Madeira/Funchal Shore Excursions

[Jamietravelstheworld]

Will be on the Azamara Journey in March with a full day in Madeira (8a-5p). It seems there is so much to do. I tend to stay with cruise ship excursions to ensure I'm back on time but not of the ship excursions cover everything I want to do. Any suggestions for tours?

[Hlitner]

It is almost a two part question.  If you decide to spend your time in the city of Funchal, you can get around on your feet (assuming you have mobility problems) and use the cable car to get up the mountain (there are gardens, and the sled ride starts from up top),  You should have no concern about missing the ship since you will always be within walking distance.   If you decide to go outside of town then a private tour or excursion makes a lot of sense.    Another option is to simply rent a car and drive (we have done this a few times) but then you must be your own tour guide :).

 

Hank

[iancal]

We arranged a taxi tour on TA stop.  Liked it so much we just returned from a Portugal trip that included six days in Funchal.

[iancal]

On 6/12/2022 at 1:17 PM, Jamietravelstheworld said:

Will be on the Azamara Journey in March with a full day in Madeira (8a-5p). It seems there is so much to do. I tend to stay with cruise ship excursions to ensure I'm back on time but not of the ship excursions cover everything I want to do. Any suggestions for tours?

Last month, on a land tour, we did a tour with Madeira happy tours.  They offer several.  I noticed that they will pick up at the dock.  

[Scottishclover]

Madeira is one of our favourite holiday destinations. Funchal ( the area near the cruise port ) is still quite authentic for a tourist destination. An easy trip would be up on the cable car to Monte then another one over to the Botanic Gardens. This could be done independently and then you could have a stroll around Funchal afterwards. If you are doing a tour, one which includes “ The Valley of the Nuns” would get my vote. You can actually get there by public bus from Funchal but there are lots of tours there too. If you like walking, many companies do half or full day levada walks, which gets you out in some lovely scenery. We have also done the hoho bus which takes you out of Funchal to Cabo Do Girao and Camera do Lobos. In terms of Island tours the west coast is prettier than the east. I hope this helps. BTW the cruise port is directly in the town centre. It couldn’t be better located.

[iancal]

On 7/7/2022 at 9:57 AM, Scottishclover said:

Madeira is one of our favourite holiday destinations. Funchal ( the area near the cruise port ) is still quite authentic for a tourist destination. An easy trip would be up on the cable car to Monte then another one over to the Botanic Gardens. This could be done independently and then you could have a stroll around Funchal afterwards. If you are doing a tour, one which includes “ The Valley of the Nuns” would get my vote. You can actually get there by public bus from Funchal but there are lots of tours there too. If you like walking, many companies do half or full day levada walks, which gets you out in some lovely scenery. We have also done the hoho bus which takes you out of Funchal to Cabo Do Girao and Camera do Lobos. In terms of Island tours the west coast is prettier than the east. I hope this helps. BTW the cruise port is directly in the town centre. It couldn’t be better located.

We enjoyed our TA stop in Madeira several years ago  so much that we included six days in Madeira on our recent Portugal land trip.

[TinkBellaMom]

Could you possibly recommend an excursion to a winery, with tastings and a tour?  Perfect if there were a few stops of interest on the way there or back.

TIA

Deb

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

We did a taxi tour around part of the island (maybe 3 hours, not expensive; shared with another couple) and then in the afternoon I walked around the city quite a bit.  Such a wonderful place.......if you get up early you can cover a lot of ground.

 

 

[mzk90]

On Anthem late Sept and wanted to go to Porto Moniz and the rock pool there, as we visited in 2019 and thought it was a blast. We're there for 0730-1430 so just wondered if anyone had any experience of getting there freestyle or someone who does a tour there, as most tours involving it are dragging you to other places too, which we've done already. Any help, greatly appreciated.

[camella]

On 7/22/2022 at 7:43 PM, TinkBellaMom said:

Could you possibly recommend an excursion to a winery, with tastings and a tour?  Perfect if there were a few stops of interest on the way there or back.

TIA

Deb

I'd also be interested in this but we are going to be here on a Sunday so not much will be open I'm afraid.

[LB_NJ]

On 7/7/2022 at 11:57 AM, Scottishclover said:

 We have also done the hoho bus which takes you out of Funchal to Cabo Do Girao and Camera do Lobos. 

 

We have a cruise scheduled for May that has a hop-on-hop-off bus option.  Thought maybe we would do that and do a complete circuit on the bus and then on our own. 

 

Is that reasonable?

 

We are in port 8am to 5PM.

[edinburgher]

Could you possibly recommend an excursion to a winery, with tastings and a tour?

 

A tour outside of Funchal  may not be necessary should you only want to see wine production methods and enioy tastings.

 

Blandy's, one of the best known producers of  quality wines on the island  have a wine lodge in central Funchal (located on the long pedestrian street whose name escapes me) and offer tours and tastings.  There will be info on their website and reviews on  Tripadvisor.

 

We walked to the chair lift and went up before taking a toboggan ride down.  Passengers are dropped off part way down the hill into town.  We walked down to street level and  visited the colourful market en route to the most central area of town.. Can recommend a visit inside but read Tripadvisor warnings about the cost of  buying fruit.  We did and didn't buy any.  It has been going on for years now.  Strolled along to the pedestrian area and enjoyed wine tastings before heading back to the ship via the waterfront.

Edited December 7, 2022 by edinburgher

[Giantfan13]

On 12/5/2022 at 12:03 PM, LB_NJ said:

 

We have a cruise scheduled for May that has a hop-on-hop-off bus option.  Thought maybe we would do that and do a complete circuit on the bus and then on our own. 

 

Is that reasonable?

 

We are in port 8am to 5PM.

We would be most interested in something like this also. Any info on the HoHo?

 

Cheers

Len