What to see in Madeira: Milan Bez Mapy’s tips

I liked Madeira more than any of the Canary Islands, and in places it reminded me of New Zealand. I wouldn’t skip the climb up Pico Ruivo, the Ponta de São Lourenço peninsula, the traditional houses in Santana or the Cabo Girão viewpoint. In Funchal, the gardens and the cable car are worth your time.

Quick factsby Milan Bez Mapy

How many days

At least four full days, staying in the south; I stayed near Calheta and in Funchal

Airport to Funchal

Taxi about €25 to €35; Bolt and Uber both work

Car hire

I can’t imagine Madeira without a car; go for the smallest one you can get, ideally an automatic, as the roads are narrow and steep

Pico Ruivo

I spent the night at the Casa de Abrigo mountain hut for €18; 45 minutes on foot from the car park, then another 15 to the summit

Watch out

Official PR trails charge a fee, €4.50 in 2026, and you must book in advance on SIMplifica

Where to eat

I had the best meat skewer of my life at O Forno by the lighthouse in Ponta do Pargo; book a table

So, what is there to see in Madeira? I have to say, few places leave me walking around open-mouthed the whole time. Madeira did. At times I felt as if I were back in New Zealand, which Madeira kept reminding me of.

In this post you’ll find my tips on what to see in Madeira, where to eat and stay, what to try and how to get the most out of your visit.

Practical tips for a trip to Madeira

1. Flights to Madeira
2. Where to stay in Madeira
3. Car hire in Madeira
4. When to go to Madeira
5. Beaches and swimming in Madeira
6. Useful apps for the island
7. What to see in Madeira
8. What to eat in Madeira
9. Souvenirs from Madeira

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Flights to Madeira and getting from the airport

Wizz Air flies direct to Madeira from Budapest, and the flight takes about five hours. Since March 2026 Wizz Air no longer flies from Vienna: it has pulled out of Vienna airport completely. From Prague you can fly TAP Portugal with a change in Lisbon. A taxi from the airport to Funchal costs about €25 to €35, and I was pleased to find that Bolt works there as normal. Since December 2024 Uber has been back in Madeira too, and you can pay by card everywhere.

Tip from Milan For the landing, I’d sit on the right-hand side of the plane. You get a bird’s-eye view of the sheer cliffs of the Ponta de São Lourenço nature reserve.

Where to stay in Madeira

In Madeira, where you stay really matters. It usually rains in the north, so whatever you do, you want to be based in the south: in Funchal, Calheta, Madalena do Mar or Ponta do Sol. Which of them you pick hardly matters. I stayed near Calheta and in Funchal, but next time I’d also consider a few nights in lovely Ponta do Sol.

Janka Travelhacker, a fellow blogger, recommended the Windy app to me. With it I could forecast the weather myself and plan my days around it. I’d spend at least four full days on the island.

Car hire in Madeira

Hire a car in Madeira or rely on the buses? Honestly, I can’t imagine managing there without a car. Madeira has its own bus network, but it’s very limited, and without your own car you wouldn’t get to many of the places in this article. On top of that, you pay on the bus in cash or with a prepaid GIRO card; bank cards mostly aren’t accepted.

There are plenty of car hire companies. I went with Centauro near the airport. Why? It had the best price. I did notice, though, that companies right in Funchal were even cheaper than those at the airport. Go for the smallest car you can get, ideally an automatic. Those narrow, steep, winding roads still stress me out to this day, and I was driving a little Fiat 500. On roads like these, full insurance with no excess is worth paying for. I cover what to watch out for with insurance and deposits in my article on car hire on holiday.

Parking isn’t a problem anywhere in Madeira: you pull over wherever there’s space, for free. I even saw cars parked in tunnels. The one thing to watch for is a blue line, which means you have to pay. You’ll also spend a lot of time in tunnels, but they’re toll-free.

When to go to Madeira and what the weather is like

Madeira’s main tourist season runs roughly from May to September, when it rains least. I went in January and got both sunny and rainy days. In the south it was mostly around 20°C, which suited me fine. And January is when there are the fewest tourists and prices are reasonable. Same as anywhere, really.

