Madeira's capital is the most populous settlement outside the Portuguese mainland and is home to 115, 000 souls. The town resembles an amphitheatre and sits within an ancient caldera. The slopes that encompass Funchal rise to a staggering height of 1,200 metres (3,936ft). Traditional toboggans are skillfully piloted down from the highest districts by the infamous "carreiros". The sea views from the meandering streets that descend the mountainside are magnificent. For centuries they have captivated visitors from all around the world. The town was given its name by João Goncalves Zarco, who arrived here in 1420 and marvelled at the profusion of fennel (funcho in Portuguese).
Funchal enjoys a year-round subtropical climate. The streets are awash with the vibrant colours of pink bougainvillaea, purple jacaranda and red-shaded trees. Madeira has a charming old town with the Cathedral, built by King Manuel I, as its centrepiece. The town squares play host to markets selling local produce and flowers to the delight of locals and visitors alike. Funchal has maintained much of its original charm despite the influx of modern hotels and commercialisation and has attractions for all types of visitors.
| Funchal Cathedral (Sé)
| Funchal Cathedral Interior
The Cathedral has stood in the heart of Funchal since the early 16th century on the very spot specified by Dom Manuel I (1495–1521). The king's coat of arms sits above the Gothic doorway in the West Portal. The rose window above the crown is hewn from the distinctive local red basalt. The cathedral was designed by Pêro Anes. Construction began in 1493 when upon its consecration in 1514, Funchal was officially awarded city status.
The building's somewhat bland exterior is deceptive. The interior is adorned with statues, paintings and gold-gilded chapels. Look up to enjoy the dazzling sight of the Islamic-inspired geometric knotwork design carved into the ceiling. The craftsmen utilised Madeira’s native white cedar trees to full effect and the ceiling remains one of the finest examples of Mudejar décor in the Portuguese world. The fine detailing of the ceiling is beautifully illuminated by light pouring in through the transept windows.
The vestibule is paved with well-trodden tomb slabs made from black basalt. A plaque on the wall records the visit of Pope John Paul II on 12th May 1991. Close by on the left is a huge 16th-Century font. Marble floor memorials found in the Nave and South Aisle pay tribute to early bishops and sugar merchants. Madeira’s trading connections with Antwerp are recollected in the west of the first chapel in the form of a distinctive 16th-century brass memorial created in the Flemish style.
Blue-and-gold choir stalls in the Sanctuary depict saints, the Apostles and prophets and are attributed to the Flemish sculptor Olivier de Gand, the bold and date from 1511. They sit beneath a guilted ceiling adorned with nautical motifs and a carving of an armillary sphere. The grand Altarpiece dates from the 16th century. Inlaid within its ornate Gothic frames are twelve scenes from the lives of Christ and the Virgin.
Daily: 07h30 – 12h00/16h00 – 19h00
Rua Do Aljube, 9000-067, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. | 32° 38' 52.7" N | 16° 54' 31.4" W
+351 291 228 155
Funchal's Town Hall was originally built in 1758 as the residence of the Count of Carvalhal. This historic palace is of great architectural significance and, despite changing hands many times, it retains its original appearance. The building sits at the head of the Praça do Município square. It's open to the public and you're able to enjoy its fine 18th-century architecture and its wonderful interior courtyard garden. In the centre of the garden, there's a fountain decorated with a marble statue called “Leda and the Swan”, created by Germano José Salles. It was acquired in 1883 by the City Council and still used as the City Hall of Funchal. Tours are held on weekdays at 11h00, with a duration of 60 minutes and are conducted in various languages.
Monday – Friday: 11h00, Weekends & Holidays: CLOSED
Praça do Município, 9004-512, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. | 32° 38' 59.4" N | 16° 54' 30.8" W
+351 291 705 060 (Guided Tours)
visit@aauma.pt | Website
| Funchal City Hall
A sunset cruise in Madeira is pure magic. From a smooth hotel transfer to boarding the boat, the evening unfolds with effortless charm. Sail the southern coast, sip a chilled drink, and watch the Atlantic turn golden. A chance to swim in the crystal-clear waters of Calhau da Lapa adds adventure, before a traditional buffet dinner, cooked just like our grandmothers made it, keeps everyone happy. As night falls, the twinkling lights of Funchal Bay provide a finale of postcard perfection.
