Mad about Madeira: Exploring the Island
Funchal indeed has its charm and allure, but it is worth exploring the island’s wildly diverse landscapes and natural beauty.
Porto Bay Resort in the Lido area was our homebase during our week-long stay in Madeira. It is a lovely resort with beautifully landscaped gardens, comfortable lounge areas, and various indoor/outdoor swimming pools. On overcast days, we explored Funchal’s hidden gems in the Old Town and along the waterfront. Whilst Funchal has its charm, exploring the island of Madeira was high on the agenda.
How to Explore the Island: Car Rental vs Tours
Hiring a car during your stay in Madeira offers full flexibility to visit places at your own pace. However, Madeira is a tricky place to drive due to small windy roads, tunnels, and elevated highways. Although we had a car reservation for part of the trip, we cancelled in favour of taking an island tour. If you must hire a car, I would suggest reserving an automatic due to the narrow and steep roads.
We booked two separate tours with Happy Tours to explore the island: Go West and Go East to see the highlights of Madeira’s stunning landscape. Visitors can pick from all kinds of tours: levada walking tours, mountain biking tours, whale-watching tours, and so forth. There are numerous tourist outlets dotted around Funchal, or you can also make tour reservations online.
Exploring the Island: Go West
The “Go West Island Tour” takes you to nine locations on the western side of the island starting with the picturesque fishing village of Câmara de Lobos. Unfortunately, it was raining which put a damper on our visit to Câmara de Lobos and Cabo Girão, one of the highest sea cliffs in Europe with a suspended glass platform. The tour goes to a little town of Ribeira Brava, which means ‘wild river’ before heading to the north.
Next stop was Sao Vicente where we did a very short walk to see an old handmade tunnel. On the northern coast, the moody Atlantic Ocean greeted us with wild waves. The tour continues to Miradouro do Véu da Noiva, a small observation deck to see the mighty 30m waterfall tumbling into the wild Atlantic Ocean.
Luckily, the sun was peeking through the clouds by the time we stopped for lunch in Porto Moniz. The little northern town is best known for natural salt water swimming pools formed from volcanic lava. Due to the high wind and strom, the natural pools were unfortunately closed. Kenz took his DJI drone for some video footage and aerial shots of nearby Ilheu Mole and terraced views of Porto Moniz.
Our last and final stop was to Calheta on the southwest coast, home to one of the few yellow sandy beaches in Madeira. Although a natural beach, the yellow sand is all imported from the Sahara desert. Here we enjoyed an ice cream on the Marina da Calheta, whilst people-watching. We arrived back to our hotel, tired but happy to be able to explore the island’s dramatic north coast.
Exploring the Island: Go East
A beautiful sunny day awaits us when we booked in on the “Go East Island Tour” a few days later. The first stop was a beautiful vista overlooking Madeira not far from Monte. Then it was on Pico do Areeiro, one of the highest points of Madeira at 1818 meters, for some amazing mountain scenery. Next stop was Ribeiro Frio, a small government-run trout farm before driving through the lush valley enroute to Santana.
Best known for traditional thatched triangular-shaped houses, Santana is a nice stop for lunch. The weather was perfect for a picnic so we picked up a few local bolo do caco sandwiches to eat at the main plaza. Then we explored the traditional houses which were now mostly gift shops selling artisan crafts.
More spectacular viewpoints and vistas await us. The tour guide took us to the newly opened Guindaste Viewpoint which has two glass walkways suspended over the Atlantic. Then we stopped off at the local North Mills Distillery at Porto da Cruz to enjoy a brief tour and some rum tasting. Then it was onto a vastly different landscape on Ponta de São Lourenço, the barren rustic red peninsula jutting out to the ocean.
The last and final stop was to Machico beach where Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira discovered Madeira in 1419. Here another yellow sand beach greets us where many locals were enjoying a lovely Sunday afternoon.
Both tours together give you a full appreciation of Madeira’s fascinating history, unique culture and spectacular views. Taking a tour with an experienced guide and driver made it an enjoyable and informative experience. Happy exploring the island of Madeira!