Beaches and swimming in Madeira

Madeira has a few beaches, but many are stony and black, and the ocean is cold and rough. I definitely wouldn’t call it an island for spending your days on a sunbed. Hotels have pools, but personally I felt Madeira calls for an active holiday, the kind where you go to bed tired and with aching muscles. Which is just how I like it.

Oh, and my friend Janka Travelhacker has written up Madeira’s beaches (in Slovak) in great detail, so I don’t go into them much here. The waterfalls interested me more anyway.

Useful travel apps for Madeira

• Windy forecasts the weather and tracks the clouds. On an island like Madeira, where the weather changes by the minute, it’s a very practical tool.
• maps.me is an offline map so detailed that it shows even the smallest forest paths and shortcuts. It’s great for hiking, but not for finding your way by car.

Things to do in Madeira: Milan Bez Mapy’s picks

• Funchal and its gardens
• The Ponta de São Lourenço nature reserve
• The town of Santana
• Hiking Pico Ruivo and a night in the highest house in Madeira
• Cabo Girão Skywalk
• Ponta do Sol and the Cascata dos Anjos waterfall
• The 25 Fontes and Risco waterfalls and the Fanal forest
• The dramatic beach at Faja do Barro
• The natural pools in Porto Moniz
• Portugal’s steepest cable car in Achadas da Cruz
• The Ponta do Pargo lighthouse and a brilliant local restaurant
• A trip to the island of Porto Santo

Visiting Funchal: the gardens and the cable car

I think Funchal makes a great start to Madeira. I spent my first two nights here after landing, and I’d suggest everyone does the same. Or find somewhere to stay with parking and base yourself in Funchal for the whole trip. It’s well placed for the rest of the island, and since it’s in the south, the weather isn’t bad either.

What to see in Funchal

• The Mercado dos Lavradores market and the Confeitaria café
• The old town and Rua de Santa Maria with the Taberna Ruel restaurant
• The cable car up to Monte
• The botanical garden
• The Monte Palace Madeira gardens
• The Cristiano Ronaldo museum

Mercado dos Lavradores is a pleasant market where you can buy fresh fruit. Someone told me not to buy from the stalls downstairs but to head upstairs, where it’s less touristy. Anyway, this is where I found the Confeitaria café, which makes little passion fruit pastries called pastéis. I’d pop in for breakfast one day. The centre also has the Cristiano Ronaldo museum, as Ronaldo comes from Madeira. I didn’t go, because I’m not a fan, but you might enjoy it.

The old town itself felt very cosy to me, especially around Rua de Santa Maria, the narrow street where I stayed. It’s full of restaurants. I sat down at Taberna Ruel and had some seafood by way of saying hello to Madeira. Then I bought a poncha, the traditional drink, at a stall and just wandered the lanes.

You’ll find tours and activities in Madeira here:

I’d definitely take the cable car up to Monte for the gardens. You can also buy combined tickets for the botanical garden and Monte Palace. I visited both, and I liked the botanical garden a lot less. If you don’t have as much time as I did, just do Monte Palace. The garden is a collection of styles from all over the world. It also has a nice café, Café do Monte, with traditional Portuguese cakes and a view over the whole of Funchal and the coast. I walked back down, which took about an hour.

Ponta de São Lourenço nature reserve

Ponta de São Lourenço reminds me of my trip to New Zealand. It’s one of the last almost untouched places in Madeira. It lies at the eastern end of the island, where a fantastic mix of rock, sea and nature has produced one of the island’s masterpieces.

Traditional houses in Santana

The traditional houses in Santana are part of Madeira’s heritage: they have stood here since the island was discovered. These small, triangular, colourful houses were thatched with straw from the grain fields and built of wood. Wood was cheap and plentiful in this region, and it helped keep the temperature inside even.

The steep roof let the rainwater run off and kept the house watertight. Inside there’s just an attic, once used to store farm produce, and a ground floor with the living space, split into two separate rooms: a kitchen and a bedroom.

