IS IT WORTH VISITING MADEIRA IN WINTER?
On this post I will highlight what we did while visiting Madeira in a short break in winter. To follow the whole trip, read my previous posts Madeira Day 1, Madeira Day 2, Madeira Day 3 and Madeira Day 4.
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After another peaceful night at Pestana Casino Park, we woke up early and had a quick breakfast. We had to meet our guide at reception at 9 am to leave for a tour of the east side of Madeira.
We were travelling independently as we are confident travellers and speak the language. However, if you prefer to be part of a tour and to have everything organised for you, I advise you to book a complete tour with Tourradar.
Tourradar has different kinds of tours that will fit your time and budget. If you book it via my links you can get a discount by using this code: RoseG50.
The tour to the east side would cover: Terreiro da Luta, Pico do Arieiro, Levada walks at Ribeiro Frio, Laurisilva Forest, Santana, Ponta de São Lourenço and Machico.
This time we were only four people and the guide on a van. The day was very cloudy and threatening to rain at any time, so our umbrellas accompanied us on another adventure day in Madeira.
Below is a map showing the places we visited on that day:
VISITING THE EAST SIDE OF MADEIRA
Our first stop of the day was Machico, a small town on the east side of the coast. It is also an important town marked by its history. That is where the navigator João Gonçalvez Zarco disembarked when he first arrived in Madeira for the first time.
The name of the town “Machico” came from a legend of two lovers Robert Machim and Anne d’Arfet. They escaped England because their love was forbidden by the Church and both died in a shipwreck in Madeira. Two crosses were found on the island which the Portuguese navigators attributed to the lovers. The name “Machico” is believed to have come from the surname “Machin”.
We parked near the beach and the guide gave us an hour to use the toilets near the beach and to have a look at the centre of town and the promenade in front of the beach.
We walked on the promenade and in the direction of the centre. We explored the area and stopped for a coffee in one of their cafés. It is a nice town, but not very attractive on that day with everything wet from the rain and a bit windy too. Soon it was time to go back to the van.
Next stop was at Caniçal. It is a small fishing village after Machico, but we didn’t go to the village, we went to the Caniçal viewpoint at the top instead. The views are very impressive from there and at the time it was not raining, and a bit of the sun was showing up.
We were supposed to go up in the mountains to Pico do Arieiro and Ribeiro Frio to walk on the “Levadas”., but the guide told us that a colleague who went there earlier told him it was really bad, raining a lot and asked if we still wanted to go anyway. He said there were other places to go instead, and we agreed to skip the top of the mountains and the “Levadas”.
We went to visit a rum distillery called “Engenhos do Norte” in Porto da Cruz instead. That was an interesting visit, learning how the rum was made and stored. At the end there was a tasting session, and you could buy the rum at their shop. The distillery was in a beautiful place facing a bay and we walked to the end of the road path to get close to the sea. There were beautiful views from there as well.
Our next stop was at the town of “Santana”. It is famous for the typical houses in a triangular shape and a thatched roof. These houses were used by farmers in the past and nowadays they are a tourist attraction with not many of them surviving. The one’s that are there are mostly used as little touristic shops and not as residences anymore.
Santana was declared as a “Biosphere Reserve” by UNESCO in 2011 and there are many nature trails for the ones that want to explore the biodiversity of the area more deeply. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for that. We had two hours to explore the little town and to have lunch.
Our tour included lunch in one of Santana’s restaurants and after looking around the town and visiting the little local church we went for lunch. Lunch consisted of a soup as a starter, main meal of roasted chicken with rice and a dessert. It was a simple but pleasant lunch. While we were having lunch the heavens opened again, and it rained really heavily.
After lunch and after the rain had reduced a bit, we set out again. We had another stop at “São Roque do Faial”. This is another small village where they had a trout farm and beautiful trails. We had a coffee at one of the restaurants near the farm, but the rain did not give us a chance to walk on the muddy trails. After this stop we headed back to Funchal, ending our visit day to the east side of Madeira.
