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Site last modified on 13th August 2004
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Madeira |
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Click here for full graphics version. Since our last three summer holidays had been touring ones, we decided to go for something a little more relaxing this year and chose Madeira. It had everything we wanted; beautiful scenery, great walking, good hotels and food and plenty to see and do. No proper beaches but that's not a problem for us. Oh, and no yobs! We booked through with Style Holidays (through Magic Breaks who offer good discounts) and chose 2 hotels, the Porto Santa Maria in the old town and the Choupana Hills Resort up in the hills, both on a B&B package. This proved to be an excellent combination. We haven't stayed in a hotel for more than 4 nights in years so it was a pleasant change not to be constantly unpacking and repacking. You'll find some links at the foot of the page. 12th July 2004 We flew with First Choice Airlines (very cramped) from Bristol arriving at a deserted Funchal airport some 3 hours later. We were soon at our hotel, which was lovely and extremely well situated at the end of the Old Town, right on the seafront. Our room was a good size with a spacious bathroom (bath, shower, bidet etc) and well equipped with kitchenette and large fridge. Not that we did any catering, as we were just a couple of minutes from the dozens of good restaurants, all eager to entice us to their tables. The harbour was just 10-15 minutes walk away with yet more choice (although a little more expensive). The hotel is new and spacious and would be an excellent choice for anyone who has trouble walking as it is in a flat part of town and has a lift. There are indoor and outdoor pools, both large and uncrowded and a spa offering a myriad of treatments. Once settled in we had a welcome meeting with our Style rep, Frances, who was very helpful and not at all pushy. We booked several trips - a jeep tour to the Western part of the island, 2 guided walks and a night at the Casino. We ate just along the road at the O Regional where we had an excellent meal of espetada, the national skewered meat dish which is hung on wooden skewers at your table. We found that a 3 course meal with wine in this part of town cost about €60 for 2. Then we strolled along the seafront which was very pleasant and comfortably warm. 13th July We spent the day exploring the town, full of very narrow cobbled streets and then foolishly found ourselves victims of a timeshare scam. I won't go into details, suffice to say I asked if it had anything to do with timeshare and was categorically told it wasn't. We were taxied to the Royal Savoy Hotel to inspect their rooms - of course, it was timeshare and all the bonhomie vanished when we said we weren't interested. I had thought a company as prestigious as the Savoy group wouldn't have needed to resort to such underhand tactics. I won't be staying in any of their hotels in future. It was quite a long walk back but we went through the Parque de Santa Catarina, which was very pleasant. And we did get chance to see the tourist end of town which we wouldn't have seen otherwise, and were pleased that we were staying well away from plethora of large hotels. Then on to the harbour for a very light salad lunch. Be warned, they talk you into having far more than you want - we avoided lunch after that, delicious as it was, and tended to eat early in the evening. That night we ate in the hotel - a fish barbecue - but weren't hungry enough to do it justice! That was the only time we ate dinner there as there was so much other choice, and the restaurant did seem to lack atmosphere. 14th July We had an early start for our first guided walk with Madeira Explorers. At €35 each walk, per person, we thought this a little pricey but by the end of the holiday could appreciate that it was actually pretty good value. You are collected and returned to your hotel in good air-conditioned Mercedes minibuses, and sometimes that can be quite a long drive. The guides are excellent and you are provided with walking sticks if you want them. The walks are researched thoroughly and they always have alternatives worked out in case of landslides etc. in fact there was one on this very walk a week later and an alternative was taken. Below is the walk info as given on their website. Poço
