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 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 €

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-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 €