Madeira (2018)
This article will probably differ a little from my previous ones because our holiday on the Portuguese island of Madeira had a slightly different character. The main reason was the fact that we stayed in one hotel during the whole duration and used is as a base for our exploration trips. Therefore we didn´t have to deal with complicated transfers like we did in Bali or US, and we could enjoy our free evenings in more holiday spirit. I won´t be writing about our Madeiran adventures chronologically, but I will try to describe you, which places are worth visiting.
Thrilled from our Balinese journey we have returned mid-April back into the harsh reality of employment. In front of us only summer full of work and no holiday in sight. In the end, we were helped by the fact that I´ve started working in Germany, which resulted in one extra week of holiday and Nina still had some days left from the previous year. So we managed to negotiate with our bosses some free time for September and we could again start to look forward to our favorite activity – traveling and discovering. We have been tempted for some time by Azores Islands. We love Portugal, and if you look at some photos of the Azores, you will surely agree with me, that it is a unique place. However, we decided, that given to their size and the necessity of transporting between islands, it would be better to spend three weeks there, which we unfortunately couldn´t afford. With that we moved our attention to Madeira and after some research, we found out that its beauties are nothing short on the Azores and it is ideal for active, two-week holiday.
Arrival
In case you won´t manage to find a direct flight from Prague, there are some good options from TAP with a transfer in the Lisbon. If you will have time to spare, I have to strongly recommend you to visit the Lisbon as well, as I consider it to be one of the nicest cities in Europe and definitely worth visiting. When you won´t be able to do it within your trip to Madeira, do it another time. For example, in the middle of December, when you will not meet so many tourists, the temperature will be around 18 degrees and hotels with great prices. I´ve added several photos from Lisbon into the gallery, hoping to attract your attention.
This time we skipped the Portuguese capital and the whole flight from Prague took us around four and half hours. It was a calm flight, which in this case does not have to be common. Madeira airport, named after local hero Christiano Ronaldo, is widely considered to be one of the most dangerous in the world. The runway is from a big part built on concrete pillars, rising from the sea and strong winds, gusting into the south of the island often throw the planes around, like if they are made of paper. For this reason locals enjoy spending their time sitting on the hills above the airport, watching poor pilots trying to land. If you have the stomach for it, check some of the highlights on YouTube
Funchal
Funchal is the capital and largest city of the island with approximately 100.000 inhabitants, which is one third of the total people living in Madeira. For us, same as most of tourists, it is an ideal base with many opportunities for accommodation, restaurants, shops and walks. It is 20km from the airport, which can be traveled with regular and frequent shuttle bus. We stayed in Melia hotel, about thirty minutes’ walk from city center. However, we didn´t bother with walking because of our excitement from our Balinese trip we decided to again rent a scooter for the whole two weeks. It was provided to us directly at the hotel and served us well during all of our journeys around the island, as well as evening trips to the city restaurants and bars.
. I can recommend renting a scooter. Although the long rides on the main speedways are annoying (bandana over the face is necessary), as soon as you turn to smaller roads you will enjoy it much more than by car. Also, you don´t have to solve parking issues and the price is considerably lower. You have to make sure though, that the strength of your car/bike will reflect your weight. It happened to us a couple of times that Nina had to get off the scooter and follow me on foot, while I was traversing up. That brings me to the point which needs to be mentioned. Madeira island is mountainous. And by saying mountainous I mean it literally. The roads consist basically only from bridges and tunnels and the only horizontal surfaces there are football fields. And not always. Therefore, besides the performance of your car, please also check the brakes while renting. Ours began to smelt few times.
There is much to see in Funchal and if you like evening walks through historic center you will be thrilled. But swimming conditions will probably disappoint you and not only in Funchal. If you desire laying on the beach and splashing in the ocean, than Madeira is probably not the place for you. The ocean is wild and reckless tourist will easily drown there, which also happened during our stay. Almost only safe place for swimming can be found at Porto Moniz, but I will get there later. But you don´t need to despair because almost all hotels offer an outdoor pool and with that the opportunity to regenerate your weary legs after a long day, have a drink and get some tan. The weather by the coast was even in the middle of September almost tropical.
