Travel Tips
Essential information for visiting Madeira Island
Ponta de São Lourenço (PR8), Madeira: booking, fee and bus
PR8 is 8 km there and back on Madeira's bare eastern tip, about 2.5 hours. Book a 4.50 euro slot on SIMplifica first. Refund rules, bus 702, parking, swims.
Madeira tourist tax: 2 euros a night, 7-night cap, exemptions
Madeira's tourist tax is 2 euros per person per night for up to seven nights in ten of eleven councils. Who is exempt, how you pay it, and the cruise charge.
Where to swim in Madeira: lidos, sea pools and the six sandy beaches
Madeira's tourism board lists six sandy beaches for the whole island, and two of them were built with sand shipped from Morocco. What the island has instead is bathing complexes: concrete terraces over the water, saltwater pools and ladders into the open sea. The 2026 prices at Funchal's four complexes, which beaches are free and which have no lifeguard at all, the exact lifeguard dates beach by beach from this year's regional order, the two beaches you reach by cable car, and where to base yourself if swimming is the reason for the trip.
Pico do Arieiro to Pico Ruivo (PR1), Madeira: booking and return
Madeira's PR1 is one way since April 2026: 6.1 km, about 3 hours, 10.50 euros on SIMplifica. How to get back from Achada do Teixeira, the 06:00 bus, clothes.
Porto Santo: day trip or stay the night? Ferry times, 2026 prices and what to do
Madeira has almost no sand, and Porto Santo has nine kilometres of it. The real choice is between a day on the ferry and two or three nights over there. The 2026 fares a visitor actually pays, why the advertised 33.90 euros is not one of them, the October week when the only ship is in maintenance, what fits into a day ashore, what a ferry and hotel package costs, and the honest case against staying.
Village festivals in Madeira: the arraiais worth planning around, and how to get home
Madeira's official festival calendar is a Funchal calendar. The parties Madeirans drive to are in villages, on saints' days, and they run all night. Senhor Bom Jesus at Ponta Delgada on the first weekend of September, Senhor dos Milagres at Machico on 8 October, the chestnut festival at Curral das Freiras on 1 November and Semana do Mar at Porto Moniz from 22 July, with the bus times, the 2026 fares and the honest answer on whether you can get back to Funchal afterwards.
What a month in Madeira costs: rent, bills, buses and where to base yourself
A week in Madeira and a month in Madeira are different financial questions. Published 2026 figures for rent, electricity, water, internet and the 30-day bus pass, with the source behind each one, plus where to base yourself for a long stay.
Healthcare in Madeira: hospitals, pharmacies and costs
Madeira's only A&E is at Hospital Dr. Nélio Mendonça in Funchal, open 24/7. Which health centres take urgent cases, what the EHIC covers, and pharmacies.
Madeira Wine Festival 2027: dates, grape treading in Estreito, and where to stay
The festival runs three weeks, 22 August to 12 September 2027 according to Visit Madeira, and the barefoot grape treading everyone pictures lasts one afternoon at the far end of it. Two different events share the name: the Madeira Wine Lounge on Praça do Povo in Funchal, free to walk into, which in 2026 opened on 27 August with eleven producers among 38 concerts, ten commented tastings, four masterclasses and ten wine paired dinners; and the Festa das Vindimas up in Estreito de Câmara de Lobos, run by the village association, which in 2026 fell on Saturday 12 September. Which one you book for decides where you sleep. SIGA Rodoeste buses 290 to 298 take 35 to 45 minutes up to Estreito, the harvest runs from Tinta Negra in late August to Sercial in the second week of October, and Blandy's Wine Lodge on Avenida Arriaga covers the other forty nine weeks of the year from 17 euros.
How hot does Madeira get? The Leste wind, heat warnings and where to cool off
Funchal's warmest month averages a daily high of 26.8 degrees, so Madeira is mild rather than hot. Then the Leste arrives, the hot dry easterly off the Sahara that can drop the city's humidity below 20 per cent and fill the air with fine red dust, typically pushing the thermometer to about 32 degrees for two or three days. What the monthly normals and sea temperatures actually are, how to read IPMA's yellow, orange and red warnings and the separate areas they name, why the weather station at Pico do Areeiro averages 18.8 degrees in August against Funchal's 26.8, and what to do with a 35 degree day: the laurel forest, the north coast, the fares and buses that get you there, and how height should shape where you book.
Getting to Madeira: flights, airports and why there is no ferry
Madeira lies 805 kilometres southwest of mainland Portugal, so you fly, and one airport takes every scheduled flight. The ferry people keep searching for stopped running: the weekly Portimao to Funchal crossing ended in 2013 over harbour fees, came back for the summer of 2018 and was cancelled again after 2019. What Cristiano Ronaldo airport actually is, including the 2,781 metre runway built out over the sea on 180 columns, where you can fly direct from Germany and Portugal and how long it takes, why the wind matters when you plan a connection, and what the last leg into Funchal costs by Aerobus, city bus or taxi.
Driving costs in Madeira: petrol prices, parking, no tolls
Petrol 95 is capped at 2.035 euros a litre in Madeira (week of 19 October 2026), diesel at 2.085. No road tolls; Funchal parking from 0.54 euros an hour.
Planning Your Trip?
Complete guides to events and travel on the island.