Conclusion, Info, Miscellaneous

So, the vacation is over, and I'm thinking about what I forgot to mention in the blog and what I still want to share 😇

Madeira is the island of tunnels and early risers!

• Tunnels:

It's almost impossible to explore the island without going through a tunnel. I have never seen so many tunnels in such a small area! On our 'home route' from the airport to the vacation house (Funchal - Calheta), which is about 50 km long, there are easily 20-30 tunnels - we actually hardly saw anything of the island on the way there, as we felt like we were just driving through tunnels from behind Funchal...

• The early bird....

Especially during high season and vacation times, the rule on Madeira is: if you want to see and experience something, you MUST get up early. Especially at the highlights and hotspots, searching for parking becomes a test of patience from 8:30/9 am.

Especially at the well-known levada hikes (e.g. 25 Fontes and Risco) and highlights like Pico do Areeio, finding a parking spot is very exhausting if you're 'late' to arrive. We saw queues of cars along the road that were really kilometers away from the actual destination.

• Levada Hikes

There are quite a lot of them on Madeira, and they are truly one of the highlights of Madeira! In the 10 days, we naturally only got to know a fraction of the levadas. And all of them are different!!! One might think that it would be somewhat boring to walk alongside a watercourse repeatedly, but no: it's not boring at all! And it's always different.

It's advisable to wear sturdy shoes and a headlamp is truly recommended!!! While I could 'see' with a mobile light, my daughter's headlamp was really an 'illumination' (you can get one for little money at Decathlon).

By the way, many levadas are not suitable for trekking poles, as there simply isn't enough space to use them. I actually only had my poles with me once.

• Food & Drink

Traditionally, you'll find 'Bolo do Caco' (almost everywhere), a delicious wheat/sweet potato bread, often simply served with garlic butter. Mega delicious!

The most famous fish in Madeira is the Espada, the swordfish from the deep sea. We often had it on our plate with banana and passion fruit.

As a vegetarian, you won't go hungry. I was often happy with Bolo do Caco, but we also found vegetarian dishes on almost every menu. Even if there were no vegetarian options on the menu, it was never a problem to get something (omelets, salads, etc.).

Poncha: the cocktail made from orange juice, rum, and honey (sometimes with a splash of lemon/lime). We often tried it. In restaurants and local spots, it was very tasty, but we unfortunately didn’t find the ready-made versions in bottles from the supermarket to be tasty...

Our Route:

Frankfurt - (connection in Lisbon) - Porto Santo - Madeira - Porto - Frankfurt

• Flights:

We chose TAP as our airline since they flew to all the destinations. Except for the route from Porto Santo to Madeira, we booked all flights with TAP.

By the way, the flights were significantly cheaper than the single flight I booked for my daughter a few weeks before the trip. She came with Discover directly from Frankfurt to Madeira.

Generally speaking - as is the case now everywhere: if you need to fly during high season/vacation time, you should book flights early! Our TAP flights tripled in price three months before departure!

Overall, we were very satisfied with TAP. Even the tight connection time in Lisbon worked out - even with luggage!

The island hopper from Porto Santo to Madeira was also offered by TAP, but it didn’t fit into our plans for the day and time. A cheaper alternative to TAP and ferry was the flight with 'BINTER Canaries'. The ATR 2 planes are propeller-driven, small, fast, and nimble. The flight to Madeira takes 12-15 minutes (if you're sent into the holding pattern, it can take up to 1.5 hours). For us, it was the best alternative.

Thanks to TAP's StopOver program, we were able to get to know the city of Porto, which we hadn't planned for at all. So, if you don't know Lisbon and Porto yet and have a few extra days, I definitely recommend flying with TAP and the associated stopover either on the way to Madeira or on the return trip! It's worth it!

• Rental Car

I always book my rental cars at www.billiger-mietwagen.de or, if I need a specific car or special pick-up/drop-off location, also at www.avis.de

On small islands like Porto Santo, it's worth searching online or locally for a small rental car provider, as they are often significantly cheaper and also offer delivery to hotels or locations outside the airport.