da Neve (Arieiro) - Ecological Park We almost ended up on the wrong walk (a 13km grade 4 difficult walk up and down some mountains!) so I was glad I had my wits about me. There was a booking mix up but it was soon resolved. We started at the Ice House that can be seen on the left of the photo and spent a very enjoyable few hours walking, stopping for a picnic lunch halfway (where we were joined by some sheep!) The walking was quite tough in places, overgrown and steep, both up and down, but mainly down. Some of the time we were walking alongside a levada, levadas being old water courses that can be found all over the island. I'd have liked more time to stop for photos but as I was just about the slowest walker, I didn't like to keep stopping in case I couldn't catch up! By the end, when we had a very long and steep walk downhill, my knee was in agony and I struggled to finish. I was out of practice and it's not often we get chance to walk in such hilly terrain at home. In all, we had descended roughly 600-800 metres on foot during the walk. At the end of the walk we were taken to a lovely restaurant for a beer, where we sat on the terrace overlooking Funchal. Beer had never tasted so good! Back at the hotel, we relaxed in the jacuzzi and pool. That night we ate at the A Muralha, the closest restaurant to the hotel. Sore feet! We ate the local fish, espada, traditionally served with cooked bananas. Very good too and the bill was under €50. 15th July Today we went on the cable car, which is just a couple of minutes from the hotel. It goes up to Monte and back - you can book one way or return. We could see the Oriana in the harbour and shared a cable car with a couple of her guests who had until 3.30pm to explore Madeira - not enough! The journey was good, with stunning views across Funchal and the hills. We decided to go to Monte Palace Gardens, and they were well worth the effort involved to going up and down hundreds of steps. My calves were very stiff after yesterday's walk, and I found the steps painful! This is one of the loveliest gardens I have seen. There was an excellent exhibition of African sculpture and another of crystals and precious stones - very unexpected. Madeira has so many beautiful flowers and the gardens were full of them. There is also a series of ornamental ponds full of koi carp, waterfall, oriental garden, Madeira wine tasting at the café and so on. Then we walked up to the church, watching people being transported back down the hill in wicker baskets, a traditional form of transport for the area. We didn't really fancy it although it's not as unsafe as it looks. Mind you, you do share the road with passing traffic which was a surprise to us. We came back on the cable car and then walked along to the harbour to watch the Oriana departing. It's huge, dwarfing the island's hotels. In the evening we went to the Casino for a 'Night on the Town'. Not usually our cup of tea but it came with dinner and so we thought it'd make a change. The floor show lasted around an hour and was OK - singing and dancing, supposedly of West End & Broadway songs, but there weren't too many of them. The food was surprisingly good. We moved on to the casino where I played Blackjack and made €30 profit on a €100 stake, not bad in half an hour. It more than covered our taxi fares there and back. 16th July We hailed a taxi and went to the Botanical gardens this morning. It was nice but not as impressive as Monte Gardens, although I loved the cactus garden which had some very impressive and treacherous looking specimens. There was also a bird garden: nice birds, shame about the small cages. Then we walked to the Orchid Garden, not far down the hill, a lovely place. I had no idea orchids were so tricky to grow. We ate Madeira honey cake with beer on the terrace. We'd planned top walk back into Funchal but it was so steep we grabbed a waiting taxi. Just as well - the roads don't go straight down and it took ages by car, let alone if we'd been walking. Driving is difficult, the streets are narrow, incredibly steep and with many very sharp bends. Best avoided unless you like a real challenge! Back at the hotel I had an aromatherapy treatment. I had booked a chakra balance (not that I was very sure what it was but it sounded interesting) but there was a technical hitch so I had to swap. It was very nice though. That evening we ate at the O Tapassol. It had been full every night but we were really early. it certainly was an excellent meal, the best we'd had so far. Lots of it too, and €50 for 2 of us. 17th July We'd arranged with a taxi driver to go on a half day tour of the Nuns Valley (Cural das Freiras) this morning and Juan arrived promptly. It's a good way to see the island if you don't want to go on coach tours. It tends to cost about €50 for a half day and €90 to €100 for a full day. Comparable to a coach trip for 2 of you but cheaper if there are 3 or 4. We liked the freedom of it. We started at a local viewpoint - see the levada photo, although that was as far as we walked on that one! - and Juan identified all the flowers and trees for us. He knows his stuff and his English is good. We stopped at St Martins Church but unfortunately it was closed. Every now and again we stopped to admire the views and take photos, and once to fill his water bottles with fresh water from the mountains. Ice cold, delicious and free. Nuns Valley was fantastic. We stopped at the Aire de Serrado viewpoint, 1006 mts (3300ft) high, stunning. Juan asked if we'd like to walk down a little way and then meet him, so we did. He didn't mention we'd be walking 2.5km and descending 500 mts! But it was a wonderful walk (although I wished I wasn't wearing sandals) with a total of 43 turns, according to Juan. I couldn't have managed it a day or two earlier but had recovered from our first walk by now. After, we had beer and cake at the Nuns Valley Snackbar, and sampled some local liqueurs. We arrived back at our hotel after 2pm and went for a walk to the contemporary art museum in the old fort next to the hotel. There was very little there and it was rather too contemporary for our tastes. More interesting were the preparations going on for a wedding reception later that evening. Certainly a lovely location for it, overlooking the sea. That night we ate at a Japanese restaurant. The food was delicious but there were few customers. I guess it was because it was a lot more expensive than the places around us, and smaller sized portions. 