Madeira travel guide

Plan your trip, step by step

• Where to stay
  Choose Funchal or a village base, and a hotel vs a quinta or apartment.
• Things to do
  Decide which levada walks, peaks and boat trips to book before you fly.
• Madeira in 3 days
  Follow a plan that splits the city, the mountains and the west coast.
• Estimate your trip cost
  See what a Madeira trip costs once the hire car is in the number.
• First-timer mistakes to avoid
  Sidestep the errors that cost first-time Madeira visitors whole days.
• Madeira on a budget
  See what a lean, comfortable or generous day really costs here.

The island’s bases at a glance

Madeira is an island, not a city — these are areas you would base in, spread across a coastline that takes real driving time to cross.

Funchal — Zona Velha & the centre

Known for the old town’s painted doors on Rua de Santa Maria, the Mercado dos Lavradores (open since 1940), the cathedral, and the densest run of restaurants and bars on the island.

Funchal — Lido & São Martinho

Known for the western hotel strip: a long seafront promenade, sea-water lidos and bathing platforms instead of a beach, and most of the big pool-and-sea-view properties.

Monte & the hillside quintas

Known for the terrace above Funchal reached by cable car — tropical gardens, historic estate hotels, cooler air, and the 19th-century wicker toboggan run that still starts outside the church.

Câmara de Lobos & Cabo Girão

Known for a working fishing town dating from the 1420s and painted by Churchill, poncha bars around the harbour, and the Cabo Girão skywalk just above it — a glass floor cantilevered roughly 580 m above the sea.

Calheta, Ponta do Sol & the south-west

Known for the sunniest, driest corner of the island — Ponta do Sol’s name means “point of sun” and it earns it — plus Calheta’s imported golden-sand bay and the Rabaçal levadas on the plateau above.

Machico, Santana & the north coast

Known for the greener, wetter, far less built-up half of the island: Machico’s sandy bay and the São Lourenço peninsula in the east, Santana’s triangular thatched casas de colmo and its UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status, and Porto Moniz’s volcanic sea pools in the north-west.

Deciding where to base yourself? The where-to-stay guide turns these areas into a lodging decision.

When to go — month by month

Average daytime high (bars) and rainy days per month, from 5-year climate normals. Greener months are the most comfortable to visit.

Best months to visit: Jul–Aug

Destinations with a similar climate

Like Madeira’s weather? These places have the closest year-round climate in our data — tap through for each one’s best time to visit.

• Edinburgh →
• Dublin →
• Wengen →
• Vancouver →
• Amsterdam →
• Grindelwald →

Know before you go

Currency

Euro (€). Cards are accepted almost everywhere, including small cafés and most bus operators’ ticket offices, but carry a little cash for village bars, roadside fruit stalls, market vendors and the small honesty-box car parks at trailheads.

Language

Portuguese, with a distinct Madeiran accent that even mainland Portuguese find hard. English is widely and confidently spoken across the tourism trade — Madeira has hosted British visitors for well over a century — and German is common around the hotel zone.

From the airport

Madeira Airport (FNC) sits on the coast at Santa Cruz, east of Funchal — roughly a 20–25 minute drive on the expressway. Your options are the airport bus into the city, a taxi, a pre-booked transfer, or a hire car collected at the terminal; the airport’s own site lists the current bus operators and fares, which change more often than the guidebooks do. The runway is famously extended on pillars over the sea, and go-arounds in strong crosswinds are routine here rather than an emergency.

Getting around

Funchal city buses are run by Horários do Funchal on the rechargeable GIRO card, and regional operators cover the coastal towns — but bus timetables are built for residents commuting into Funchal, not for tourists reaching trailheads. The VR1/VE expressways and their tunnels cross the island far faster than the map suggests; the old coast and mountain roads are steep, narrow and slow. A small hire car changes the trip more than any other single booking.

Best time

Madeira is a year-round island — this is the whole point of it — with a mild subtropical climate and no real off-season. What changes is cloud and rain, not temperature: the north coast and the mountains are markedly wetter than the south, and winter brings more storm days that close trails. Late spring and early autumn give the steadiest hiking weather. Sea temperatures run roughly 18–24 °C through the year.

Prices & events

Portuguese prices include VAT, so the menu figure is the figure you pay; tipping is modest, usually rounding up or 5–10%. Watch the events calendar before you fix dates: Christmas and New Year in Funchal, the spring Festa da Flor, the Atlantic Festival through June and the Wine Festival in late August–early September all move hotel prices sharply.

For a day-by-day plan that splits the city, the mountains and the west coast, see Madeira in 3 days.