The greatest attraction, which you definitely should not miss is the cableway to Monte, which also serves as a mean of public transport in Funchal. The queues tend to be long, but the views of the city and ocean are worth it. Once you are on top, be sure to visit the Church of Our Lady of Monte, where the last Austrian emperor is buried and from where the famous local toboggan starts. These wooden frames, on which you sit will take you with decent speed through a maze of houses, while the “driver” will try to keep you in the middle of the street on polished tarmac. Of course, as it usually tends to be with these things, it is a bit of a tourist trap. The sledge will not take you all the way down to Funchal, but only half way, from where it is far to walk to both ends. But there will be a plenty of “friendly” taxi drivers. I recommend you, in case you will decide to ride, to agree on the taxi price beforehand with your sledge driver.
We decided to skip this fun and boarded the second cableway, which took us to the Botanic Garden. Madeira, although its name means The Island of Wood, is often called The Island of Flowers and it is a name well deserved. Despite being mid of September, the garden was beautiful, large and with a great view to the city and ocean below you. In the beginning of spring, it must really be magnificent. I am not a big fan of botany myself, but I´ve enjoyed the garden anyway. After that we have returned back to Monte, to see another, also lovely tropical garden. I recommend to you to visit both of them as well.
Levadas
The main attractions in the Madeira are without a doubt Levadas. These artificial irrigation channels started to be built already in the 16th century as a consequence of uneven distribution of rainfall on the island. The tropical south is unusually dry, but on north, west and in the highlands it rains almost every day. That is why Portuguese came up with this ingenious system of water distribution, with help of narrow channels carved up into the rocks, which you can find over 2000km on Madeira and from that 40km are tunnels. And since there was always necessary to maintain these channels, the paths alongside them were added, which are now the main focus of tourists. Even those out of shape because walking alongside levadas means walking straight on the contour line. Despite this fact and thanks to resourceful system of tunnels, these paths will often bring you to places with awesome view.
Moreover the whole network still serves its original purpose and allows access the parts of the island, which you otherwise wouldn´t see. By chance I´ve learned before our holiday about mobile app WalkMe, which contains the database of all available paths, with information, photos, length and elevation profile and also the possibility of the live GPS tracking. For mere 6 EUR it provided us with invaluable help with trip planning, pathfinding and I strongly recommend it to any visitor. It is worth the money.
From the levadas we have visited, I can point out the Levada do Alecrim, which leads to a nice mountain lake, where you can take a bath. Also, if you are not afraid of the short climb, you can combine this trip with a detour to 100m tall Risco waterfall. Amazing views could be also seen at Levada do Caldeiro Verde, which goes through many tunnels (A flashlight is a must) and ends in a magical green ravine with yet another waterfall. Impressive was Levada Nova, guiding you though rock formations and surprisingly waterfalls.
Porto Moniz
Another place definitely worth visiting is a town of Porto Moniz on North-west of the island. In case you will go there, use the road VE4, winding through the valley between the central mountain. It is an enchanting path with emerald slopes on both sides and you will feel the need to stop in every village to admire the views. As soon as you will get to northern coast you will continue westwards, with wild sea on one side and high cliffs, decorated with waterfalls on the other.
Porto Monitz is with its 3000 inhabitants famous especially for its Lava Pools. This natural, although concrete-enhanced swimming pool in one of a few places where you can safely enjoy a sea water. The complex is huge and it is partially separated from the ocean by rocks and pier. Therefore the water is warm and calm, but quite often you can experience northern waves so massive, that even after they are broken by the pier they continue on their way to the pools as a foam. It is a wonderful view and great experience. Also, you will immediately realize that swimming in the ocean is probably not a great idea. In the town you can also visit a small aquarium. It is nothing extra, but it is cute. But here I have to take a small detour back to Lisbon. Aquarium there is definitely something you should not miss as it is one of the best in the whole world.
Since we wanted to make our trip back to Funchal more interesting, we decided to take a different road. We climbed the serpentine above the town and continued via road ER209 along the mountain ridge, which proved to be a great decision. Beside fantastic views we also discovered a high plateau called Posto Florestal Fanal, where we felt like being in the African savannah. And moreover, after hours spent among the crowds at the pools, we were completely alone there.