18th July We were up early for our jeep tour of the west of the island. We were last to be picked up and sat in the very back - not too comfy but it looked rather squashed everywhere and we did swap after lunch. We joined up with another 6 jeeps and went along in convoy. It was a good day although low cloud spoilt some of the views. We went through Camara de Lobos, Ribeira Brava and then off-roading up through the forests. That was pretty hairy and you had to hang on tight. We were in cloud when we reached the top but we could imagine the views! Then on to Miradouro where we could see everything, then Porto Moniz with its volcanic rock formations on the coastline. There was a lot of development going on (EU money) with new roads and tunnels causing traffic jams. I'm not sure it's a good thing but will open up new parts of the island to tourism. They work 24/24 so the work gets done really quickly. After Sao Vicente we stopped for a good lunch, included in the price of €33 each for a whole day, excellent value. After lunch we had a car wash in a tunnel waterfall! Very effective too but you have to shut the windows quickly. Then on to Cabo Girao, the 2nd highest cape in the world at 580mts. Great views. We experienced the weather that Madeira is famous for - one minute hot & sunny, the next cool and cloudy, then average elsewhere. It can change from one village to the next - but no rain so that was fine with us. We were then all taken back to our hotels. That evening we walked down to the harbour and had an excellent meal on the Vagrant, the Beatles one time yacht, starting off with champagne cocktails. It was a good way to spend our last night in Funchal's town, finishing with a romantic moonlight walk back to our hotel (we were usually back before dark!). 19th July We packed up and checked out and were picked up by Juan who took us up to the Choupana Hills Resort. It takes about 15 minutes and is a very steep journey, unbeloved by Style reps! And I don't blame them. Although we were early, we were greeted very warmly and given fresh fruit juice whilst checking in. The resort is out of this world, extremely classy and 5* all the way.There are only 64 rooms, housed in semi-detached bungalows in the grounds. Ours was at the foot of the resort and there were lots of steps. You can ask for buggies to get you around but that seemed like cheating so I prepared to get fitter! There are indoor and outdoor pools, the outdoor one having a 'razor edge' on two sides, very unusual and effective, and a spa. There are lots of staff, all very friendly and helpful and everywhere is very spacious. The views over Funchal were incredible. We spent several hours by the pool, relaxing and observing everywhere. To be honest, at that point we felt a bit intimidated. We're not used to places quite that luxurious and with that level of service and I felt as though we didn't quite belong. It also seemed to be full of extremely good looking people - and older men with TWs (trophy wives!) I'm glad to say that we soon settled in and the next day felt much more comfortable. That evening we had dinner in the hotel restaurant and it was superb. Far more expensive than anywhere else, but far superior. In fact the food was some of the best I've ever had. Absolutely delicious, beautifully cooked, presented and served. Excellent wine too. I could see our credit card taking a huge bashing this second week. 20th July We had an excellent breakfast - the pastries are to die for - and then thought we would walk some of it off by tackling the levada that goes right through the resort. We walked to Monte and then back, a total of nearly 12km. It's a pretty levada, with flowers alongside for the first part. It was a very hot day and a relief when we reached some shade. Most of the walk follows the levada, and some of it is very hairy indeed. if you don't have a head for heights, don't tackle this one! There were sheer drops of several hundreds of feet, mostly totally unprotected and the path was often no more than 2 feet wide. If you look closely at the photo on the right, you can see this - the very thin wire fence was an unusual concession to the drop and not found everywhere. At one point you come to a tunnel and leave the levada, going through a wooded area. It's lovely but went steeply down so I wasn't much looking forward to the return journey, and it was very hot. We were in Monte after 90 minutes and had a wander around but had seen it all