Melia Madeira Funchal

... Portuguese flag. It’s a very mountainous city with steep hills and hardly any shore line, all of the highways are built along cliffs and have bridges to connect them. The temperature is a steady 70-80’s and tropical with beautiful flowers growing all year long. It is a vacation spot for Europeans especially when Continental Europe has its winter. Carla and I went for a shopping trek today but didn’t find much of anything but we did something that I ...

On Sunday we got up, had breakfast and we went off on a tour organized by P&O to the top of the second highest cliff in the world, and very spectacular it was. On the way we saw all sorts of plant life, including banana trees and the very colourfull South African trees, with very large red flowers. We passed through Camara de Lobos and on to Pico da Torre where a magnificent view over the cliffs down to the sea showed how beautiful Madeira is.

We arrived outside Funchal at about 12:30 and because Independence of the Seas had taken our berth, the ship anchored outside the docks and we went ashore in the ships tenders. Had a couple of hours wandering around the lovely town of Funchal and went back ...

... I wished I had Lotus Elise to tear through the mountains (normally I’d wish for a Corvette, but these are very skinny roads. It was these sheer drops all along the road and cliff faces on the other side. And our tour guide was taking a minibus through this! When we got up to one of the lookout points, we all stopped and walked to the cliff face. The ledge stuck out from the cliff just a little bit and we ...

Generally of a high standard, despite the occasional tourist trap, below are a few that are worth remembering.<br><br>Venture forth into the old fisherman's quarter, but be wary as there is at least one restaurant I would not deem suitable, forgetting the name not wanting to remember the experience and having left so fast. Distinguishing factors are a luke warm soup, congealed butter on the garlic bread fish dish that looked like puke and ...

... br><br>From the rusted and paint flaking spa showers and the grimy steam room, the self service pool area (due to lack of attendants), the dirty corridor carpets complete with dead cockroaches and the veritable cross country over the building works to the sky high bar prices (the only thing that is 5 star, the prices that is) and the conspicuously labeled "tip" box, the three day old bird droppings on the balcony and its accompanying ant infestation, this guest ...

Start<br> Time 10:08:10 <br> Altitude 2922 ft <br> Location 32°44'6.09"N 16°53'10.45"W<br><br>End<br> Time 14:45:37 <br> Altitude 2086 ft <br> Location N 32.74654° W 16.82567°<br><br>By far the best of the walks that we did and the most enjoyable, following the lavada as it remained cool and particularly easy walk. The way is easily found and there is only one point to watch out for, after the foresters hut, but this is easily corrected if ...

East coast, a good and satisfying walk.<br><br>Take water as there is little or no facilities, only a small trailer which occasionally arrives. It was hot and sunny even though there was a fresh sea breeze and Funchal was under cloud. A good trick is to take a small amount of water out of a water bottle and put it in the freezer overnight.<br><br>Finding the SAM busses is not easy so allow time to locate the ...

The start of the trail to nuns valley is not very well marked, see photo.<br><br>From the terminus near the cable car take buss 81. Check the timetable as these busses are infrequent but they are on time. (GPS Location 32°38'50.67"N 16°54'10.13"W)<br><br>The fare we paid was &#8364;2.20 each, with the return journey coming in at &#8364;2.70 each.<br><br>The buss 81 was diverted due to landslip and rescued ...

Funchal Portugal April 19 WOW this place is amazing. We all went for lunch on this great patio and I had meat on a stick that was smoked over a spit. Deeeelicious! Then we went up on this cable car to the top of the mountain and it was a spectacular view. Then I went into the exotic gardens and it really did feel like paradise in there. I saw all sorts of ...