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Camping holidays in Madeira

A church in the centre of Funchal

Official website of the Madeira Tourism Office

Many of you may have started pondering on your forthcoming holidays. Some have already been, others no doubt doing the Indian thing and waiting for last minute deals or whilst there those yet to decide.

Most of our community, particularly the younger generation have cottoned on to having at least one, if not two annual breakaways, which not so long ago would have been an activity considered a waste of money by our forefathers. However like me, most will agree that this shift towards enjoying the benefits of what you earn, is decidedly welcome.

So to get this travel page rolling and getting you out there to contribute your bit to our travel page, I am going to begin with a particularly good break that my wife and I had last year.

We went to an island paradise most have heard of but perhaps cannot place – Madeira, belonging to Portugal and located within the trio of islands of the coast of Africa, nestling between the Azores to the east and the Canary Islands to the south.

It is almost a three-hour direct flight from London, whereas in previous years you would have had to fly to Lisbon and catch a smaller plane for Madeira. The difference now is a masterpiece of Austrian engineering that has enabled an airport to be built on this dormant volcanic island. It is therefore totally rocky with no obvious beaches that one would find in the Canary Islands.

As one soars into the airport you wonder whether the plane is going to be stop in time bearing in mind the relatively short runway that veers straight into the Atlantic Ocean. Located on the east of island, as you land in Madeira, you can generally expect an overcast sky, albeit warm and pleasant.

View from the park in Funchal

We benefited from a shower that, for want of a better word, dampened the enthusiasm at the onset. How wrong I was proved! Our twenty-minute taxi drive took us into Funchal, the unexpectedly trendy capital of the island, where the whether was warmer and the sun blazing. It certainly sent the spirits soaring. I was informed at the hotel reception that the whether on this island was very typical, i.e. hot, dry, sunny in Funchal and as you radiate out to the other parts, it tended to be less predictable, with rain quite predominant in the east and north.

Quinta de penha de franca hotel where we stayed

Our hotel, the Quinta de Penha de Franca was at the harbours’ edge and consisted of two parts, an old Victorian wing and on the sea front, a new modern wing, much like the ones you see in holiday brochures. By the way a quinto is the word for a mansion and is commonly used throughout the island. This is due to the legacy left from the Victorian era, when at first used Madeira as a stopover for the long ship journeys to the Orient, but subsequently inhabited. Most of the mansions have been converted to hotels and retain and element of history with them.

Our room was overlooking the sea front from the old wing and was the type where in your dreams you hope to have a room of this kind. Two windows kept a constant breeze flowing and at night one could hear the ocean lapping against the rocks. We were in the heart of the city, surrounded by restaurants and a ten-minute walk from the centre. The Indian restaurant up the street from us was perfect – modern, clean and serving good food. In fact, it was owned by a businessman from the UK who had bought this plot of land on the corner and had built a pub, an international rest as well the Indian one on the site.

The terrain showing houses and banana plantations

After a few days topping up our tans, we had hired a car and proceeded to tour the whole island, visiting each part during the next five days. After a hearty morning breakfast, we would depart around 11.00 a.m. everyday and head out. Over the five days we visited every corner of the island, passing remote villages, churches, farms, cattle herders et al. The striking thing was the number of banana plantations on steep hillsides. The other was how in heavens houses were built on these inclines. I mean how would you get bricks, slates etc up these places and yet construct houses. The island is dotted with new houses, reflecting it’s growing wealth and tourist expansion.

Importantly, new freeways have been built to accommodate the tourist industry and every so often you are likely to hit a tunnel carved out of the rocks. Driving outside these freeways is nerve racking as you winding your way up and down narrow roads facing steep (very steep) drops. These secondary roads are at best pot-holed affairs and the car rarely moves out of second gear. But the journeys are worth it. You can drive through clouds (some experience) at the top of the island or through lashing rain and baking sunshine, hitting coastal towns reliant on fishing as a source of employment outside Funchal.

We experienced the awesome Atlantic ocean lashing ferociously in Porto Moniz, waterfalls in Santana, the furthest point west in Ponta de Pargo, where a slip of the foot would wash you away, glorious gardens in Monte and wispy clouds wafting gently at the top of the islands. (We understood what those romantic Indian filmy songs felt like).

Typical flora and fauna

This island is of course famous for it’s Madeira cake as well as wonderful aromatic flowers and world famous Orchids. Ok there no beaches to lounge around like a whale, but it more than compensates as most hotels (springing up everywhere) have indoor and outdoor pools. Madeira also boasts of Reid’s Hotel, one of the most luxurious in the globe. Uniquely it has what are called ‘levadas’ – channels built out of the rocks that supply water to the farms everywhere. In fact those who like hiking holidays would not go wrong, as these levadas form ideal walkways to explore the island on foot.

Typical flora and fauna to be found in Madeira

So as you will gather we thoroughly enjoyed our break in Madeira and it is not four those who want nights fuelled by dancing and drinking, or spending the day lounging on beaches. But it is a gentle, romantic, safe and an enriching place for dare I say the more mature person.