In Porto Santo, we had a good experience with the rental car provider FIVE Rent a Car.

In Madeira, it's quite advisable to drive a car with a little more ground clearance and, if possible, to avoid very large cars. Most roads are very narrow and tight, parking is scarce or hardly available everywhere. A large car is definitely a disadvantage here!

We rented from GUERIN / ENTERPRISE in both Madeira and Porto and had no problems whatsoever.

• Weather

The weather was indeed a big mystery and really not easy to plan in advance.

Our weather apps predicted, for example, a high temperature of 23-24 degrees for Porto Santo (even while we were there). That was actually never correct. The temperatures varied depending on where we were on the small island. We experienced temperatures ranging from hot and humid to cool and damp. When the sun was shining without clouds in the sky, it quickly rose above 30 degrees.

So we would say that in the 5 days on Porto Santo, we had everything from 20-32.5 degrees!

It was similar in Madeira. Our vacation home was located in Calheta, which turned out to be an extremely weather-stable area. It was usually always sunny and warm here, sometimes even really hot (34 degrees), while just 2 'tunnels' / bays or valleys away it could be significantly cooler and even rain could occur. You really can't plan the weather here, especially on the northern side, where it can change very quickly.

Tip: There are almost everywhere at the hotspots webcams that can be easily found online. So you can see what the weather is like (although there's no guarantee that the weather will still be the same an hour later as seen on the webcam 😂)

In conclusion, I would say that the southern side is the most weather-stable side, and especially the area from Calheta to Ribeira Brava had many hours of sunshine, while further southeast from Funchal to Machico was rather cloudy and rained more often.

• Wind

A widely spread phenomenon on Madeira is the 'crosswinds', shear winds that attract numerous airplane spotters to the airport every day. You can find plenty of videos online of spectacular landings - or, conversely, multiple landing attempts that sometimes fail, leading to the plane being diverted to Porto Santo or even back to the original departure airport (e.g., Lisbon).

Before and after our vacation, we occasionally followed flights on Flightradar or watched videos online.

In hindsight, we were really lucky!!! Neither we nor our daughter had any issues with shear winds during take-off and landing! We were lucky!!!

• Cash or Card??? 0.50 Cent Coins!

So, Madeira (Portugal) is, in my opinion, a region where you cannot completely do without cash. It's important to always have small change on hand!

Parking meters only work with coins; the payment app provided by some parking meters is designed for the Portuguese.

You should always have enough 0.50 cent coins available, as there are many public toilets, but most charge a fee, and many can only be opened with a coin deposit!

We often had the misfortune of not having the right change with us. Sometimes we were lucky, and someone nearby could exchange money, but sometimes that didn't happen...

So, if someone values always being able to use a restroom, they should keep 50 cent coins on hand.

It's also common to pay for restrooms in restaurants and shops (in some as a restaurant guest)... that was sometimes 'strange'...

• Accommodations

The best deal for our hotel in Porto Santo was found through the tour operator Olimar! No other well-known hotel booking portal was even close to being as good!

I found the vacation home 'Casa Cro' in Madeira through AirBnB. I haven't booked through this platform often, as I find other sites better and cheaper, but unfortunately, the house was only available on this booking site. Everything worked out well; the house was great, the landlord was mega helpful and nice - I can highly recommend it!!!

Our hotel in Porto was booked as a package offer from TAP through Booking.com. TAP offered special contingents here when booking a stopover with them (Lissabon or Porto). A cool concept, to discover another city without extra flight costs - highly recommend!

• Beaches

Madeira is not a beach island. You can swim, there are some sandy beaches (including in Calheta and Machico), various stony/pebble beaches and bays, and of course, the lava bathing pools or constructed sea swimming pools. However, it doesn’t really create a beach feeling here. If you want a proper beach, you should definitely plan for Porto Santo!

But now: have fun in Porto Santo, Madeira, and Portugal!