When we told people we were going to visit Madeira, we faced a surprising amount of skepticism. Namely: isn’t that just a place for old people? 😱 We can now conclusively say hell no, it definitely isn’t that limited at all. Outside of the city, you’ll find a thousand and one things to do in Madeira. And at the heart of the island’s culture and sights is Funchal, its beautiful and historic capital city. Just like any other old European city – even the small ones – the best things to do in Funchal relate to history, cuisine, art, and exploring the culture of this unique place. From gardens, to a cable car, to palaces and forts, to frequent festivals and street art, these are the best things to see in Funchal Madeira – and we can’t wait to go back!
Table of Contents
1. Step into the past at the Fortaleza de São Tiago, or the Fortaleza de São João do Pico
The Fortaleza de São Tiago is the first one we envision when we think of Funchal, because its mustard yellow walls sit right up against the waterfront, and it’s impossible to miss when you look at many views of the city. Up close, it’s not in the world’s best shape, but it’s an excellent, must-see stop for photos and views. Nearby you also have access to the Praia da Barreirinha and Igreja de Santiago Menor.
Up on a steeper part of the city, you’ll also find the Fortaleza de São Joao do Pico. The main draw here is the architecture of this imposing medieval fortress. Occasionally, you’ll find small exhibits going on inside, but definitely make a beeline here if picturesque views, the Middle Ages, and medieval architecture are high on your list of travel likes. Just be aware that, like much of Funchal, the approach to the Fortaleza de São Joao do Pico is extremely steep and not for the faint of heart. If you have time while you’re here, people recommend also visiting the Universo de Memorias Joao Carlos Abreu and the Manor Estate of the Crosses Museum (Quinta das Cruzes), which are just below the fort, and have cafes.
2. Ride a Funchal cable car, aka the Telefericos da Madeira
One thing you notice very quickly about Funchal is the same thing you notice about cities like Lisbon – they’re completely made up of hills on hills on hills. Instead of calling a taxi or quite literally hiking your way from Funchal up to the higher village of Monte, we highly recommend taking the Funchal cable car (at least once).
If you’ve just been exploring the area around the São Tiago fort down on the waterfront, you’ll probably be pretty close to the main Funchal cable car station. When we ventured in, we were able to walk right up to the ticket table, purchase our tickets, and be shown immediately to one of the cars. Once we got in and settled, we got to enjoy spectacular, panoramic views of Funchal and its surrounding villages and geography. It’s also a nice, slow ride and you’re fully enclosed, so even folks who don’t normally like ski lifts and things like that should probably feel fairly comfortable in each of these cable cars.
At the top station of this main cable car, you get a fabulous view of Funchal city and its surrounding villages. You can also find a small cafe with snacks and drinks just in case your left your accommodation unprepared. From there, you have easy access to the entry gate of the Monte Palace and gardens, as well as a very short walk to get to the Monte Toboggan Run/Monte sledge ride.
- Tickets are €12,50 per person, one-way. More information and tickets available here.
3. Explore Monte Palace Madeira
Monte Palace, situated in Monte at the top of the Funchal cable car, is home to a stunning tropical garden over 70,000 square meters in size. Wander through these gardens, which also feature some stunning water features alongside swans, ducks, and koi, or check out the palace, itself. The Monte Palace, itself, which used to be a hotel that closed in the middle of the last century, now “includes one of the most important tile collections in Portugal. The tiles exhibited amidst the tropical vegetation represent several ages, coming from palaces, churches, chapels and private houses throughout the former Portuguese empire” (according to the Monte Palace website), in addition to also housing a comprehensive, international mineral collection. This, in addition to featuring rotating/traveling exhibits, too. If you find yourself hungry and don’t want to leave the grounds just yet, there’s a cafe onsite where you can purchase snacks and wine. Just keep in mind that this is still Funchal, so you’ll be dealing with lots of hills in between all these gorgeous views and plants – come prepared and you’ll be all set to go.
- Tickets are €12,50 per adult, and children under 15 are free. More info available here.
4. Get a thrill from the Monte Toboggan Run
When you were a kid, did you ever race down a hill on a sled? If you liked that, you’ll LOVE doing the toboggan run from hilly Monte back down through Funchal’s narrow and winding city streets. In the 1800s, bread from the bakeries up on the hill would need to be run quickly downtown and distributed throughout the city. Quicker than horses and carts could safely navigate. So, runners would take huge wicker baskets mounted on sanded-down wooden rails, fill them with bread, and push-slash-ride them full-tilt down Monte’s steep hills.