Hiking Pico Ruivo and a night at Casa de Abrigo, the highest house in Madeira

Pico Ruivo is the highest mountain in Madeira. Somewhere I’d seen pictures of a beautiful sunrise from the top, so that settled it. On blogs I’d read about Casa de Abrigo, a mountain hut where you can pay for a bed and spend the night. The catch is that Casa de Abrigo is owned by the Portuguese state, so you can’t book it on Booking.com or similar sites. Here’s their official website. I phoned and booked a night for €18, though they also have an email contact form.

How do you get to Casa de Abrigo? Park next to the Mountain Spot Café at Achada do Teixeira, the last large car park below the summit of Pico Ruivo. From there it’s about a 45-minute walk to the hut along a nice paved mountain path. From the hut to the summit is only another 15 minutes on foot. I’d bring warm clothes: the hut has no heating, and in January the nights up there were properly cold. Download the maps.me app, which has all the forest paths marked, and you won’t get lost.

Note: Madeira charges for its official hiking trails (PR). In 2026 one trail costs visitors €4.50, and you have to book it in advance on the government’s SIMplifica portal. That includes the trails up Pico Ruivo, to the 25 Fontes and Risco waterfalls and on Ponta de São Lourenço.

As for that sunrise, the weather was so lousy that I saw absolutely nothing. Never mind. Drying my socks by the fire in a mountain hut by candlelight, with the rain coming down outside, was a real highlight. Give it a go yourself, and maybe you’ll get lucky with the weather too.

Cabo Girão Skywalk

Cabo Girão Skywalk in Madeira stands on one of the highest sea cliffs in Europe, and I wouldn’t skip it on a trip to the island. From the glass-floored platform you can see the town of Câmara de Lobos, part of Funchal and a stretch of Madeira’s south coast. It’s one of the most popular sights on the island. Admission used to be free; since January 2026 it has cost €5 a person, and children aged 12 and under go free.

There’s also a café and toilets, so you can stop and sit down (in the café or on the loo) after seeing what a 580-metre cliff looks like.

Tip from Milan The café does excellent passion fruit cheesecake.

Ponta do Sol and the Cascata dos Anjos waterfall

I found Ponta do Sol purely by chance while looking for the road to the well-known Cascata dos Anjos. It’s a waterfall that pours straight onto a road, so cars drive right through it. Locals know it as the only free car wash in Madeira.

Note: according to the Ponta do Sol council, the road under the waterfall has been closed to traffic since 2016 because of the risk of falling rocks. If you go, follow the signs.

In Ponta do Sol, stay for the sun setting straight into the sea. I’d wait for it at the Sol Poente restaurant and order something traditional, such as limpets. You’ll find my tips on what to eat in Madeira at the end of the article.

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25 Fontes and Risco waterfalls and the Fanal forest

25 Fontes and Risco are the two best-known waterfalls on the island, so expect the biggest crowds here. If you’re up for some googling, you’ll find dozens more. Both are an easy walk over ordinary terrain. There’s even a shuttle bus every 20 minutes from the Miradouro de Rabaçal car park to the Rabaçal Nature Spot Cafe. From there, the waterfalls are even closer.

If you need a wee, the toilets outside the Rabaçal Nature Spot Cafe cost money, but the ones inside the café are free. Just saying.

Levadas in Madeira

On the way to the waterfalls, look out for the levadas. What is a levada? It’s a man-made channel built to carry water to irrigate the farmland around the island. There are countless such aqueducts. Follow the channels and let them lead you through the ancient forest.

The Fanal forest is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

When the first explorers arrived in Madeira, the island was covered in Laurisilva. Laurisilva is a type of ancient laurel forest that once covered a large part of southern Europe. In Madeira, only 16% of the original forest has survived. Only a few areas are left today, and the largest of them is here in Madeira. The forest is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Porto Moniz natural pools and Faja do Barro beach

Bad weather kept me away from the natural pools in Porto Moniz, but nearby is Faja do Barro beach, which reminds many people of Iceland. It’s worth a stop when you’re passing.

