Pack Layers- The weather is mild here year round, however if you are going anytime outside the main summer months (June-Mid September) you will need some warmer clothes. The temperature dip down into the 50’s at night and in early morning then reach up into the 60’s- low 70’s during the day. You will want jackets and long sleeves for these times. I wound up buying a thick wool sweater while here because the light jackets I brought weren’t quite warm enough for me in the evening ( I freeze but my husband was totally happy) I also recommend merino wool socks. These kept my feet dry and toasty warm on our hikes and at night. Merino wool is also moisture wicking and resists odors. You can get Merino wool socks on Amazon, however I recommend you do some research to get sustainable and ethically harvested wool products. They do cost a bit more but you are getting quality and can feel good about making sure the sheep are not hurt in the process of harvesting wool for your clothing.
Pack hiking gear like good shoes for walking wet slippery trails. Don’t bring your fancy tennis shoes for hiking, you will get wet and muddy. Research the trails you want to hike for conditions. Trails here range from easy and mostly flat, to strenuous climbs up the mountains. Not every trail is suited for everyone.
SimPlifica Website: Starting in 2026 you must register for the more popular hikes and pay a small fee. They have rangers at these hiking trails and they will check to make sure you have reserved your hiking trail date and time appropriately. It’s only about 4 euros per person to reserve a hiking time. The money is going to help maintain the integrity of the trails that are very popular and to cut down on the amount of people hiking at any given time to a reasonable amount. This will help maintain the enjoyability of your hike I promise.
The difference I noticed in hiking a trail that wasn’t a “popular” trail compared to a trail that was, was noticeable. The popular trail did a have a lot more people hiking on it and there was a lot more time spent passing people safely while walking. It should help with overcrowding of the most popular trails and ultimately make your hiking experience more enjoyable.
There is an increasing amount of people traveling and enjoying places away from home. This comes with an increased responsibility to travel politely and respectfully.
Walk Me app: This is a “free” app, however to get all the latest updates and maps you will pay a monthly fee or a lifetime fee. It does give you real time updates on trail closures due to weather or other conditions. I wish I lived close enough to pay the lifetime fee and document all the hikes I’ve done there, but I don’t. I would hike all the time if I lived on Madeira, it was so gorgeous
Driving and Parking:
Driving is according to my husband incredibly fun on Madeira due to the windy roads. He would happily drive there all the time. The roads are very curvy and there are a TON of tunnels to navigate. This is all easy to navigate if you are used to driving cars. We are from Utah in the USA, so we drive everywhere we go. Not a problem for us. I could see how it would be more stressful if you live in a location where you are taking public transport most of the time.
They do use round-abouts everywhere and so you do need to know how to use these. If you don’t know the rules for driving in a round about, you will want to review this before you go because it can be intimidating if not familiar.
Parking on the island is obviously limited. You will likely need to pay to park in most places. There is usually a kiosk nearby that you will need to pay and print a ticket to place on your dashboard. The payment is small, so you will need small denomination euro coins for this. Also in some areas people just park on the side of the road, so drive slowly and yield to oncoming traffic.
Food and Groceries: We rented a small apartment style place in Calheta, that had a kitchen and washer, because we were staying in Madeira for 8+ days of our 2 week vacation. We shopped for groceries and cooked several breakfasts and dinners at home and ate out for most lunches. There are small grocery stores all over the island, Pingo Doce or Amanhcer are both good places to buy food. They have fresh fish (full service counters, grab a ticket # and they will prepare and filet your fish of choice) fresh bakery items, a meat counter and a small but decent selection of fruit and veggies. If you can find a fruit stand or streetside vendor selling fruits and veg stop and get some. The quality from the farmers here is wonderful.
Of note: In grocery stores when grabbing fish or bakery items you will use a kiosk to print a ticket. This ticket is used when paying. For bakery items we stood back and watched the process, before buying. Basically you choose your bakery item (bread, pastery, donuts, etc) place them in a bag and then enter each item and quantity into the kiosk to print out a barcode sticker that will be scanned at the checkout counter.
For fresh fish, you take a ticket and tell the worker how much and what you want and they will filet or prepare the fish for you, place in a bag and give you a barcode sticker to use at the checkout. We missed this the first time and waited for over 20 minutes to get a proper sticker for our shrimp.
If you can bring re-useable bags (they sell cheap re-useable bags on Amazon. These also pack really small and lightweight) to carry out your groceries, this will cut down on cost. You are charged for each plastic grocery bag you need.
Restaurants that we visited and that I would recommend:
- Land: located just off the tram next to Monte Palace Gardens: This place was so cute. Located just off the tram at the top next to Monte Palace. They have several outdoor tables and a few more tables located inside. We sat inside, which was probably nicer and less windy when we visited. The food was very good. There are a few restaurants located at the top of the tram to Monte, if this one looks busy just walk down the street a bit.
- Pizzeria Naye: Located in Calheta. I was not planning on visiting this restaurant. It actually wasn’t even on my radar. However it was close and more importantly open when we were looking to eat out on a Sunday evening. It was so cute, the service was friendly and the food was huge and delicious. We each ordered an individual pizza and took half of each back to our apartment afterwards.
- Joe’s Bar- Jardim Do Mar. This little village was a cute little place. We drove here from Calheta one evening after hearing that the sunsets from the promenade walk were spectacular. It’s quite literally a village and you drive into the center to park. You will walk to each restaurant in town. We just happened to find Joe’s bar, which was filled with adorable and well fed resident cats. The food was excellent but the service was not quite as friendly as we are used to in the US. However I think it’s pretty on par with how service is done in Europe. You will pay inside at the bar, and your server may not tell you this unless you specifically ask. There is a front of restaurant streetside patio seating area, an indoor barside seating area as well as a back patio/pond seating area.
We did try to ride the street carts down from Monte Gardens, however the line was incredibly long! If you really want to do this I recommend visiting Monte Gardens early in the day and then standing in line for the street carts. The line was at least 2 hours long and so I recommend you line up early as you can for this. It did however look really fun!
Boat Trips:
Try to get out on a boat trip if you can. They do a lot of whale/dolphin watching trips, which are fun. We did a boat trip and were able to see several species of dolphins while out. Depending on the time of year and the conditions of the ocean you can see whales and dolphins, and possibly even get in the water near dolphins that are typically social with humans. I don’t usually recommend interacting with species unless it is done in a socially responsible way, that doesn’t force interactions. This boat trip was interesting because you could see the difference in each species of dolphin and how they wanted to interact with the boats. Some were very curious and friendly and others were shy and stayed away.
Last but not least: There are an abundance of hikes on this island. You should absolutely do a few. Don’t always pick the most popular trails though. We did a couple that were extremely beautiful that weren’t on the list of trails to pay and reserve. Also don’t underestimate spending an afternoon driving the island roads and pulling over just to view the area. I think this was the special part of our time there.
Watch sunsets as often as you can!
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