Things to Do in Madeira: The Island’s Unmissable Experiences

From sea cliffs with glass floors to ancient laurel forest and a wicker toboggan that carries you downhill through the streets, the best things to do in Madeira pack an astonishing amount of variety into one small Atlantic island. In a single day you can look out from a mountain summit, swim in a volcanic rock pool and taste a glass of the fortified wine that made the island famous.

This guide is your overview of what to do in Madeira, grouped by the kind of experience you are after, from the historic heart of Funchal to the wild villages of the north coast. Where a subject really deserves a guide of its own, such as hiking or whale watching, we point you towards it rather than repeat it here.

Would you rather have it all arranged, with the driving and the logistics taken care of? Euromar plans guided tours and tailor made experiences across the island. Here is where to start.

Explore Funchal, the island capital

Funchal

Most trips begin in Funchal, and the old town, the Zona Velha, is the place to feel the city’s character. Its most famous street, Rua de Santa Maria, became an open-air gallery in the early 2010s when artists began painting its old doors, and it is now lined with restaurants and colourful doorways. A short walk away, the Mercado dos Lavradores, Funchal’s Art Deco farmers’ market, opened in 1940 and still overflows with tropical fruit, flowers and freshly landed fish, so aim to visit in the morning and note that it closes on Sundays.

Nearby stands the Sé, Funchal’s Manueline cathedral built in the 1490s, worth stepping inside for its carved timber ceiling. Football fans will want the Museu CR7, dedicated to Funchal’s most famous son, Cristiano Ronaldo, on the marina. This is also the city where Madeira wine has been aged for centuries, a story best told over a tasting, which we come back to below.

Ride up to Monte

One of the island’s signature half-days climbs to the hillside parish of Monte, high above Funchal. The most memorable way up is the cable car, a roughly fifteen-minute glide with the bay unfolding beneath you. At the top you reach the twin-towered Church of Nossa Senhora do Monte, dedicated to the island’s patron saint and home to the tomb of Karl I, the last emperor of Austria, who died in exile on Madeira.

Beside the upper station lies the Monte Palace Tropical Garden, a lavish hillside garden of exotic plants, koi ponds and Portuguese tile panels that trace the country’s history. Then comes the most Madeiran thrill of all, the carros de cesto, the traditional wicker toboggans that two straw-hatted drivers push and steer down the steep public road towards Livramento. It is a short, exhilarating ride and a tradition that dates back to the nineteenth century.

Monte Palace, Funchal

Gardens, viewpoints and dramatic landscapes

Madeira is often called a floating garden, and the Botanical Garden, opened in 1960 on a slope above Funchal, makes the case with its collections of endemic island flora and sweeping views over the bay. For the island’s most vertiginous outlook, head west to Cabo Girão, one of the highest sea cliffs in Europe, where a glass-floored skywalk lets you stand out over the ocean far below.

The interior is just as striking. You can drive almost to the top of Pico do Areeiro, at 1,818 metres one of Madeira’s highest points, for a viewpoint that often sits above the clouds. From there the land falls away into places like Curral das Freiras, the “Nuns’ Valley”, a village tucked deep inside a ring of towering peaks that once sheltered nuns from pirate raids.

Beyond Funchal: the wild north and its villages

The north coast is greener, wilder and less developed, and it rewards a day of exploring. Santana is known across Portugal for its casas de colmo, the small triangular houses with steep thatched roofs painted in bright colours. At São Vicente you can go underground into volcanic lava-tube caves formed some 890,000 years ago, paired with a volcanism centre that explains how the island was born of fire.

Further along the coast, the tiny village of Seixal is loved for its black-sand beach and waterfalls, while Porto Moniz is famous for its natural swimming pools, sculpted from cooled lava and refilled by the Atlantic. Back near Funchal, the colourful fishing town of Câmara de Lobos, once a favourite of Winston Churchill, is the birthplace of poncha and a fine place to watch the boats come in.

Walk the levadas and mountain trails

Levada Walks in Madeira island

No visit is complete without walking at least one levada, the centuries-old irrigation channels whose maintenance paths have become some of Europe’s most rewarding footpaths, threading through laurel forest to waterfalls and viewpoints. There are gentle, near-flat routes for families and strenuous mountain traverses for the experienced. Because the network, the difficulty grades and the new trail-access rules deserve proper detail, we have covered them fully in our guide to hiking and levada walks in Madeira.

Get out on the water

Madeira’s deep Atlantic waters make it one of Europe’s best places to see cetaceans, and a whale and dolphin watching trip is among the most rewarding things to do here. Below the surface, the Garajau Partial Nature Reserve on the south coast is a protected diving site known for its large, curious groupers.

For a swim, the lava pools at Porto Moniz are the island’s most famous, though sheltered coves and sea pools dot the coast. Surfers head to the west-coast breaks around Jardim do Mar and Paul do Mar, while the mountain ravines draw canyoning enthusiasts through pools and waterfalls. Whichever you choose, sea conditions vary with the season, so it pays to plan around the calendar.

Taste Madeira: wine, poncha and local food

Espetada

Madeira’s food is as distinctive as its landscape. The island’s fortified wine is world-famous, and a tasting at one of Funchal’s historic wine lodges, such as Blandy’s, is the classic way to understand it. The everyday local drink is poncha, traditionally made with sugarcane spirit, honey and citrus, best tried in Câmara de Lobos where it was born.

At the table, look for espetada, chunks of beef grilled on a bay-laurel skewer, and bolo do caco, a soft flatbread served warm with garlic butter. The island’s signature dish is espada com banana, black scabbard fish fillets served with fried banana, a pairing that sounds unusual and works beautifully. There is enough here for a food tour of its own, so treat this as a first taste.

When to go and how to get around

Madeira is a year-round destination, but the weather and the crowds shift with the seasons, and so do the island’s festivals, from the spring Flower Festival to the famous New Year’s Eve fireworks. It is worth reading up on the best time to visit Madeira and on Madeira’s festivals and events before you fix your dates. With more time, many visitors add on the golden island of Porto Santo, a short ferry or flight away.

One honest word on logistics. Madeira’s roads are steep, narrow and winding, and its best sights are scattered across the island, which is why so many visitors find self-driving more stressful than they expected. Letting a local team plan the route and do the driving turns that stress into a window seat. Euromar can shape all of the above into a five or seven day itinerary with guiding and transfers, so you spend your trip enjoying the island rather than parking on its cliffs.

Conclusion

The joy of Madeira is how much it fits into a short trip, from a morning in Funchal’s market to an afternoon on a mountain summit and an evening over espada and poncha by the harbour. Pick the experiences that excite you most, leave room for the island to surprise you, and let Euromar handle the planning and the driving. Start by exploring our guided tours and tailor made experiences, and your Madeira itinerary will fall into place.