Seven days around Madeira

Collect your car at Madeira Airport and drive to the first Funchal accommodation, allowing around 30–45 minutes for the road journey plus collection and parking. The airport is at Santa Cruz, east of the city. Once bags are down, explore Zona Velha on foot: start around Rua de Santa Maria, then walk towards the waterfront and the lower cable-car terminal. Keeping this first afternoon unbooked makes the plan work with a delayed or late flight. Have bolo do caco with garlic butter as a snack, or choose a restaurant meal of black scabbardfish fillet, often served with banana. These dishes connect the first evening’s meal with the island’s produce and seafood traditions. Return to the same Funchal room. A very late arrival needs only dinner and check-in; tomorrow provides the main city sightseeing time.

• Rental collection and check-in before sightseeing
• Zona Velha and the waterfront on foot
• Bolo do caco or a regional fish dinner

Overnight: Funchal

Begin with Mercado dos Lavradores on a trading morning. Look above the produce and fish stalls for João Rodrigues’s 1940 tile panels: they place regional work and dress within the purpose-built market, which opened that year. Allow time to browse rather than treating it only as a fruit-tasting stop. Then walk to the waterfront cable-car terminal for the ascent to Monte. The ride takes about 15 minutes and rises 560 metres above the lower city, opening views across the roofs and bay. In Monte, spend time around the church forecourt and village before taking the return ride; a paid tropical garden or basket-sledge ride is a separate visit with its own ticket and time. The cable-car operator lists 08:45–17:45, with Christmas Day closed. Take the return ride before the published closing time. If day two is Sunday, move the market to the arrival day when its hours fit, or to day three before driving west. Keep Monte as the main outing today, leaving Cabo Girão for the onward journey.

• Market architecture and tile panels
• Cable-car ascent above Funchal
• Monte village and a return to the same city room

Overnight: Funchal

Leave Funchal after breakfast and make Cabo Girão the first westbound stop. The glass viewing platform looks down from a 580-metre sea cliff towards small cultivated plots at its foot. Buy the adult entry through the official SIMplifica portal. Continue through the south-coast corridor, choosing Ribeira Brava or Ponta do Sol for a short riverside or seafront pause rather than lingering in both. Reach Calheta for lunch and a visit to Engenho da Calheta. The mill at Avenida D. Manuel I 29 links rum and cane syrup to the island’s sugar history. Its museum listing gives 08:00–19:00 weekdays and 10:00–19:00 weekends and public holidays. Its facilities can be visited throughout the year, but crushing normally happens after Easter, so autumn visitors should not expect running machinery. Finish beside the marina or on Calheta’s imported-sand beach. Created in 2004 using sand from Morocco, it is a constructed bathing beach with breakwaters, different from the basalt shore you will see tomorrow. Stay in Calheta tonight.

• Cabo Girão on the onward drive
• One short village pause before lunch
• Sugar-cane heritage and Calheta’s beach

Overnight: Calheta

Drive west and north via the Ponta do Pargo area towards Porto Moniz. Allow roughly 1½–2 hours for the road journey with a short viewpoint pause, then leave the larger afternoon block for the town and pools. This coastal version avoids building the day around an extra high-plateau hike. Check in or leave bags with the accommodation before heading to the managed bathing complex. Here volcanic rock forms the setting, while concrete paths, steps, changing facilities and supervised swimming make it a developed seaside complex. The municipality publishes opening from 09:00 to 19:00 in summer and to 17:00 in winter, with adult admission charged throughout the year. Entry is conditional on local sea conditions: if swimming is closed, use the town’s streets and sheltered cafés rather than moving to exposed unstaffed rock pools. The north coast still has a purpose as an overnight stay, with the basalt shore and an evening meal before tomorrow’s eastbound drive.

• A west-coast drive with a short viewpoint stop
• An afternoon at the managed pools when open
• Evening in Porto Moniz rather than driving across the island

Overnight: Porto Moniz

Follow the north coast east from Porto Moniz, pausing at Seixal for the contrast between black beach, green slopes and Atlantic water. Continue to São Vicente for a town walk and lunch, leaving out its caves, which the official listing marks closed, then use the north-coast road connections through the São Jorge area towards Santana. Allow around 1½–2 hours of driving overall, before the beach viewpoint, meal and town stops; this is a full touring day rather than a one-hour transfer. In Santana, visit the traditional-house cluster and look at how the steep thatched roofs shed rain. Wood supplied the frames, while wheat and rye straw supplied the roof covering; the attic stored agricultural produce above the living rooms. Today’s visitor houses show that rural building tradition in a preserved setting. Strolling the outdoor cluster is the activity here, rather than an assumed ticket to the separate Madeira Theme Park. Settle into Santana for the first of two nights.

• Seixal’s black-sand shore
• São Vicente town without a cave visit
• Santana’s timber-and-thatch building tradition

Overnight: Santana

Drive from Santana to Ribeiro Frio, allowing about 35–50 minutes to the PR11 entrance on ER103. Book the entry slot through SIMplifica and bring the confirmation. Vereda dos Balcões is 1.5 kilometres each way, with an official estimate of 1½ hours for the return walk. Follow Levada da Serra do Faial through the trees to the viewpoint over the forested valley. The water channel is part of the island’s working landscape: levadas carry water through steep terrain for irrigation, drinking supplies and power. UNESCO recognised Madeira’s Laurissilva in 1999, including its ecological importance and water regulation. Return along the same path and have lunch around Ribeiro Frio or back in Santana. If visibility and road conditions suit, continue via Poiso to the drive-up viewpoint at Pico do Areeiro, allowing a further 25–40 minutes each way from Ribeiro Frio and paid parking. This is a short viewpoint visit at Madeira’s third-highest peak, not a PR1 crossing to Pico Ruivo. In low cloud, keep the afternoon in Santana rather than adding a mountain drive with no view. Sleep in Santana again.

• A reserved PR11 entry at Ribeiro Frio
• Three-kilometre return walk beside the levada
• Optional drive-up mountain view when visibility suits

Overnight: Santana

Leave Santana towards Faial and Porto da Cruz, then continue through the Machico area to Madeira Airport at Santa Cruz. Allow around 45–60 minutes of driving in normal conditions, with separate time for fuel, rental handover and the airline’s check-in requirements. There is no need to pass through central Funchal first. For a later flight, choose a brief coastal walk or lunch in Porto da Cruz or Machico before the car return; for an early departure, keep the journey direct. Check the rental firm’s return location and opening arrangements when booking, because an off-airport depot requires its own transfer. The itinerary ends at the airport after the sixth night, without another Santana overnight. If your flight would require an uncomfortably early mountain-side departure, move the final night to the airport area and reprice that changed arrangement rather than assuming an extra room is already included. There is no day-long island excursion to fit between checkout and boarding.

• Direct east-coast routing towards Santa Cruz
• A coastal meal only if the flight allows it
• Fuel and the agreed rental return before departure

Base: Santana