Rides and boats

Fifteen minutes in a glass cabin from the Funchal seafront up 560 metres to Monte, which most small children treat as the attraction rather than the transport.

• Indoors
• Any age
• Children free

Two men in white push a wicker sledge with your family in it two kilometres down a public road from Monte to Livramento, in about ten minutes.

• Outdoors
• From 3
• Children from 30 €

Two and a half hours east from Funchal marina to the Garajau reserve on a small trimaran with eight underwater windows, so a child sees fish without getting in the water.

• Partly covered
• From 3
• Children from 10 €

Three-hour dolphin and whale trips out of Funchal marina on a large sailing schooner, with under-4s free and half price to twelve.

• Outdoors
• From 4
• Children from 24.5 €

Two-hour cetacean trips from Calheta harbour on a choice of two boats: a slow wooden vessel, the Ribeira Brava, or a rigid inflatable with suspension seats, the Steno.

• Outdoors
• From 4
• No price published

Small-group cetacean trips from Calheta marina on a fleet of five small yachts - sailing boats, not inflatables, and not catamarans either.

• Outdoors
• From 6
• No price published

Two and a half hours out of Funchal marina in a fast rigid inflatable with a marine biologist aboard and spotters on the cliffs radioing the skipper onto the animals.

• Outdoors
• From 6
• Children from 35 €

A seven-hour 4x4 day round the east of the island - Pico do Areeiro, Ribeiro Frio, Santana, Ponta de São Lourenço - with a booking category for under-sixes travelling in a child seat.

• Outdoors
• From 3
• Children from 33.5 €

Three hours west along the coast towards Cabo Girão on a full-size wooden replica of Columbus's flagship, with a swim stop when the sea allows.

• Outdoors
• From 4
• Children from 22.5 €

Madeira's first cable car, from 1997: five minutes down the Santana clifftop to the black-pebble shore of the Rocha do Navio nature reserve.

• Partly covered
• From 3
• No price published

A farmers' cable car that drops 450 metres down a cliff face to a working fajã in five minutes, for three euros one way.

• Partly covered
• From 3
• Children from 3 €

The island's second cable car, nine minutes each way across the Ribeira de João Gomes valley between the Botanical Garden and Babosas in Monte.

• Indoors
• Any age
• Children free

Open three-wheelers doing one- to four-hour Funchal circuits - the city, Cristo Rei, Monte and the toboggan, or Cabo Girão - charged by the vehicle rather than by the head.

• Outdoors
• From 4
• No price published

Three hours out of Cais 8 in Funchal after dolphins and whales on a wide catamaran, with a swim stop off Cabo Girão when the weather allows.

• Outdoors
• From 3
• Children from 20 €

Open-top hop-on hop-off buses on two or three Funchal routes, out to Câmara de Lobos and the Cabo Girão skywalk, on 24-hour, 48-hour and five-day tickets.

• Partly covered
• From 4
• Children from 9.5 €