Madeira

[WhoAteTheLastBrownie]

Anyone been to Madeira and can tell me what it's like for a holiday with adult (18 & 20) children?

We have visited Madeira and had a lovely time. In the main town, Funchal, there is a cable car where you can enjoy a scenic ride up to the hilltop. At the top there are some Tropical Gardens and on the way back down you can ride the Monte Tonoggan Sled (this is quite expensive - but a fun experience). The old town area of Funchal has a number of restaurants, bars and a few nightclubs (but Madeira is not a party hot spot) there is a museum of a footballer (Ronaldo) and a 3D art museum (for great selfies). You can also do a sightseeing bus around Funchal.

We went on a dolphin watching boat trip around Madeira, which was really fun - even thou we didn’t see any dolphins!

We also hired a car* *for a few days and visited the glass-floored walkway on a cliff, went swimming in some natural rock pools formed by Lava, visited a cave, climbed up to the highest point and visited a forest (UNESCO World Heritage). We went on a mini-tour and learnt about Madeira cake and the wine. You can do an off-road jeep tour and there are places you can surf (and give lessons). The beaches we visited were not amazing (rocky and small) but otherwise we had a great time. Plenty to do for a week but it depends what you enjoy doing.

@LittleLlama which hotel did you stay at please, were you travelling as a couple or with children or young adults and could you easily get by without a car?

A car was useful (if you wanted to do remote activities), however, the public bus service was very good. We stayed a week and hired a car for three days (via a website). The boat trip was organised through TUI (and they picked us up from our hotel), so we didn’t need a car that day. We were a couple with one older teens and one young adult. Can’t remember the name of the hotel - but it was booked via TUI.

I've been to Madeira as an adult and absolutely loved it.
We went on a tour with Hit The Road Madeira, walked to Camara de Lobos, went up in the cable car, ate plenty of pastel de nata 😀

Madeira is not what I would describe as a resort/ beach holiday, but that's not for us.

There's a Facebook group Madeira Island for Travellers where people chat about things to do etc, that could be helpful to search through.