Portugal’s steepest cable car in Achadas da Cruz

The Achadas da Cruz cable car isn’t one of the island’s big tourist hotspots, so the atmosphere felt much more relaxed and there were fewer people. It’s the steepest cable car in Portugal and runs until 6pm. By 5pm, though, the man in charge wasn’t too keen on letting anyone else go down. At the bottom, all that awaited me was a deserted little settlement, a hamlet really, but it looked epic. Someone should shoot a film here.

The hamlet is called Fajã da Quebrada Nova. Thanks to its direct access to the sea, Fajã da Quebrada Nova has always been very productive farmland. That’s one of the reasons the cable car was built.

Ponta do Pargo lighthouse and a brilliant local restaurant

Farol da Ponta do Pargo is an active lighthouse in Ponta do Pargo, built in 1922 on top of Ponta Vigia, a rocky cliff. The tower itself is only 14 metres tall, but because it stands on the cliff, its light shines 312 metres above the sea. It’s also a lovely spot to watch the sunset.

In Ponta do Pargo, near the lighthouse, I found a local restaurant called O Forno, where I ate the best meat skewer of my life. There was a bit of a queue, so if you’re planning to eat here, which I recommend with every stomach I have, book a table. I didn’t, and if I’d turned up half an hour later, I wouldn’t have got a seat.

A trip to Porto Santo

I didn’t have time for the island of Porto Santo, but I’m including it so you can consider a boat trip there from Funchal. Let me know what it’s like.

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What to eat in Madeira: traditional food and local drinks

I want to write a separate article about Madeira’s food, and once it’s ready, I’ll add a link here. For now, here’s a short list of what to try in Madeira. Outside Funchal, I found restaurant prices very similar to those back home in Bratislava; only in Funchal were they high. Probably down to the cruise ships that like to dock here.

1. Limpets are sea snails, and they taste fantastic. I’d have them as a starter.
2. The meat skewer (espetada) is probably the most traditional thing I ate in Madeira, and the best one was at O Forno, mentioned above. Herb butter goes on top, slowly melts and runs down the meat.
3. Bolo do Caco is garlic bread. You might think, so what, we have that at home. Not like this, you don’t. Have it with your starter.
4. Picado is chunks of meat with chips. Nothing special, if you ask me.
5. Filete de espada is fish with banana.
6. Tuna steak is simple but very tasty.
7. Oysters. They need no introduction. The ocean around the island isn’t polluted yet, so the seafood here tastes better.
8. Bolo de mel is a honey cake, and you’ll find it in every cake shop.
9. Rum 970 is the island’s traditional rum.
10. Poncha is a local drink made largely of rum.
11. Passion fruit. For Madeirans it’s what apricot season in summer is for us Slovaks. They love passion fruit and put it in everything. I recommend passion fruit pastéis or cheesecake.

Souvenirs from Madeira: what to bring home

Bolo de mel

Bolo de mel is the Madeirans’ Christmas cake, but it’s on sale all year round. It’s made with sugar cane honey and keeps for a whole year without going mouldy or hard. Besides honey, flour and yeast, it contains Madeira wine, fennel, cinnamon, cloves, walnuts, almonds, orange and lemon.

Rum 970

Madeira 970 agricultural rum has been made since the 1970s. It has a dark amber colour and 40% alcohol.

Portuguese ceramics

Portugal is rich in good-quality clay, which makes it an ideal place to produce all kinds of ceramics, tableware included. Portugal has been making ceramics for centuries, and its artists are recognised worldwide. In Madeira you can buy almost anything made of ceramic.

Is Madeira worth visiting?

Madeira has a place in my heart. Seriously. I’ve been to the Canary Islands next door several times, but I liked Madeira more than any of them. Tenerife comes close, maybe, but only just. A dramatic island, beautiful scenery, great food, fair prices and (mostly) good weather. That’s how Madeira has stuck in my head.

Happy travels!

Milan