There are a number of fun activities to do along the northern coast of Madeira. It's filled with pretty little villages and plenty of cool things to see and experience. Here are three of our favorites.

Getting here: This part of the island is really best reached with a car as the public transportation isn't really built out enough to make it very convenient. You could take a taxi but you'd have to keep the meter running to stop and enjoy an area before moving on. Another option is to hire a driver for a day or take a tour with one of the companies doing excursions.

Here are three of our favorite places we explored, heading northwest along the coast, with our rental car:

Coastal town town of São Vicente

If you are cutting through the mountains from the south on ER104 this is the first village on the coast and takes about 40 minutes from Funchal. We enjoy watching the waves here and getting a close up view of some wildlife: colorful Atlantic Rock Crabs, the Madeiran Wall Lizard, which is endemic to the island and various birds like the Whimbrel. From this location it's easy to head either east or west along the coastal road depending on which direction you want to go. We enjoyed local seafood and a drink at Restaurante Caravela which has a nice balcony where you can enjoy the water.

The pretty village of Seixal

About 10 minutes further north we reached this quiet town nestled on the foothills of the mountains and situated right next to the water. On the way there we passed a few beautiful waterfalls that are well worth pulling over for like this one at Miradouro do Véu da Noiva. Seixal is very picturesque from this viewpoint and there's a fun giftshop here as well. On one of our visits we stopped for a coffee at Snack-Bar Avista Navios and enjoyed the beautiful view from their outside balcony.

Our favorite thing here is the natural volcanic pools. During high winds it's not possible to use them because the waves are too dangerous, but if the weather is good it's an incredible experience to swim in these (and they are free). We parked on the road next to the road near a pretty overlook area heading down. Don't attempt to drive all the way down as the grade of this is insanely steep! As we walked down there was a bathroom with one shower stall to use, which was handy.

They have added infrastructure around the rocks to create the pools and make them more protected and there are a few different spots to get in. We had the perfect day to do with with Brian & Amanda during their visit in December and because it was the winter season we had them mostly to ourselves! This was truly a magical experience and one of the best things to do in Madeira.

We enjoyed stopping along the route at Miradouro da Ribeira da Janela to see some cool rock formations as we wound our way past small towns and made our way to the last village on our list.

The Natural Pools at Porto Moniz

The big draw here was the natural volcanic pools and it's often much more crowded than Sexial due to there being a number of restaurants and businesses built all around these. There are actually two pools we could use. One was more natural, free and had no changing facilities. There was a business offering food/drinks with some chairs here. We just had to find a rock or place on the ground to put our things while we swam. This pool area was a little higher than the other option and as a result seemed more protected from the rough surrounding water. We swam here two different times and loved it!

The other pool, which was at the end of the promenade, charges a small fee and offers lockers, restrooms and changing facilities. They actively monitored the surrounding waves (since high waves push water into the pool) and would rope off sections that were getting impacted to keep swimmers safe.

Handy Tip: Be sure to bring your own towel as neither of these places offer them.

We didn't swim in this one but did have lunch at the Sea View Restaurante which had large windows looking over it and I believe is a hotel which is part of the pool facility.

Another favorite thing to do here was to find a place to sit and gaze out because the waves here were phenomenal and the water was just moving and churning all the time.

Because Porto Moniz is about an hour drive from Funchal it can mean a longer day's outing but it's another amazing part of gorgeous Madeira with it's beautiful little towns and incredible things to do.

November/December 2022