Unfortunately, the weather didn’t help, and our tour was cut short due to the bad weather. I think if it was not raining that much, we would have had more fun on this tour.
You can book this TOUR of the east side of Madeira. It goes to different places from the ones we visited, but includes Santana.
Or you can book this TOUR, with lunch, the same as ours, but ours was cut short/changed because of the weather.
In the evening, we had a reservation at a restaurant called “5 Sentidos” (5 Senses). This was our last dinner in Madeira. It was a perfect dinner as this restaurant serves delicious food with an excellent service. It is a small restaurant, so make sure to reserve in advance to avoid disappointment if you want to try this one.
After dinner we walked back to our hotel, but stopped at the Casino as we hadn’t visited it since we arrived. We only looked around, we didn’t play as we are not very attracted to these kind of things, we just wanted to look at it out of curiosity.
This was going to be our last night at Pestana Casino Park and in Madeira. Next day in the morning we had a transfer booked to take us to the airport to fly back to the UK.
CONCLUSION: IS IT WORTH VISITING MADEIRA IN WINTER
Well, if you follow our trip from Day 1, you will see that our experience there in winter was not great from start to finish. However, it was clear that the island is beautiful with plenty of activities and attractions to explore.
It was our bad luck to have had so many rainy days. We talked to people on restaurants and attractions and everybody we talked to said they had been going on holidays to Madeira in winter for years and this was the first time they had so much rain in a consecutive period.
We would love to return to Madeira, but I would not go back again in January or in winter. I think the island will be great in spring or autumn and I would pick one of these seasons if I were to go back again.
What about you? Did you go to Madeira in winter? How was your experience? Leave your comment to help other travellers to decide if Madeira is going to be their winter destination.
On this tone, I finish my series of posts about Madeira in winter. The next series will be Brazil/2024, coming up soon!
Don’t forget to check the tours available at Tourradar if you prefer to have your trip and tours all organised for you.
I hope this post will give you some idea of what can be done in one day in Madeira and will help you plan your own visit there.
HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TRIP
Below you will find a list of what to visit, where to stay and where to eat in Funchal, Madeira. I classified each place as follows:
BOLD – Visited, tried and recommended
NOT BOLD – Not visited or tried, but planning to visit or try and heard very good reviews
RED – Visited and tried but do not recommend, avoid or be cautious
*** – Excellent
** – Good
* – OK
£££ – Expensive
££ – Fair and affordable
£ – Cheap
PLEASE NOTE: Every hotel, restaurants and attractions I mention on my blogs are not sponsored reviews and we always paid the full price when visiting. We give our own opinion of the place and detail our experience, good or bad.
WHAT TO SEE
ATTRACTIONS – Day 5
1 – Machico – ***
2 – Caniçal Viewpoint – ***
3 – Porto da Cruz – ***
4 – Engenhos do Norte Distillery – ***
5 – Santana – ***
6 – São Roque do Faial – ***
WHERE TO STAY
ACCOMMODATION
1 – Pestana Casino Park – 5* – £££
2 – Belvedere Boutique – 4* – £££
3 – Luxury Apartment Living Funchal – 4* – ££
4 – The Views Baia – 4* – £££
5 – Aparthotel Imperatriz – 3*
6 – Charming Boat in Funchal – 3*
If you prefer to look for your own accommodation, search and book via the below widget:
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WHERE TO EAT
RESTAURANTS
1 – 5 Sentidos -*** – ££
2 – Restaurante do Forte – *** – £££
3 – Restaurante dos Combatentes – *** – ££
4 – Taberna Madeira – *** – ££
5 – Restaurante Hemingway – *** – ££
6 – Kampo – £££
If you tried any of my recommendations above, please send me a message and tell me about your experience good or bad, so I can update the list accordingly. Thanks!
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Links:
1 – Tuk-Tuk
2 – Lagos & Sagres
3 – Dolphins
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