Out for vacations (Madeira Island)

[Sharingan]

Sounds like you had a good time

[Harrison]

Sounds good. I don't like clubs/discos and we always try to pick places to go on holiday that don't have any, so that is great. We also like exploring so walking is good also.

What about tourist spots? Caves, historic buildings, ruins, museums.. etc?

[Tiago]

Portugal has a lot of historical places, Madeira has 500 years of history, since we got there, it's not so historical as Portugal (continent) but it has a lot of things.


A good place to start is here:
http://www.madeira-web.com/

http://www.madeiraislands.travel/pls...over%20Madeira

Museums? Not a lot but it has some,
Caves?
http://www.madeira-web.com/PagesUK/caves-sv.php
yes a few, if you like to walk... they are in the forests, so you have a lot of miles to walk, if you do, you can see some caves, water falls, montains, a lot of botanic stuff, a large wild scenery there. But again, you must walk...

check out the hotel where we here:
http://www.dom-pedro-garajau.com/index.html

but again i must say that is perfect for:
- nature contact
- relax vacation
- food
- see activities (catamaran, dolphin waching 100% garantie to see them!! )
- beach in porto santo island - maybe the best beach in europe, where the sand has a gold color the water is crystal clear, you dont have buildings that damages the scenery, you dont have to much people on the beach, we were alone for 500 meters last monday.
perfect !!!

a note: you must rent a car, Madeira island is not flat, it's always up of down, so you need a car to get to diferent places, and when you get there, you stop the car, and then you walk into the forest for miles and miles where you only see trees, montains, water falls.... nature in her very best.
and if you compare the prices with other places in europe, you can see that it's a very good, plus, language will not be a problem, almost everyone speaks english.

If you need more info... i will post more pictures as soon as i have some time

[Demon Cleaner]

Looks really nice Maybe I should plan my next trip there, I was already in Italy, Spain and Portugal, but Madeira seems to be the nicest.

[Sharingan]

I very much enjoyed my vacation to Algarve just a few months ago. Loved the food, the weather, the people, the places. Perhaps this might be a good alternative

[Harrison]

I've really enjoyed Greek Islands and the Italian Amalfi Coast and Capri in the past, so this is really apealing to me. I definitely will be visting there at some point.

[Tiago]

Cool,
if anyone would like to go in the future, i can give you extra info.

[Tiago]

More fotos of Madeira in:


http://picasaweb.google.com/tiagolob...MadeiraIsland#

check it out Harrison, i am sure you will like it !!

[Demon Cleaner]

My girlfriend saw the photos, and she wants to go there now Gonna show her the new ones too. She already asked me that I should ask you where you stayed and in which hotel you were.

[Tiago]

The hotel were i was:
http://www.dom-pedro-garajau.com/index.html
(check it out, it's in Portuguese and/or english)

Demon, don't forget Madeira is the oposite of "flat", it has a lot of montains/hills,
so you must have a car. You can visit places by Bus but you will loose a lot of time.

You should rent a car (avis or europcar or other), but very very important, make a reservation of the car to garantee that you will have one when to arrive in Madeira.
With a car, you can stay a bit far away from major citie (Funchal) because you ca go easly from 1 point to another.
My hotel was in "Garajau/canico" zone, about 8 km from Funchal, so 20 minutes was enough.
Avoid the north part of the island for the hotel, the weather there is more tropical, you can get sun/rain/wind in the same day, the south is more stable, with constante weather.
Today/tomorrow ii will send you the links of 7/8 hotels from the search we made so you can have a better look.

Any question just ask