Madeira?

[BuggersMuddle]

We're early 30s, fit couple with no DC. Like hiking, cycling, nice scenery and good food. I'm towards the peely wally side of things, but neither of us are sun-worshipers.

We can enjoy a drink or five but not looking for wild nightlife on a holiday.

We often go to Austria or Switzerland for walking holidays but this year the flights we can get to Austria are frankly awful and decent Swiss resorts are £££. We're hoping to get away on a skiing holiday this year, so I don't want to blow the budget on a week in the summer.

So, I thought about Madeira. I think it looks lovely, albeit it will be warmer (July or August) so we'll probably do less strenuous walking than we might in the alps and a bit more swimming / pottering, but that's okay as long as we're not stuck in a hotel / on a beach.

Has anyone been to Funchal? Any thoughts as a walking destination? Any tips or recommendations? I seem to be spoiled for choice for good quality hotels.

We went for our honeymoon 6 years ago when we were 27. We loved it and would go back again. There are quite a lot of older tourists but it didn't bother us. Fantastic walks, beautiful scenery and great food.

We stayed at the pestana casino park and thought it was great with really helpful staff. I don't like the heat too much and I'm that pale I'm almost see through but the temps were perfect for me.

Enjoy if you decide to book!

We also went for our honeymoon aged 28 and 30. Was lovely and fits the bill for what you want. Our only complaints were that it rained a lot (but we went in October and on the plus side the rainbows were amazing! ) and if it had been better weather I might have missed having a sandy beach but not a problem if you used to the Alps!
we stayed in the Quinta de Casa Branca which was a fantastic small quiet hotel with lovely gardens. Would second the recommendations to get the Sunflower guide book and hire a car. Also we did a whale and dolphin watching catermeran trip which was fantastic-no whales but loads of dolphins!
Happy memories!

I want to go to Madeira now.

I went there about 30 years ago.
There was some terrible poverty then, I don't know about now, and it was a stark contrast to all the beauty.
I worked with Madeiran migrant workers about 20 years ago in a different country -I think its a place where work is hard to find and there's a huge reliance on the tourist industry.
The people are lovely, genuine and very famiky orientated ime.

Thanks all. We have booked up

I hadn't realised the poverty aspect & not sure whether your post was meant to make me reconsider? We're booked now, but I always try to be generous where I can be with tipping etc.

Oh no -sorry!

it was a long time ago -and what I'm saying is that if it were the same nowadays, its really good that their tourist industry is supported, aside from the fact that its a beautiful island!

Hi!
We had a holiday apartment in Funchal (The Residence at Porto Mare) which has now ended. Sad to leave but as we now have a toddler, feel the time is now right to venture to other places around the world.
However, i can thoroughy reccommend Madeira AND the Porto Bay group. In fact, all hotels in Funchal are excellent because of the clientele (sp?) they provide a service for.
Madeira is mainly for couples, walkers, young families. Nothing to do in terms of night life but lots of excellent restaurants. The ones locals go to are highly reccommended.
I would reccommend Madeira Explorers for walking tours. We've done them all now - except I didn't do the peaks because I was 20 weeks pregnant at the time but DH loved it! The Lakes tour is very strenuous and not really 'Lakey' but the 25 Rabacal is brilliant.
There is a lot of construction work in Funchal at the moment - repairing the damage done by the floods in 2010 and also revamping the promenade. We couldn't really get from the marina to Porto Santa Maria last year and it felt a bit spoilt but we understood that the long term benefits far outweighted the nuisance it caused.
Madeira is just a brilliant holiday. Very green, VERY hilly, quiet and by no means commercialised like the canaries.