Today, to do the “Carro de Cesto,” two men in traditional dress and rubber-soled shoes each take two passengers per basket and give them the Madeira sledge ride treatment. Along the route, many of the high-friction spots on the asphalt have been worn smooth by the constant passing of the wood rails, so you get the rushing feeling of literally drifting through corners like you’re in a race…basket. It sounded dangerous when we first read about it, but the streets used for these runs are closed to all other traffic, so you never have to worry. And the guys steering and pushing these carts – almost like they would if they were driving a dogsled – clearly have the whole thing so well-controlled that it’s easy to just sit back and enjoy the breeze in your face and the old streets and buildings rushing by.
Once at the bottom, you can purchase copies of the pictures taken along your route if you want. Then, you can watch the runners load their toboggans into waiting trucks to be hauled back up the hill, ready for the next batch of tourists.
Other things to note:
- This attraction gets incredibly busy. This is one of the things that a lot of the cruise ship guests who are disembarking for a quick day on the island tend to gravitate towards because it’s fun, unique, and pretty doable for all ages. So be prepared to wait in line for a fair amount of time. What we’d recommend, instead, is purchasing your tickets in advance, and then doing other things in the Monte area – perhaps exploring the Monte Palace or the Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Monte (the cathedral just up the hill from the start of these rides), or getting a snack at Sweet Monte, a tiny nearby cafe with nice outdoor seating. The good news is that the line moves fairly quickly and is almost entirely in the shade, so even in the summer the wait shouldn’t be too painful.
- Also, the rest of the walk back downtown is VERY steeply downhill. If your knees, hips, feet, or soul aren’t down for that much pressure, definitely take advantage of the taxis that wait at the bottom of the toboggan route!
- Tickets are €30 per two-adult sled and can be purchased in person.
5. Enjoy a Blandy’s madeira wine tasting at Blandys Wine Lodge
If you’ve been here for a minute, you know we LOVE wine. Not in the “we have a problem” way, but more in the “this is delicious and fun to learn about” way. We enjoyed driving around the Douro Valley in northern Portugal, and experiencing some delicious port wine tastings in Porto, so we knew we enjoyed fortified wine. When initially stopped by Blandys Wine Lodge late one afternoon, we found that the last Premium tour had just departed. However, the ladies at the ticket booth were very kind and advised us to do the tours backwards – basically, we purchased tickets for the Vintage tour and did that tour right then, and then we put our names on their list for the first Premium tour of the following morning.
The Premium tour gives you a deep history lesson into the origins and development of what we know as madeira wine, which differs largely in that port wine oxidizes once the bottle is opened, whereas madeira wine oxidizes before the bottling happens, meaning that (unlike its mainland cousin) it has a very, very long shelf life after opening. During this tour, one of the experts at Blandy’s Wine Lodge will lead you through rows on rows of beautiful barrels, educate you one what different types of madeira wine Blandys makes and is famous for, and walk you through the timeline of how Blandys came to be one of the biggest names in madeira wine. Once you finish with this basic primer on the fortified wine of Madeira, your group will descend on the tasting room for a tasting of several different vintages of all different ages and varieties.
The Vintage tour builds on the knowledge you gain in the Premium tour, which is why Blandy’s usually encourages taking them back-to-back and not back-to-front (like we did 🤦🏽♀️). You learn more about what the markings on each barrel mean, and you get to see the Blandy’s private cellars and collections, where they keep examples of hundreds of years of vintages and special blends. And the tasting at the end doesn’t happen in the large tasting room, but rather in a beautiful library of madeira wine bottles, where you get to slip into a lovely leather booth and enjoy a few rarer, more luxe vintages. I tell you what, doing this one first really spoils your palate for the more ~common~ vintages 😅There are certainly other wineries to visit on Madeira, but your trip simply won’t complete without a madeira wine tasting at Blandy’s Wine Lodge!
- All tours are available Monday-Friday.
- Premium tours happen daily and are 45 Minutes long. Price is €11,00/person
- Vintage tours also happen daily at 16:30, and are 60 minutes long. Price is €22,90/person
- Both can be combined for €28,80/person
See more details about Blandy’s Wine Lodge and madeira wine tastings.
6. Attend Belmond Reid’s Palace afternoon tea
While researching the best things to see in Funchal and unusual things to do on Madeira, we stumbled across mention of high tea at Belmond Reid’s Palace. Being Americans, we don’t have a whole lot of experience with what you might call “good” tea, or with the practice of afternoon tea, in general. Several reviews we saw mentioned that it was a little touristy, a little stuffy, maybe not great for the younger crowd… well, we’re nothing if not game for a meal that involves finger foods and champagne. Classy, I know.
