Madeira
If you're looking for a gorgeous sub-tropical destination with enormous variety and plenty of opportunities to be active this might be just the place! It's sometimes referred to as Europe's Hawaii and we can see why. This small island, which is about 34 miles long and 13 miles wide, is astonishingly beautiful, lush with all kinds of vegetation and includes everything from incredible vertical mountain villages to miles of coastline. It's the largest island in an archipelago that is located north of the canary islands and 320 miles west of Morocco and an autonomous region of Portugal. It offers mild year round temperatures and as a result is a very popular stop for cruise ships, especially during the winter. Although it doesn't have large sandy beaches (they are mostly rocky) it instead has stunning hikes, charming towns, beautiful flowering plants, natural volcanic pools and spectacular landscapes.
The island is pretty small so from the capital of Funchal you can get almost anywhere within an hour.
Some things we love:
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Beautiful coastline
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Vertical Mountains
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Walking along levadas (aqueducts)
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Miradouros (viewpoints)
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Wandering old narrow streets
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Small pretty villages
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Banana trees
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Wonderful architecture
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Amazing variety of hiking trails
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Stunning blue water
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Less expensive destination
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Pretty cobblestone patterns
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Friendly people
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Amazing variety of vegetation
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Mild temperatures
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Volcanic natural pools
Transportation:
The best way to really experience the island is with a car as the public transportation is not fully developed enough to easily be able to use it to navigate your way around. If that isn't an option you could utilize taxis or join an excursion to reach specific areas of the island. Within Funchal you can walk everywhere around the old pretty part of town.
Language barriers:
We found that almost everywhere we went we could communicate in English enough to accomplish what we needed, with Google Translate helping out occasionally.
Best Time to Visit:
The weather here is mild year round but they describe it as having two seasons. It's also quite variable depending on where you are on the island. We were here between mid-October to mid-December, which meant it was considered the slightly cooler and wetter time of year which runs Oct-April. The weather was comfortable, in the upper 60's to low 70's consistently, which was perfect for outdoor activities like hiking. We did have periodic rain showers but they moved through quickly and we were able to dodge them by following a weather app so we could head to the clearest parts of the island. The other six months of the year are warmer & drier with temperatures typically mid to upper 70's (periodically into the 80's depending on the winds) and busier with more visitors. During June and July there are frequent morning clouds that blanket the island and clear out as the day progresses.
Helpful Weather Planning Sites
This isn't specific to just Funchal but rather the entire island and we used these a lot since the weather changes quickly and can be quite different in different parts of the island. It was nice to check these and map out a game plan for the day with an Option 1 & 2 for times when we would arrive at a location and it didn't match the forecast.
Webcams - there are several of these around the island and it's a great way to see exactly what the live feed is showing in an area you're considering exploring.
Ventusky - we have this app loaded on our phones and use it all the time as we travel because we can see all sorts of weather information in a map view and by time of day: cloud cover, wind, sun, rain, etc. We found that by checking it we could see what parts of the island were going to have better conditions for something we wanted to do and as a result we had the best weather possible for our outings.
Travel Tips
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Pack good walking shoes as everywhere you go in this country you'll be walking on uneven cobblestone and often changing elevation.
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Carry some euros with you. Although most places accept credit cards there are also many that don't and require euros.
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Pack some tissues and a few 50 cent pieces for the bathroom (they often don't have toilet paper).
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Pack clothing layers that can be easily changed and carried with you as the weather is very changeable and varies a lot from sun to shade.
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Use a bag or purse that has a zipper or can be fastened closed for security.
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Pack a water bottle unless you want to pay for water.
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Have a Plan A & B (and maybe C) for where you want to eat because often the stated hours don't match what's on Google maps.
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Bring collapsible grocery bags with you or save the ones you get charged, the first time you shop, so you can re-use them.
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If you are dairy intolerant buy a few mini sized bottles of milk that works for you and pack one each day in your bag. Then you are prepared to still be able to order that coffee drink you want. Many places don't have any dairy-free milk options available.
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Bring primary and backup credit cards that have no foreign transaction fees and a good exchange rate and then always opt to pay in Euros instead of dollars (the point-of-sale exchange rate if you pay in USD is consistently bad). We use Chase Sapphire Preferred as our primary credit card, which also provides rental car insurance.
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Bring a primary and backup debit card with low or no ATM fees. We use Capital One 360 and Charles Schwab, with Capital One as our primary debit card because the app and website are so much easier and quicker. But the Schwab debit card actually reimburses ATM fees worldwide (although you won't see that until the end of each billing cycle).
Island Exploring
There are so many amazing parts of the island to experience. Since we based ourselves in Funchal that meant we made lots of day trips. There is a very extensive tunnel system that made it convenient to get anywhere we wanted to explore. Whether that meant heading to the interior mountains or along one of the coastlines we found endless adventures.
Funchal-Specific Posts
Funchal is the capital of Madeira and the largest city with a current population of around 105,000. Located 20 minutes from the airport, it is shaped like an amphitheater with the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. The southern part of the island is typically the sunniest and warmest as the storms tend to roll in from the north. There is a wonderful Old Town near the harbor & cruise ship port terminal that has lots of areas to wander. From there the city spreads out with more modern areas. There is bus transportation available within the metro area. This is where we based ourselves during our two months since it was our first time on the island.
Hiking-Specific Posts
There are so many incredible trails and levadas to walk and we only did a tiny fraction. We typically used AllTrails and they list 463 possible hikes! Here's our Madeira list of the ones we did during our stay.