before. After a beer, we came back, with a number of stops to get my breath back! It seemed less vertiginous coming the other way and we arrived back at Choupana a little quicker. That evening there was a cocktail party, free drinks and nibbles. At the prices they charge for drinks, not to be sniffed at. Then another superb dinner. The hotel runs a courtesy minibus service into Funchal but the last one comes back at 7.30 so if you want to eat elsewhere, you have to take the taxi fares into account (€15 each way between hotel and town I think). In any case, this food was so good we decided it was worth the cost. 21st July We'd booked another tour with Juan, this time to the eastern part of the island and we started off by heading up to the Terreiro da Luta to see the Madonna, a large statue with a rosary made from the anchor chains of ships torpedoed in the harbour. It seemed to be a place of pilgrimage with flowers and candles, and a couple of barefooted people praying at her feet. Then we went on to Pico de Arriero, where we'd almost got onto the wrong walk the week before. This has to be one of my favourite places on earth, marred only by all the people visiting. It's the highest part of the island accessible by road and second highest point in all (1810m). And the views are breathtaking. There was a duo playing Andean pipes and it really added to the atmosphere. I felt we could have been in South America rather than Madeira. Then we drove to Ribeiro Frio where we had a short walk through a wood and visited a trout farm, with trout of all sizes in pools scattered around a pretty garden. From there we walked along a short levada in dappled shade to Balcoes, with its lovely views. We'd built up a thirst by then and stopped for lunch at the Casa da Cha do Faial, an old teahouse now restaurant. It was huge, catering for a large number of people on coach trips. We ate another traditional dish, tomato soup with poached egg in it. Then on to Santana, the village famed for its A framed thatched houses called palheiros. There aren't too many left now but the government has built 2 in order to retain the tourist attraction! And we also visited a 'private' one and had a look inside and were given coffee liqueur by the owner. Our final stop was at Camacha where we visited a vast wickerwork factory. We watched the craftsmen at work and were amazed at the wonderful things on sale. Very hard to transport them home though - and so much cheaper than here. We had arranged to attend a bird watching evening back at the hotel so declined a walk round town and set off back to Choupana. It had been a fascinating tour and we had now seen a great deal of Madeira. We had a short rest before the bird watching which was a slide show and talk followed by a walk around the gardens looking for birds. Sadly, there were only 3 of us plus the 2 representatives form Madeira Windbirds. We didn't see many birds but it was an interesting insight, nevertheless. Since we'd had some lunch, we decided to have room service rather than eat in the restaurant. We had Caesar salads with prawns but it wasn't nearly as nice as everything else we ate here. Disappointing. 22nd July We spent the day relaxing by the pool. It was quite cloudy which was in fact quite a relief as we're not big sun worshippers. We also tried out the Turkish steam bath which was great - but very hot. Back to the restaurant for dinner and it was fantastic as always. 23rd July We had our 2nd walk with Madeira Explorers booked for today, details below. Hidden
Corners (São Jorge) - Herbal and Medicinal Plants It was a long drive to get there with lots of delays due to road building but finally we arrived at a café and met up with the rest of the group. There's always a loo/coffee stop at the start of the walks. We were a large group of 15, led by Arvro, a leader with a great sense of humour and much knowledge. Apart from some steps at the beginning it was virtually flat, along a levada to its source and back again. We had lots of stops to hear about the different plants and their medicinal uses, which was fascinating. There were some steep drops but it wasn't nearly as dangerous as our walk to Monte although some of the group didn't like it very much. And hot too - so walking through the waterfall near the end was very welcome! On the way back Arvro gathered laurel sticks for the espetadas on their Sunday walk. He told us about the walk, a full day one, advertised as grade 4 and difficult in our leaflet, and at 18kms longer than any we had tackled before. But it sounded wonderful and we decided we'd have a go and signed up for it. We seemed to be getting our 'Madeira legs' so hoped we'd be OK. At the end of this walk, we stopped again for welcome beer, always a good ending to a great walk. That night we tried the Discovery menu, a blow-out one of many courses and including several glasses of wine. We'd walked for hours, we deserved it! I haven't been mentioning specific food we ate here but this one deserves a mention. Each meal was preceded by an 'amuse bouche' (an appetiser) and lovely bread. Tonight's was small glasses of avocado soup. Then