(105) | 4 Hr | ✔ Free Cancellation
Book Online ►
Follow in the footsteps of Cristiano Ronaldo on this unforgettable Madeira tour. Begin at the famous Barcelos viewpoint, overlooking Funchal and the very neighbourhood where Ronaldo first kicked a ball. Visit the modest Andorinha Stadium, his first club, where dreams of glory began. The highlight is, of course, the dazzling CR7 Museum, showcasing his glittering trophies, shirts, and personal memorabilia. A journey from humble beginnings to international stardom, this tour is a must for football fans and anyone inspired by greatness.
(148) | 2-3 Hr | ✔ Free Cancellation
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Sail the seas of Madeira on the island’s only eco-friendly dolphin and whale watching catamaran. This purpose-built 2022 vessel glides silently with hybrid-electric engines, keeping the dolphins, whales, and turtles as happy as you’ll be spotting them! Guided by expert spotters, your chances of sightings are among the best in Funchal. On the return, admire Madeira’s stunning south coast, from Cabo Girão cliffs to Camara de Lobos Bay and Churchill’s beloved Reid’s Hotel. A green, serene adventure you’ll never forget!.
(6,825) | 2-3 Hr | ✔ Free Cancellation
Book Online ►
Les Suites at The Cliff Bay ★ ★ ★ ★ ★9.8/10 Exceptional (28 verified customer reviews) Les Suites at The Cliff Bay in Funchal is the very definition of five-star luxury with Atlantic views so dazzling they make you giddy. Here, suites aren’t mere rooms but grand stages, each with a balcony gazing over the endless blue. Service is unfailingly polished, with staff who anticipate your whims before you’ve even had them. The highlight? Direct access to the sea and Michelin-starred dining at Il Gallo d’Oro, a gastronomic temple. Staying here feels like being personally serenaded by Madeira itself – refined, indulgent, and impossibly elegant. A true jewel on the island’s sun-drenched south coast. |
Madeira Regency Cliff ★ ★ ★ ★9.2/10 Wonderful (281 verified customer reviews) The Madeira Regency Cliff Hotel in Funchal is a boutique delight perched high above the Atlantic, where every room seems to float on a wave of blue. Four-star in name but five-star in feeling, this cliffside haven offers panoramic views of the ocean and Funchal Bay that beg to be toasted with a glass of Madeira wine. The infinity pool appears to spill straight into the sea, and the rooftop terrace is a sun-drenched stage. With attentive staff, modern comforts, and a location just steps from the Lido Promenade, it strikes the perfect balance between sophistication and seaside charm. A smaller hotel with a big personality, it’s an intimate escape that makes the Atlantic feel like your private playground. |
The Vine ★ ★ ★ ★ ★9.4/10 Exceptional (1,004 verified customer reviews) The Vine Hotel in Funchal is a decadent fusion of luxury, design, and Madeira’s winemaking heritage, a place where Dionysus himself might check in for a long weekend. This five-star boutique masterpiece wraps you in sleek, contemporary interiors inspired by the vine – earthy tones, sensual textures, and dramatic flourishes. Its rooftop infinity pool offers jaw-dropping views over Funchal’s harbour, best enjoyed with a glass of the island’s namesake nectar in hand. The award-winning Uva Restaurant elevates dining to theatrical levels, pairing gourmet flair with panoramic vistas. Located in the very heart of Funchal, steps from historic streets and vibrant shopping, The Vine is indulgence reimagined – stylish, sophisticated, and deliciously hedonistic. Quite simply, it’s a hotel that makes you feel like vintage Madeira: rare, rich, and unforgettable. |
Restaurante Armazém do SalIf you think the words fine dining and Madeira are strangers, Armazém do Sal will batter the prejudice out of you with a forkful of their black scabbard fish, slathered in banana sauce so improbable it borders on genius. The restaurant, a former salt warehouse with stone walls and vaulted ceilings, oozes theatrical gloom, the kind of place where shadows feel deliberate. Service is polished without being prim. The menu leans on Madeiran classics with a modern twist—grilled octopus, beef tenderloin with port wine jus—and desserts so lush they ought to come with a warning label. You’ll pay a little more than average, but in this setting, with this food, you’ll leave thinking you’ve been artfully conned in the best possible way. 
