos along the Funchal coast, or off platforms with ladders. If sand is essential, look at Porto Santo instead.
It is the sister island about two hours away by ferry, with nine kilometres of continuous golden sand and a much drier, flatter landscape. If you want a beach week and a walking week, splitting the trip between the two islands is the standard solution and we can quote them together.
Most are surprisingly easy underfoot because the channels follow a near-level contour, so you get mountain scenery without the climbing. The catch is exposure: many paths have a long unfenced drop on one side. Bring a torch for the tunnel routes and a rain jacket, because the north is wet even when Funchal is sunny.
It is the main season. Funchal averages around 19 degrees in January, the island stays green, whale and dolphin trips run, and the walking is more comfortable than in summer. The sea is about 18 degrees, which is fine in a lido and brisk in the Atlantic. Book New Year far ahead or avoid it.
Funchal stages one of the largest fireworks displays in the world on 31 December, watched from the whole amphitheatre of the city and from ships in the bay. That week is the most expensive of the Madeiran year, exceeds August prices, and usually carries a minimum stay of five to seven nights.
For walking, yes, or for at least part of the stay, because trailheads are scattered and buses to them are infrequent. For a Funchal-based trip with organised excursions, no. If you do drive, take an automatic — the old roads are extremely steep and hill starts are a real skill here.
Less so than a Mediterranean beach resort. There is no shallow sand to play on, swimming is mostly deep water off ladders, and the main attraction is walking. Older children who like hiking, pools and boat trips do well. Say the ages and we will tell you honestly whether it fits.
Send your dates and party size and a consultant prices it with our partner agencies, replying within one working day. The quote is free and non-binding, and there is no checkout here. If you accept, you pay the partner agency that issues the booking and voucher, and that agency is named in the offer beforehand.
Rates here move a lot between low and high season, so we quote each request individually rather than publish a number that would be wrong most of the year.
Free, non-binding, answered by a person.