duck foie gras with pineapple chutney, toast & salad, with Madeira wine. Next up was coconut and truffle soup, then red grape granita. A glass of white wine came along together with lobster in a kilner jar! Lots of it, in a creamy sauce, no shell, all cut into pieces. Red wine with the next course - veal medallions with vegetable tian and banana. Followed by more Madeira wine and a selection of desserts, then tea or coffee with more delicious tidbits. Phew, and not very pc either! At €65 each it was not bad value, considering what we had. What we discovered however, that it was actually rather too much! 24th July It was very hot today and we had a day of relaxation planned, sunbathing, reading, Turkish bath, swimming. Martyn had a full body massage and I had full reflexology (feet, hands, head). Very good. Instead of dinner we had afternoon tea in the lounge , trying out Choupana's own blend of tea which was the best I have ever tasted. 25th July We were up at 7am and it was already baking hot, rather like standing under a hairdryer when we went out for breakfast. It was well over 30 degrees when we were picked up for our long walk by the Madeira Explorers team. We were a small group, 5, plus 2 guides (Arvro as before) and Nelson who was learning the route and our driver/cook Daniel. We were to walk halfway and meet up with him for our espetada barbecue. This walk isn't mentioned on the website but is described in the leaflet as 'Exploring the West' and tends to be offered to clients who have already walked with the group. The barbecue is the same price as their picnic (€7) and is considerably better! We started out at Paul da Serra (where we'd been on our jeep safari) and walked towards the centre of the island. We started by following a levada, uphill. Not too steep at that point. The views were stunning but it was hazy and we could see some small fires in the distance. We passed a lot of burnt shrubbery. We had quite a lot of uphill walking and it was extremely hot. We saw several buzzards and a kestrel whilst on the side of the mountain. We passed lots of mountain waterfalls and were able to keep refilling our water bottles. We drank litres and litres of it that day. What a beautiful drink. After the levada, the walking got tougher, relentlessly uphill and sometimes quite rough ground. I found the last half hour extremely tough going, not helped by the heat. But I made it - just - although I wasn't sure I'd manage the second half of the walk. We were high up too, which probably didn't help. The barbecue was held at one of the special picnic spots found on the island. They have indoor barbecues, to stop risk of fire spreading. It was a festival day so there were many families sharing the area. Daniel did us proud, we had huge chunks of steak on the laurel sticks collected on our earlier walk, lots of mixed salad, potatoes and bread, washed down with a sort of sangria (red wine and orangeade). I stuck to orange and water though as my head was aching from the exertions of the walk! But it went and after a brief consultation, I was assured the rest of the walk was flat and downhill and felt able to continue. We walked in the woods this time, much cooler, following the levada and with the customary lethal drops on the other side. We cooled off in more waterfalls and looked out over even more fantastic views. It was quite tough going, potentially lots of chances to fall so we had to watch our feet all the time. It was also very steep going down at times but I could manage that OK. We arrived back at the minibus at 5pm, pretty tired, very dirty, and feeling fantastic. I was so glad I hadn't given up. We had a lovely final dinner at the hotel. It had been a great day and a wonderful holiday. 26th July Time to go home, after a leisurely day sitting around at the hotel. We went to the airport in the afternoon and were pleased that our request to the Style rep for more leg room on the plane had been acted upon and we had emergency exit seats which made the return journey much more comfortable. This holiday was superb and lived up to, in fact exceeded, all our expectations. Splitting the time between 2 very different hotels was a good idea and in fact it felt like 2 different holidays. I would recommend both hotels highly. The Porto Santa Maria was in a great location for the city of Funchal. The Choupana Hills is very special and would be a perfect honeymoon destination but isn't so well situated if you want to spend a lot of time in the city. The Madeirense were lovely people, always very friendly and helpful to us and the actual island is very beautiful. I think the high points were the walks we did; we really felt we were getting to know the country in a way you can't do unless you're on foot. We would like to visit again, perhaps at a different time of year, mainly to walk some more of these wonderful levadas and other trails.
LINKS Style Holidays Magic Breaks Hotel Porto Santa Maria Choupana Hills Spa & Resort Madeira Tourism Madeira Island Madeira Explorers Monte Palace Garden Orchid Garden Madeira Birds
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