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Restaurante Do FortePerched inside the 17th-century São Tiago Fortress, Restaurante Do Forte manages the neat trick of being both a tourist magnet and a place where the food actually warrants the detour. Dinner here is less a meal and more an operatic performance: amuse-bouches arrive as if stage props, and mains, such as swordfish with tropical fruit or slow-braised lamb shank, strut across your plate like divas in sequins. The staff are masters of showmanship—expect a flourish with your flambé. The views of the Funchal harbour and Atlantic swell make the terrace an open-air theatre. Yes, it’s unapologetically grand, but sometimes holiday dining demands a little spectacle. Here, you get both Madeira’s history and Madeira’s flavours in one dramatic, delicious production. 
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O CeleiroIf meat is your religion, O Celeiro is the cathedral: dark-wood interiors, crisp white tablecloths, and a menu that roars with unapologetic carnivorous intent. Their speciality is espetada Madeirense, skewers of beef rubbed with garlic and salt, roasted over open coals, and brought to the table dangling like medieval trophies. The portions are vast, the seasoning shameless, and the atmosphere pure conviviality—locals come here to celebrate, tourists to feel inducted into a cult of grilled beef. Fish and seafood are present, but they know their audience. A glass of Madeira wine or poncha rounds it all off. It’s not dainty or delicate, but then neither is life. O Celeiro feeds you until you leave happily dazed and faintly feral. 
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| Mercado dos Lavradores (Farmers’ Market)
If ever there was a theatre of island life, it is the Mercado dos Lavradores. Built in 1940 in the solidly modernist style, the Farmers’ Market has become less a marketplace and more a stage where colour, sound and scent perform daily. Enter beneath the grand tiled panels by João Rodrigues, depicting men and women toiling nobly in the fields, and you are ushered into an atmosphere that is both old-world and irrepressibly alive.
Here, stalls groan with tropical fruit you never knew existed: custard apples, pitangas, passion fruit the size of fists. Vendors, armed with persuasive charm, urge samples upon you until you’re giddy with sweetness. The fish hall, meanwhile, is another spectacle: espada preta, the grotesquely elegant black scabbardfish, displayed with eyes like polished buttons, sharing space with tunas as long as bicycles.
But the market isn’t just about food. The flower sellers, in traditional Madeiran costumes, offer birds of paradise, proteas and orchids like emissaries from some horticultural dream. There’s also the buzz of the upstairs balconies where artisans peddle wickerwork, lace, leather goods, and gaudy souvenirs that you’ll buy simply for the memory.
The Mercado dos Lavradores is more than shopping; it’s anthropology with a shopping bag. Locals still come here for their groceries, grumbling about tourists but secretly proud to share. Sit at one of the cafés tucked into a corner and watch the mingling of fishermen, grandmothers, chefs and cruise-ship day-trippers. Order a poncha, that sweetly dangerous Madeiran rum drink, and let the rhythm of the market wash over you. Visiting Mercado dos Lavradores in Funchal is like reading a novel in fruit and fish, a vivid reminder that Madeira is not just scenery but a living, breathing island with its own theatre of abundance.