The reviews also mentioned that Reid’s Palace afternoon tea books out weeks to months in advance, which we worried meant that our spur of the moment trip to Madeira wouldn’t give us the lead time we needed to get a booking. Sure enough, their online widget was completely booked for the next 6 weeks. So, I found an email address for Reid’s, and asked if they had a waitlist – which they do. Within a couple of days, they’d had a cancellation and were able to fit us in for the afternoon we were set to arrive. Jet lag mixes very well with finger foods and champagne, in case you were wondering. And tea, of course.
Seriously though, we walked from our hotel to Belmond Reid’s Palace, and calling it a palace is no joke. This gorgeous manor faces the ocean and looks out over the estate’s seaside gardens down below. It’s no wonder that stars and wealthy travelers from the US and Europe used to call this place their playground. Once we checked in with the host, we sat in a lovely waiting space inside and got to admire the art, as well as all the sparkling marble and crystal finishes all around us.
At last, we were shown to our table out on the terrace, just next to the railing. In the shade, we had a nice, gentle breeze and a beautiful view while we perused the menu. Finally, we each ordered our own pots of tea (not a requirement, but very possible to do), as well as a glass of champagne to toast the beginning of our adventure and continuation of our love affair with all things Portuguese.
Just as we finished our flutes of bubbly, the hors d’oeuvres arrived on a multi-tiered cake tray, so we got down to the business of enjoying our tea, cakes, and finger sandwiches. This was truly a lovely introduction to Madeira – and a great way to kick off our trip – that we couldn’t recommend more highly.
Tea starts at €45/person, and several add-ons are available.
See here for more information on booking afternoon tea.
7. Walk Funchal and visit the Rua de Santa Maria in the Funchal zona velha
This one’s a no-brainer. The walkability of most European cities is one of the things that makes them so enjoyable and appealing, and Funchal is no different. We stayed at the Se Boutique Hotel, which is very close to the most famous parts of the city, so we were able to explore easily. By walking around, we found some excellent hole-in-the-wall cafes and beautiful scenery, and were able to get quite easily to the zona velha (historic district) of Funchal. Central to this district is the Rua de Santa Maria, an incredibly special pedestrian street on which every single door has been turned into a mural or other piece of art as a part of the“Art of Open Doors” (Arte de Portas Abertas) project. If you walk here early in the morning, you’ll get the best views, because the doors will all be closed and no one will be out just yet. In the afternoons and evenings, you’ll need to walk a bit more carefully because this narrow street becomes dotted with cafe tables and umbrellas, and every shop’s doors are open for patrons to walk inside.
8. Try bolo do caco (Madeira garlic bread)
Okay, this one’s kind of a gimme, but if you like garlic as much as we do – as in, vampires will never be a problem for you – you, my friends, have just hit the jackpot. Bolo do caco is a yeasted flatbread made with flour and sweet potato and cooked on the stove, rather than baked. Honestly, it reminded us of a large English muffin when we first tried it, though the texture inside is a bit different from that. Once the bread is cooked, most places will slice it in half, long-ways, and plaster it with garlic butter. Then the two halves are laid back together so the garlic butter melts into the bread and the center stays nice and warm.
To our delight, there are even places that make sandwiches from bolo do caco!! Please know that a ham and cheese sandwich on this Madeira garlic bread is BEYOND amazing. While bolo do caco is easy to find on just about any menu on Madeira, you can also find the storefronts we talked about that will whip you up a sandwich on this delicious garlic bread – they’re just about everywhere. For us, this is right up there on our list of delicious things with ham and cheese sandwiches on mallorca bread in Puerto Rico 😍
9. Enjoy a festival in Funchal
Our first visit to Madeira – a spur of the moment trip that we coordinated through Portugal Getaways – just happened to coincide with one of their more famous festivals: the Flower Festival. Downtown was decorated all over with thousands and thousands of flowers, and one of the main areas in town had tons of kiosks, cultural performances, and photo moments set up for attendees to enjoy. All of this culminated in a beautiful weekend parade down the Avenida do Mar. Funchal also has a famous wine festival in early September, which includes about 10 days of wine classes/talks, tastings, concerts on local vineyards, and more. All this in addition to all the saints’ days and other holiday celebrations you’d expect. Whatever you do, don’t miss this beautiful old city all dressed up for one of its big events!
Check out the calendar of events in Funchal and plan accordingly.
10. Shop the Mercado dos Lavradores (and try all of Madeira’s bananas and passionfruits)
We love a farmer’s market, whether we’re at home or abroad. We’ve stopped at big markets in Strasbourg, Vancouver, and Paris, and have never had an experience quite like we had here – in the best way possible. Walk through the Zona Velha and you’ll inevitably end up at the Mercado dos Lavradores – the farmer’s market. Inside, it’s exactly what you’d expect: a square building with an open, central square chock full of pallets of veggies and fruits, while more typical touristy stores and those offering bottled goods line the covered, interior hallways. This is actually where we stopped to get Luke a baseball cap when the sun got too intense.
