Funchal / Madeira

Why go

A volcanic amphitheatre — the city climbs from the harbour to 800 metres in terraces. Levadas — 3,000 kilometres of irrigation channels with footpaths beside them, across the island. Madeira wine — fortified and heated, a process invented by accident on long sea voyages. Laurisilva — the laurel forest that covered southern Europe before the ice ages, surviving here.

The character

Madeira was uninhabited when the Portuguese landed in 1419, and the settlers burned the forest to plant sugar — the fires are said to have run for years. What they built afterwards is the island's real invention: the levadas, irrigation channels carrying water from the wet north to the dry south, cut by hand into cliff faces from the sixteenth century, three thousand kilometres of them, each with a maintenance path beside it. Those paths are now the finest walking network in the Atlantic.

The wine came from the sea. Barrels carried as ballast on ships to the Indies were heated in the tropics and returned better, so producers began deliberately heating the wine — the estufagem — and madeira became the fortified wine that survived any voyage and any climate, which is why it was drunk at the American Declaration of Independence. Funchal itself climbs a bowl of terraces from the harbour, with a cable car up, wicker toboggans down, and the laurisilva — a relict forest from before the ice ages — covering the island's spine.

Places of character

Levada walks — Caldeirão Verde, 25 Fontes and Rabaçal; take a torch for the tunnels. Monte and the toboggan — cable car up, then wicker sledges steered by men in straw hats down the road. Mercado dos Lavradores — the 1940 market hall for scabbardfish, custard apples and flowers. A wine lodge — Blandy's or Barbeito, tasting madeiras that can be a century old and still fresh. Pico do Arieiro to Pico Ruivo — a ridge walk above the clouds between the island's two highest peaks. Câmara de Lobos — the fishing village Churchill painted, twenty minutes west.

The way to do it

Walk at least two levadas — one easy and one with tunnels. Do the Arieiro ridge on a clear morning before cloud fills the valleys. Taste madeira properly at a lodge rather than a shop. And take the toboggan, which is ridiculous and entirely worth it.

One perfect day

Up to Pico do Arieiro before dawn and along the ridge toward Pico Ruivo with the cloud below and the sun coming up over the Atlantic — three hours of stairs, tunnels and exposure. Down for a late breakfast. Mercado dos Lavradores for the scabbardfish, black and prehistoric-looking. Lunch of espetada. Afternoon at a wine lodge tasting a Sercial and a Malmsey fifty years apart. Cable car to Monte for the gardens, then the wicker toboggan down two kilometres of road. Dinner in Câmara de Lobos with the boats below and a glass of the local poncha.

Grand hotels

Belmond Reid's Palace — 1891 on the cliff, where Churchill stayed and afternoon tea is still a fixture. Quinta da Casa Branca — a family estate in a subtropical garden in the city.

When to go

Best expression: April to June — flowers, clear ridges and comfortable walking temperatures. Consider: September and October, warm sea and the wine harvest. Avoid if possible: nothing seasonal; but check ridge conditions, which change fast.

The frame

Ideal stay 5 nights · Minimum 3 nights · Best arrival by air; Funchal's runway on stilts is famous · Airport FNC, 18 km · Walkability Funchal is steep but walkable · Best without a car possible, with taxis and walking transfers