Trips
When planning your trips on Madeira you don´t need to rely only on Levadas. There is a plenty of other options and the only problem will be to choose. I will try to ease up your deciding by recommending two hikes, which in our opinion were worth a little effort. First and less known is Vereda da Penha de Águia. It is a fairly unknown location and to my surprise not very visited. We haven´t met a single person while climbing to the top. In order to get there you will need to pass the central mountain again (best would be ER103 there and then ER102 back) to the town of Porto da Cruz. In case you will, like us traveling on the scooter, wear some warm clothes and don´t forget gloves. You will be driving inside clouds and cold will quickly get under your skin. As soon as you will approach the town, you´ll see huge rock emerging from the sea. That is the place you are going to climb on. It is not a long climb, but very steep and sometimes almost acrobatic. But when you eventually sit on the summit, watching the coastline deep below, your legs will cease to hurt. It was an unusual view for us. We are used to hiking and climbing on all possible hills, but usually in the mainland. Seeing the ocean right under you the whole time is giving it completely new dimension.
The second, this time more known trip was to Vereda da Ponta de San Lourenco on the most eastern tip of the island. While going there you will as a bonus also enjoy driving under airport runway, which stands on massive concrete pillars, looking like Moria from Lord of the Rings. I recommend you to pack enough sunscreen with you, because you will not find a single tree there. You will find yourself again in a completely different landscape. Just a desert surrounded by the sea and after three kilometer hike you will get to the easternmost Madeiran lookout. In the unlikely case you will not be impressed you can still admire local flocks of friendly lizards.
I will add one more activity into this chapter, since it is something you will definitely notice. It is the whale and dolphin watching. Madeira is well known for this attraction and people say, that if you want to observe whales, there are only a few places in Europe better than there. We didn´t want to miss this and booked a tour from Calheta with the company On Tales. Unfortunately our tour was the first after a long time, where not a single fin was spotted. There are just some things you can not affect but it was a nice experience nevertheless. You will get quite far away from the island, which will enable you to see a unique picture of Madeira, rising from the ocean as a tip of the volcano (which it is). The coastline slopes are so steep that already 5km from the coast you will have 3000m of water under you. Not a nice feeling when on a small boat. After our unsuccessful whale hunt we were taken by our captain to a coastal waterfall (yet another waterfall) for a nice swim and offered us a free tour on following day. Despite our decline due to our tight schedule we were nicely surprised by this gesture.
Pico Ruivo
The peak of our holiday was eventually a climb to the highest peak of Madeira, 1862m high Pico Ruivo. I admit that it is not an astonishing height, but despite that fact, our trip turned out to be probably the most exhausting we have done to that point. The hike starts at the radar station on Pico Areeiro, which is actually third highest mountain with 1.818m. There you can drive and park your vehicle. From that point you will firstly need to climb down 900m into the pass between both mountains and then the same elevation up again to Ruivo. That would not be so bad on its own, but then you need to go through it again on a way back. It will be a thorough test of your physical condition. However, putting this small suffering aside, this hike offers probably the best views on the island.
You can consider it to be a small, European New Zealand. Lots of green, pretty rocks and cliffs, waterfalls and ocean in the distance. As it usually is in these heights, there is a great chance of clouds so I strongly recommend to start as soon as possible, because in the early morning there is a big hope for clear view. After returning, you should reward yourself with excellent Madeira wine, which is a specific kind of Port. One bottle with its 19% of alcohol will surely relax you, especially after exhausting day. And in case you will require further reward, go try out espetadas (grilled meat pieces on skewers), or make your own steak from tuna on a lava stone.
Summary
Summary
Although our trip to Madeira was not exactly planned and we originally entertained the idea of going elsewhere, we were eventually thrilled by the island. As I described before, you will not enjoy much swimming, but there will always be something to look at and admire. It offers a lot of hiking routes, trails, climbs and other attractions. If you add an excellent food, wine and nice people (which is actually quite common in Portugal), you will end with a great mix, promising a wonderful holiday, which you will remember for a long time.