When we first walked in, we browsed some of the flower stalls and poked around a little, but weren’t really sure what to do. We’d heard about all of Madeira’s famous passionfruits and bananas (which are so easy to grow almost year-round because of the consistent, temperate climate), but we didn’t have much of an idea what we were looking for.
Obviously, we looked as clueless as we felt because as we loitered around one of the bigger produce stands, one of the owners came up and started asking how he could help. Once we told him what we were interested in, he led us around the stand and showed us each fruit and the price. If we weren’t sure, he pulled a paring knife out of his back pocket and cut us samples to try. Were we being sold to because we were tourists? Oh, absolutely. Did we probably pay too much? Probably also a yes. But at the same time, we learned a lot and had a great time, and were able to track down a big selection of fruit in just one stop, rather than having to stop at a lot of different small grocers looking for fruit we weren’t familiar with.
Note: Madeira bananas will change your life and blow up your taste buds. They’re amazing!!
11. Visit the Colégio dos Jesuítas do Funchal
We love a beautiful church – okay, I love them more than Luke does, but we’ll just say he loves them by proxy. As such, the Jesuit College of Funchal is a must-see stop for anyone like me. The main College building is beautiful and functional, but the church is where the splendor lives. Understated by comparison to the typical, over-the-top Baroque gaudiness one sees in many churches built around the same time this one was – over 400 years ago – the decor here is still quite fine and shiny, but it’s also elegant. The whole Jesuit College of Funchal and its incorporated buildings have housed everything from a rectory, to military occupiers, to a university, and more. It has some of the more colorful history you’ll find on Madeira, and is 100% worth a visit when you’re in Funchal.
Tours are €5 for adults, €3,75 for seniors, and free for visitors under 18
More information on booking a tour is available here.
12. Take a breather in the Funchal municipal gardens
While walking around the downtown part of Funchal – right near Blandy’s Wine Lodge, actually – it’s hard to miss the municipal gardens. Manicured flowerbeds and shrubs along with wide walkways cover the space between lots of huge, mature trees that provide just enough shade to be comfortable. There’s even a lovely little fountain the ducks like to paddle in. During the week, most of the benches are full with a revolving door of locals and tourists, families and business folks, young people and the elderly, all briefly stopping for a shady place to rest on their way to their destination. On the weekends, artisans set up tables to sell antiques, crafts, and art and the whole park is packed with people walking and browsing.
While it may not be the most eventful part of Funchal, these beautiful gardens are a lovely stop along the way as you explore the city.
13. Have lunch with a local farmer-slash-chef
While researching for the trip, we came across an AirBNB experience called “Ocean View Amazing Food Experiences.” The photos looked beautiful, and AirbBNB experiences rarely fail us, so we decided to take a chance on this experience. We’re so glad we did, because it ended up being one of the highlights of our trip to Madeira and Funchal!
Since we were staying at the very center of downtown, we called a taxi to take us eastward, up the steep hills just outside the city to São Gonçalo. There, Andre met us warmly at his front gate and showed us to his farm’s courtyard. While he whipped up a batch of poncha (a traditional cocktail of sugar cane rum, honey, and lemon juice), Andre talked about his personal history working in kitchens across Europe, and then coming home to help his father take care of this farm in their hometown. They’ve been figuring it out as they go, re-learning how to best grow local, seasonal produce and even make their own wine. And then he showed us around the farm. Now, in the part of the United States we’re from, a “farm” is a lot of acreage covered with fields and fields of crops. In São Gonçalo, though, where flat space is at a premium, the farms are much more vertical. They seem very small until you start winding your way through all of these vertical, terraced beds and realize there’s so much growing here in this fertile, volcanic soil.
After giving us the grand tour, Andre parked us as a table for 4 under a pergola that overlooked not just his land (complete with chickens) but also the ocean and Funchal. He poured us each a glass of wine – which a friend of his had shared from his own farm on another part of the island – and hurried off to the kitchen to start making lunch. Now, we’re nothing if not game for an experience, so we followed him and asked if we could help. So we got to sous chef for Andre while he made us salad, clams, bolo de caco, seared tuna, and potatoes. We had such a lovely time talking and cooking with him, and 100% felt like we left with a friend in São Gonçalo.
Find more information about Andre’s AirBNB experience here!
Pin this post for future reference, since we KNOW you’ll be booking a trip to Madeira now!
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