Top Ten Typical Madeira Sites: Madeira wine, food, and thatched houses

Thatched triangular house at Santana mountainside village in Madeira. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
What to do in Madeira? Having been there recently, I shall make notes immediately on getting home as a reminder of what to see next time.

Answers
I assume you are staying in the capital, Funchal. A motorway takes you to hotels in Funchal, the capital, where about half the population lives. Book a car from the airport or online. Booking though hotel reception could be mush higher price.
See or eat in the restaurant of one of the top three hotels:

1 HOTELS with views
Reid Hotel - traditional and historic.
Winston Churchill stayed here. So did Roger Moore.
Pestana Casino Park - modern. Dining room with panoramic sea view.
Savoy - biggest hotel in Madeira; signs say it will open spring 2019.
(Budget altenative - many budget hotels and restaurants with sea views or panormaic views over the valleys.
Hotel with news:
CR7. Named after football hero Cristiano Ronaldo.

2 SWIM
in the outdoor seawater pools, at Porto Moniz, north west of the island.
Alternatively, staying at Pestana Casino Park hotel, try the Jacuzzi and the jets in the indoor swimming pool. You can sit in jets, lie in jets, stand in jets.

3 BUS TOUR - Funicular - Botanical Gardens
Take the red or yellow open top tour bus. Take the red bus to visit Monte, the funicular, and the wicker basket descent.
Budget alternative. Be photographed in the wicker toboggan on the top floor of La Vie shopping mall, a few steps away from the seafront.

4 GLASS BALCONY VIEW
Take the yellow bus tour (or drive or take a public bus) to the lookout point with the glass floor.

5 LEVADA WALK
Do a levada walk. Easy walk on a level - Ribero Frio.
Budget - take a public bus to Ribeiro Frio (meaning cold river). Take the walk above the road to the lookout balcony with birds.

6 LEVADA WALK DOWN TO WATERFALL Walk on the levada walk downhill to see the waterfall. Catch the bus back uphill. (It's an eight seater minibus like a big jeep, about three dollars.)
This killed my calf muscles. Leave it to the last day.

7 MADEIRA WINE
Try some Madeira wine, a fortified wine, and learn about it.
Visit in Funchal:
a) D'Olivera  Madeira Wines - sit at barrell tables and try the drinks. We had a pre-arranged group talk for about 15 people. We had a talk from Luís D'Olivera, a quietly spoken dear little man, sad about the death of his older brother, whose picture you can see at the entrance - such a shame - a lovely man, elegant, refined. I wish I had had the chance to meet him.
www.doliveiras.pt
b) Blandy's Madeira Wine Company  - around the corner from D'Olivera. These are the two big ones. Blandy's is bigger.

8 MADEIRA RUM IN SPECTACULAR SETTING BY CLIFFS
c) Drive to Porto da Cruz, to see the Distillery producing rum from sugar cane. Big old distillery. Just walk in and read the captions and leaflet.
Next door is the shop which has open bottles for free tastings but if we had not read the leaflet we'd never have known.

Toilets by the seafront restaurant, with views from tables on one side, but when we were there everybody sat the other side. Toilets with graffiti. Another visitor exclaimed in horror. (However, to me a toilet cubicle and water to wash hands was a luxury after visiting the peninsular walk at Ponta (viewpoint) São Lourenço - magnificent sea views but no toilets and no bushes either, toilet paper scattered along the verge by the parked cars.)
Porta Da Cruz has a tiny stony black vaolcanic ashe beach under a massive cliff with crashing waves and - impressive.
www.engenhosdonorte.com
Read up in The Wines of Madeira by Trevor Elliott.

9 SKEWERS OF MEAT OR FISH
Try local food, such as tender moist fish or tender meat on skewers. I recommend two very different places:
1 Cosy rooftop terrace down a side street, no view. Coffee, Madeira wines, or a full meal with the meat on skewers.
Casal da Penha terrace bar
tel:291 227 674
2 Beer House, on a pier with a view over the boats and sea.  They make their own beer in a small distllery you can see. Toilets downstairs.
www.beerhouse.pt

10 SEE TRIANGULAR THATCHED HOUSES. (See my previous post.)
They are in Santana, a village named after the chapel for Saint Anna. Yes, you can visit them, photograph the outside and go inside. They are used as shops to display local crafts. I went into the flower shop.