Monday - Friday: 07h30 – 18h00, Saturday: 07h00 - 14h00, Sunday: CLOSED
Rua Brigadeiro Oudinot, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. | 32° 38' 56.4" N | 16° 54' 14.9" W
On the waterfront of Funchal, where cruise ships disgorge their curious hordes, stands a shrine not to saints but to a footballer: the CR7 Museum in Madeira. It is unmistakably dedicated to Cristiano Ronaldo, the island’s most famous son, who has managed to turn talent, discipline, and a sharp jawline into a global empire. Here, amid the polished glass cases, you are invited into a parallel universe where football is religion and trophies are the icons.
Inside, you’ll find a dizzying collection of Ronaldo’s silverware: Ballon d’Ors gleam like golden suns, European cups glint, and framed shirts whisper of battles fought in Madrid, Manchester, and Turin. It’s a place less concerned with modesty than with magnificence, where every boot, medal, and photograph tells the story of a boy from Madeira who became the world’s most celebrated striker.
But the CR7 Museum isn’t just about glass cabinets. There’s an immersive side too: interactive screens allow you to relive Ronaldo’s greatest goals, those ferocious free kicks and soaring headers that left defenders slack-jawed. Outside, in front of the museum, a bronze statue of Ronaldo stands in heroic pose, inviting selfies from fans who mimic his goal celebration with varying degrees of dignity.
Monday – Saturday: 10h00 - 17h00, Sunday: CLOSED
Praça CR7, Av. Sá Carneiro 27, São Martinho, 9004-518 Funchal, Portugal.
32° 38′ 38.50″ N | 16° 54′ 50.10″ W
+351 291 639 880 | museucr7@hotmail.com | Website
| CR7 Museum (Cristiano Ronaldo Museum)
| Ageing barrels at the Blandys Wine Lodge
Formerly known as Adegas de São Francisco cellars, the Blandy's Wine Lodge gives visitors an insightful introduction to this world-renowned wine producer. The building was part of a 17th-century Franciscan
friary and has oodles of old worldly charm. The Blandy family aquired the premises in 1840 and it has been used for making Madeira wine ever since. Marvel at the 18th-century wine press carved with a Jesuit symbol of a cross inside a triangle located in the courtyard. The Jesuits ran the island’s wine trade before English and Scottish merchants took charge in the late 18th century. Enormous timbers support three storeys of ventilated attics where 800,000 litres of wine sit ageing in oak casks. The barrels are warmed by the sun, a process known as “Canteiro”.
Discover the history of this world-famous tipple at the Wine Museum at the heart of the lodge. In the Vintage room, rare and precious bottled wines are stored behind bars and arranged by date. Try Madeira wine for yourself at the Max Romer Tasting Bar or buy a bottle from the shop, a former cooper’s yard, that stocks a huge range of vintages. There are an array of places on Madeira that offer wine tastings, but none will give you such a detailed understanding of the history of this unique product.
Monday – Friday: 10h00 – 18h30, Saturday: 10h00 – 13h00, Sunday & Holidays: CLOSED
Av. Arriaga 28, 9000-064 Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. | 32° 38' 52.0" N | 16° 54' 38.1" W
+351 291 228 978
pubrel@madeirawinecompany.com | Website
There is something deliciously old-fashioned about gliding above a city in a cable car, and in Funchal, Madeira, the experience is equal parts transport and theatre. The Funchal Cable Car begins in the old town, near the bustle of the Mercado dos Lavradores, and whisks you up in a smooth fifteen-minute journey to Monte, a hillside suburb once favoured by wealthy Europeans escaping the summer heat. From your glass cabin, the city unfurls beneath you—red-tiled roofs, banana plantations, the glittering Atlantic stretching out beyond. It is like watching a slow-motion film of paradise.
