Funchal

Overview

Funchal fills an amphitheatre of hills around a bay on the south coast of Madeira, and the whole city faces the sea it was built for: settled in the 1420s by Zarco and named for the wild fennel, made rich by sugar and then by wine, and now the sixth largest city in Portugal, its busiest cruise port and the place where the island’s New Year fireworks go off. About 106,000 people live in the municipality, half the island’s population, in a city that climbs from the harbour to 1,200 m.

The visitor’s Funchal is small: the cathedral, the market, the old town’s restaurants, the cable car up to Monte and the toboggans down, the gardens on the slopes and the hotel zone along the Estrada Monumental to the west. It is the base for the whole of Madeira, and a day of it between the levada walks is the right proportion.

Neighbourhoods

The centre and the old town

The flat grid between the Avenida Arriaga, the cathedral and the seafront is the centre, with the market and the Zona Velha east of it, where the Rua de Santa Maria runs to the São Tiago fort through the restaurants and the cafés on the water. The cable car, the harbour and the hotels facing the sea are here; it is where to stay without a car.

The hotel zone

West along the Estrada Monumental, in São Martinho, is the Lido: the big hotels, Reid’s and the Cliff Bay and the Pestanas and the Savoy, on the cliffs above the sea with their pools and the Lido promenade, 2 km and a bus from the centre. Most package visitors are here, and the island’s Irish pub is too.

Monte and the hills

Above the city, Monte is the old summer suburb of the rich, cooler and greener, with the gardens, the toboggans and 7,500 residents; the parishes climbing the amphitheatre behind are the ordinary city, dense and steep.

See & do

The centre

The Sé, commissioned by Manuel I and built between 1493 and 1517 with a ceiling of island wood, is the central point of the city and one of the few buildings that survive intact from the first century of settlement. The Mercado dos Lavradores, opened in 1940 with azulejo panels on its facade and fish hall, sells the island’s fruit on two floors around a patio, the tiny Madeiran mangoes and bananas included, and the fish below; it is open from 07:00, closes at 16:00 most days and 20:00 on Fridays, and the night of 23 December, when the whole city comes to sing and drink in the market streets, is its own festival. The Colégio church of 1647, the Jesuits’ and now the university’s, the São Lourenço palace-fortress on the Avenida Zarco, the Santa Clara convent of the late 15th century with its tiles, and the São Tiago fort of 1614 at the end of the old town, now a small contemporary art museum, are the walk.

Up to Monte

The cable car leaves from the seafront by the old town from 09:30 to 17:45, 3.7 km and 560 m up to Monte in 15 minutes, where the church, the Monte Palace gardens of a defunct hotel with a Chinese garden, artworks and a lake, and a second cable car down to the Botanical Garden are waiting. The way down is the toboggan: a wicker sledge on wooden runners steered by two men in white with straw boaters, 2 km down the road to Livramento, Monday to Saturday 09:00 to 18:00, €25 for one, €30 for two, €45 for three, a public transport of the 19th century turned into the island’s ride.

The gardens

The Botanical Garden, 3 km up the hill on the old Reid family estate, has more than 2,000 plants on terraces with the view of the bay and an aviary of parrots; the Palheiro park, 5 km out, is a British-style estate garden with a plane-tree avenue, open weekdays.

Food & drink

The plate is espada com banana, black scabbardfish with a fried banana, served almost everywhere, with bacalhau com natas as the pricier alternative and the market’s fruit for dessert; the cooking is well made and, in Wikivoyage’s phrase, not terribly exciting. The cheap places do picado, cubed steak on chips, a €10 plate that feeds two, burgers and tostas in the cafés, and the fish restaurant at Doca do Cavacas on the rocks west of the hotel zone; the Zona Velha and the market building have the contemporary kitchens at €9 to €16 a plate.

The top end is in the hotels: Il Gallo d’Oro at the Cliff Bay, two Michelin stars, at €110 to €245, and the William at Reid’s, one star, at €95 to €170, both dinner only. Madeira wine in its four styles is sold in every supermarket and specialist shop, and poncha in every bar.

Nightlife

Not the party capital of the world, Wikivoyage says, and it is right: the bars are quiet except on match nights, the evening is a drink on the Avenida Arriaga at the theatre café or a sports bar on the seafront, the casino runs until 03:00 or 04:00 and one dance club on the Avenida Sá Carneiro goes from 23:00 to 08:00 on Fridays and Saturdays. The Zona Velha’s café-bars on the water have live bands and DJs some nights. The exception is the last week of the year, when the city stays up.

When to go

Christmas to New Year. High season and the year’s event: the night of the market on 23 December, the lights, and the New Year fireworks over the bay that once held the world record, best seen from the tip of the marina or a cruise ship at anchor. Book a year ahead.

April to June, September to October. The mildest and driest weeks for the city and the best for the levadas beyond it; the flower season is spring.

July to August. Warm, dry and full of Portuguese holidaymakers; the hotel pools earn their keep and the sea is at its warmest.

January to March. Low season with prices down by a third, mild days on the coast and rain in the hills; Carnival brings a parade to the seafront in February.

Getting there

By air. Cristiano Ronaldo airport is 13 km north-east at Santa Cruz, about 30 minutes from the city: several flights a day from Lisbon and Porto in 1½ hours, direct services from London in 3½ and from most of northern Europe, and connections to the Azores and the Canaries; the runway on its pillars over the sea is famous for cross-wind landings. SAM buses run to the centre, taxis have fixed fares, and the airport’s seven car parks are badly signed.

By sea. No passenger ferry reaches Madeira from the mainland; cruise ships dock in the harbour, where Funchal is the leading Portuguese port, and the Porto Santo ferry sails from the same quay, two hours each way. By car the ER101 expressway runs along the coast, and exit 11 drops you at a garage a few minutes from the market, closed on Sundays.

Getting around

The centre is on foot. Horários do Funchal’s orange city buses go everywhere else, lines 20 and 21 up to Monte; a Giro card costs €2.20 preloaded with two rides and tops up at €1.50 a ride, against €1.90 from the driver, and most routes start on the waterfront. Rodoeste and SAM coaches for the west and east of the island also leave from the centre; taxis do fixed-price round trips to the sights; Bolt works; and mopeds and motorcycles are rented from several shops in town, a popular way round an island of tunnels and hairpins for those who ride. Free parking in Funchal is nearly nonexistent; spaces marked M are for residents.

Where to stay

Funchal has a great many hotels and most of them are in the Lido zone: Reid’s Palace, a century of luxury, afternoon tea and Churchill as a past guest, its rival the Savoy, the Cliff Bay with its starred restaurant, and eight Pestana properties along the Estrada Monumental. In the centre are a design hotel in a shopping building, a quinta turned boutique hotel in its gardens, an old hotel by the Santa Clara convent with the view and the affordable restaurants around it, and a residencial with clean doubles at €18 to €25 in the historic streets. Winter prices can drop from around €50 to €35; Christmas is the high season.

Practical info

Free public Wi-Fi is on the Praça do Município, the Avenida Arriaga and the Praça de Colombo, marked by blue and white boards, and in most cafés; the post office is on the Avenida Zarco by the cathedral, and stamps are hard to find elsewhere. Crime is very low; police with red armbands speak English or German. Flowers and fruit from the market can go in the hold if the airline allows; check first. For money, plugs and pharmacies see the Portugal guide.

Places to visit

Cathedral

• Cathedral of Funchal — The 1514 cathedral of the Discoveries and its cedar ceiling

Garden

• Monte Palace Tropical Garden — Hillside garden of tiles, ponds and exotic trees above Funchal