Finally, shopping.
You can buy cork bags and hats, embroidery with the thatched houses,
 Madeira wine, honey rum, and bottled cocktails.

Useful Travel Information
Hotels
https://www.pestana.com/en/hotel/pestana-casino-park
https://www.pestanacr7.com/en/hotel/pestana-cr7-funchal (Named for Madeira's Critiano Ronaldo and his football tem number 7, next to the museum dedicated to him and football.)
www.pestana.com
https://www.belmond.com/hotels/europe/portugal/madeira/belmond-reids-palace/

Restaurants
www.casaldapenha.com

Wine tasting
www.doliveiras.pt

Sightseeing
Red bus
www.citysightseeing.pt

Travel Tips
Fly by (alphabetically)
Azores Airlines (A Portuguese airline)
https://www.azoresairlines.pt/en 

British Airways
britishairways.com

EasyJet
easyjet.com

TAP Portuguese airlines
flytap.com

Flight Comparison
expedia
expedia.com

tripadvisor
tripadvisor.com

Official website
http://www.visitmadeira.pt/en-gb/homepage

Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have other posts on Madeira and footballer Ronaldo and his museum

Thatched Triangular Houses In Madeira

Problem
Traditional triangular houses, like little pyramids, are a feature of Madeira. You see the images everywhere, on postcards and embroidered on tablecloths. But where are the houses?

I had given up hope of seeing them. Then I looked at a copy of walks in Madeira, the German version owned by the German driver of one of the cars hired by my hiking holiday group.

I noticed the name of the area where the houses were found. It was the same name I saw on the signpost ahead!

Two of our cars, travelling in convoy back from a hike to the highest peak in Madeira, were looking for a restaurant where we could have coffee, tea, beer, and/or something to eat.Another plus would be a toilet.

As we drove into a village I saw one of the pyramid shape houses. We all commented, 'It looks amusing. But how can you live in it? Can you stand up in it? Is there room for furniture? There are no flat walls.'

The car drivers stopped when they came into the village and saw a busy cafe with people sitting outside on the corner of the main intersection. On the way back from the parking area I walked past a hotel with a thatched traditional cottage on the forecourt. People were taking selfies of themselves and their families of children in front of the open doorway.

I peeked inside. It had beds and furniture. It looked very cosy. Plus of course, very original, character.
It was much larger inside than it apeared from outside.

Over the road from the cafe was another of the triangular houses. Leading to it were a rose garden and a geranium garden. The reason why became apparent when I looked inside. It was a flower shop. Shelves on all sides showed brightly coloured flowers and packets of fruit and flower seeds.

Thatched house in Madeira used as a flower shop. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

This one seemed smaller, one room at the front, a door leading to the back. The shelves on the sides created a vertical-sided space like a normal square room.

Flowers
I was tempted to buy a banana plant. However, I was not sure it would be legal or advisable to bring a plant with roots to another country. I remember how phyloxera destroyed vineyards all over the world in the 1860s onwards.

So I bought some seeds instead. I hope to have plants with fruit to remind me of my trip to Maderia and the tirnagular houses.

The houses have red roofs and doors which makes them especially attractive. The buildings were constructed by farmers in the early days of Madeira. Now they are maintained as tourist attractions.

Thatched house in Madeira. Photo by Markus Bernet in Wikipedia.

Travel Tips
Fly by (alphabetically)
Azores Airlines (A Portuguese airline)
https://www.azoresairlines.pt/en 

British Airways
britishairways.com

EasyJet
easyjet.com

TAP Portuguese airlines
flytap.com

Flight Comparison
expedia
expedia.com

tripadvisor
tripadvisor.com

Official website
http://www.visitmadeira.pt/en-gb/homepage

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Angela Lansbury