Introduction
Why Madeira? Well for starters it’s warm in October and cheap to fly to from Bristol. However, the more research we do, the more reasons we find to visit. Bolo do Caco anyone?
Tucked away in the Atlantic, Madeira has a vast mix of lush green landscapes, cute little villages, wild rocky beaches and mountains that reach above the clouds.
Wanting to make sure we experience it all, we’ve opted to hire a car to make the most of our 10 days there and give us the flexibility and independence we need. Although you can drive from one side of Madeira to the other in 90 minutes, we’ve opted to split our trip up into 3 x 3 night stays in different parts of the island to reduce travel time.
We extensively used the Visit Madeira website to plan this trip, as well as google maps to see points of interest along each step of our journey.
Hiking is a huge part of our Madeira trip but there are over 450 trails in Madeira to choose from! To help us choose the best routes for us, we used AllTrails. This website has detail on distance, duration, parking locations, maps as well as user reviews which was invaluable information.
Looking to plan your own adventure? We’ve put together this guide on how to break it down into manageable chunks, which resources we use and how to make the most of your time. 🙂
Interactive Map
See the interactive Google map below for the points of interest, hikes and attractions we’re interested in seeing during our 10 day trip.
Click the map to open in full and import to your own map.
Full Itinerary & Timings
You can view the full itinerary below. Click here to see the full spreadsheet and to download your own, customisable version (gsheets).
The Costs
| Flights | We always use Skyscanner to find the best deals on flights for our trips. Even before we book it’s useful to know the timings of the flights in and out so we can plan around them. The total cost for the flights with EasyJet, Bristol Airport (BRS) to Madeira – Funchal (FNC), including seat selection + a cabin bag was £174 each (£100 of that was for the bag!) |
| Transport | We used Magic Islands Rent a Car, choosing a small, manual, Fiat Panda that could squeeze on to the narrow mountain roads. The security deposit for this car was a whopping £1250 – to be taken from a credit card in the name of the person driving on pick up. The cost of the car itself, for 10 days, with full coverage insurance added was £212. Bargain. |
| Accommodation | We use booking.com for pretty much all of our trips but I will always check on google maps to see if there is anything we are missing! For this trip we chose: 3 nights at Quinta Vale Vitis in São Vicente – £238 3 nights at Vila Cais da Gaivota in Caniçal – £332 3 nights at NEXT by Savoy Signature in Funchal – £369 |
| Airport Parking | Bristol Airport parking for 10 days – £167 (booked through travelsupermarket.com) |
| TOTAL | £1666 for 2 people (£833 each) |
The Trip
View a day-to-day breakdown of our jam-packed trip here!
Click here for a sneak peek of our Madeira trip!
