Madeira: Should You Add It to Your Digital Nomadic Travel Bucket List?
Our Experiences and Tips from Exploring the Island for Three Months
Let’s get straight to the answer — YES, you should!
And here’s why:
- Warm and pleasant climate all year around (Madeira is also called the island of eternal spring ☀️ 🍃)
- Good infrastructure: well-connected roads and highways, ubiquitous internet- connectivity, supermarkets, bakeries, restaurants
- Wide array of options for accommodation
- Super friendly locals
- Diverse scenery: beaches, mountains, valleys, water falls, forests
- Outdoor activities: water sports, hiking, paragliding, levada walks, canyoning
Below you’ll find some detailed insights on some special aspects:
- The Digital Nomad Village 💻
- Climate and Diverse Scenery ⛰
- Beaches 🏝
- Cable Car (Teleférico) 🚠
- New Year’s Eve and Christmas Lights 🎄
- Man’s Best Friend — Dogs 🐶
- Streets, Driving, and Car Rentals 🚘
- Language and Hospitality 🏘
The Digital Nomad Village — Ponta do Sol 💻
Ponta do Sol, a village in Madeira that’s designed to be the hub for digital nomads, piqued our curiosity. When we checked it out, location-wise, Ponta do Sol was not very alluring — it’s a small seaside village, surrounded by cliffs. The beach is stony and not very enticing. There are some bars and restaurants and one co-working space. If you are a digital nomad looking for a community and a co-working facility, then you should definitely check out their homepage as they offer quite some benefits.
Our primary focus was to stay at places with good beaches, so we decided not to stay in Ponta do Sol and moved on to other spots on the island like Calheta, Reis Magos, Ribeira Brava, and Machico.
Climate and Diverse Scenery ⛰
The island of Madeira stands out, for you can experience 4 different climate zones on the island. While you can sunbathe and enjoy a warm and pleasant climate on the southern beaches, you should carry some jacket with you when you drive into the mountainous interior. The northern coast can be fresh and windy, and we decided to accommodate ourselves only in the warmer south at least during winter. From December to February, even on the southern coast some nights get chilly and we recommend to also bring some warm clothes.
A drive up from the sea level onto the island’s high plateau makes you marvel at the change in flora and temperature. In the interior of the island, you’ll find foggy woods with free roaming cows (the Fanal Forest) as well as high peaks (the highest is Pico Ruivo) and deep valleys (Nun’s Valley).
This makes Madeira a hikers’ paradise. We especially loved the levada walks. These are trails right next to narrow canals. This canal system has been installed all over the island, allowing the islanders to transport fresh water from the mountains to the coastal areas and agricultural fields. For more information on the levadas click here.
Since water is abundant on the island, you’ll see many waterfalls rushing down from the cliffs. Some of them just end their fall on the streets, sparring you a drive to the car wash.
Beaches 🏝
Madeira’s beaches are quite rocky and often consist of pebbles which sometimes makes it tricky to enter the water if you don’t wear water shoes. Only some tourist spots (like Machico or Calheta) have sandy beaches.
What we really loved were the natural pools (especially along the northern coast). In these awesome rock basins, sea water enters with every new wave and you can enjoy the ocean without worrying about high waves.
Cable Car (Teleférico) 🚠
As mentioned above, Madeira’s cliffs are steep, very steep. Thus, in various places, you will find cable cars (teleféricos), transporting goods and people from the waterfront to the cliffs atop. In Funchal, you can take the teleférico to go to Monte, which is famous for the Toboggan Ride. Professional sledge steerers will slide you down the steep streets of Funchal. It’s quite unique and fun.
New Year’s Eve and Christmas Lights 🎄
If you happen to spend Christmas or New Year’s Eve in Madeira, you’ll be in awe by the stunning Christmas lights Madeirans put up in their towns. Funchal is especially beautifully decorated, but also smaller towns like Ribeira Brava or Calheta put up quite a show for Christmas. Every street and square is richly hung with a variety of decorative lights and you can’t stop yourself from wandering through the streets and narrow lanes as each street is adorned in a different fashion.
On New Year’s Eve, every local will recommend you to go to Funchal and find a good spot on one of the many lookouts. At 00:00 hours some staggering, well-coordinated fireworks will go off in a circle around the city to welcome the New Year. This was one of the best (if not the best) fireworks, we’ve ever seen.
Man’s Best Friend — Dogs 🐶
Many house owners have a dog. In particular rural regions seem to have a guardian dog for their premises. We understand this. We like dogs. Our families have dogs. But we came to be aware of Madeiran dogs. When you walk the narrow lanes and steps of villages, a whole concert of barking dogs goes off. First, we shrugged it off, but soon we realised that most of them seemed quite ferocious and not all of them were well tied or fenced. One time, a dog jumped the fence and came running after us.
Street dogs on the other hand are scared of you and usually run away from you when you come closer.
Streets, Driving, and Car Rentals 🚘
Living in. Madeira, we realised that you are somewhat in a fix without a car. Many beautiful lodgings are atop of a cliff and to access the beach or do some grocery shopping a car is essential.
Madeira is a volcanic island. Its cliffs raise up steeply from the ocean. There is no gentle ascent. Also, the interior of Madeira is very jagged. You’ll find high mountains and deep valleys. The good news is, Madeira has an extensive tunnel system built though the cliffs and mountains. There are hundreds of shorter and longer tunnels, making it possible to connect the north to the south with a 20 minutes’ drive.
Rental car companies abound in Madeira’s capital, Funchal, and the area around the airport. The further you drive away from those places, the harder it is to find a car rental, though.
Language and Hospitality 🏘
We have only experienced outstanding hospitality in Madeira. People were extremely friendly, and helpful.
When we look at language it might be helpful to know that in Madeira you can easily get by with English everywhere. If you know some phrases in Portuguese, locals appreciate it, but they soon switch to English when they realise that you’re struggling.
We hope we gave you some useful insights about Madeira and even motivated you to add it to your travel bucket list 🪣 📜.
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