Funchal Cable Car
Daily: 08h45 – 17h45
Single: €14.50, Return: €20.00, Child, OAP: 50% Discount
Av. do Mar e das Comunidades Madeirenses, 9060-190 Funchal, Portugal | 32° 38' 51.8" N | 16° 54' 09.1" W
| +351 291 780 280 |
info@madeiracablecar.com | Website
At the top, Monte rewards you with its curious mix of attractions. There is the Monte Palace Tropical Garden, which is less a garden and more a green opera, staged with flamboyant subtropical plants, Japanese pagodas, koi-filled lakes, and the occasional startled peacock strutting across your path. Once the private estate of a wealthy sugar trader, it is now one of Madeira’s most enchanting attractions, combining nature, art, and history in theatrical harmony. You wander through avenues of towering palms, stumble upon 18th-century azulejo tiles telling Portugal’s story, and discover African sculptures hidden among ferns. The views over Funchal Bay are dazzling, though the garden itself is the main spectacle—a riot of colour and calm. To visit Monte Palace is to drift between continents without ever leaving the hillside of Madeira.
Daily: 08h45 – 17h45
Single: €14.50, Return: €20.00, Child, OAP: 50% Discount
Av. do Mar e das Comunidades Madeirenses, 9060-190 Funchal, Portugal.
32° 38' 51.8" N | 16° 54' 09.1" W
| +351 291 780 280 |
info@madeiracablecar.com | Website
| Madeira Cable Car
| Monte Palace Tropical Garden
| Church of Nossa Senhora do Monte
The Church of Nossa Senhora do Monte sits high above Funchal, in the leafy parish of Monte, where the air feels cooler and the Atlantic spreads like a painted canvas below. Built in the 18th century atop the remains of an older chapel, it is a church with an almost theatrical sense of arrival. You climb a long staircase—pilgrims still do it on their knees during the Feast of Our Lady of the Mountain every 15th of August—and at the summit, you’re rewarded with both sanctity and panorama.
Inside, gilded altars sparkle in the half-light, and the famous statue of Nossa Senhora do Monte watches serenely from her niche, Madeira’s patron saint both revered and approachable. There is also a small curiosity: the tomb of Charles I, the last Emperor of Austria, who lived his final years in exile here. Outside, swifts wheel above the tiled roof, and the gardens of Monte invite quiet wandering. The church is not simply a religious site; it’s a vantage point, a storybook, and a kind of stage set for the island’s history.
Rampa da Sacristia 1, Monte, 9050-285 Funchal, Portugal. | 32° 40' 34.8" N | 16° 54' 09.7" W
The Monte Toboggan Ride, or Carreiros do Monte, is one of those rare travel experiences that feels both absurd and essential. Imagine sitting in a wicker basket, mounted on wooden runners, and being steered two kilometres downhill by two men in straw boaters and white uniforms—Madeira’s most dashing chauffeurs. This is no theme park contraption; it’s an old-fashioned mode of transport, invented in the 19th century to whisk well-heeled residents from Monte down to the heart of Funchal with unseemly speed.
Today, the ride is a pure thrill. As you descend narrow, winding streets, the Carreiros guide the basket with rubber-soled precision, leaning and braking with a practised ease that borders on dance. Children shriek with delight, grandparents beam, and even the sceptical find themselves laughing at the sheer eccentricity of it all.
The ride lasts about ten minutes—just long enough to marvel at tiled houses, bougainvillaea-draped walls, and the dizzying drop towards the Atlantic. At the bottom, you’re deposited in Livramento, slightly exhilarated, slightly windblown, and wholly charmed. Like much of Madeira, the Monte Toboggan Ride is improbable, old-fashioned, and entirely unforgettable—a joyful skid through history.
Daily: 09h00 – 18h00
1 Person: €27.50, 2 People: €35.00, 3 People: €52.50
Caminho do Monte nº4, 9050-084 Monte, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal.
32° 40' 31.6" N | 16° 54' 09.2" W
+351 291 783 919 |
carreirosdomonte.cont@gmail.com | Website
| Monte Toboggan Ride (Carreiros do Monte)
Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport (FNC), is 20-minute drive 18km (11mi) from central Funchal, Website 
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From the airport the VR1 expressway sweeps you smoothly along the coast straight into town. Parking in Funchal can be tight, but there are underground car parks and metered street bays.
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| Rodoeste run bus services in Madeira: Website |
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