All our posts for the topic FAQ
Madeira has various ‘Arraiais‘ all year round. Arraiais are traditional regional festivities that is celebrated with street processions, flower carpets, churches and street decorations with lights, colorful flags, music, traditional folklore, food and drink. Each town/parish has its own Arraial and they can differ one from another. To give you an impression of such an Arraial …. check out the following videos made by resp. Rui Martins and ‘Berdades’.
Are there any Wi-Fi Hotspots (Public wireless acces) on Madeira Islands?
Click here here and see it for yourself.
P.S. check here for a List of Wi-Fi Hotspots on Madeira. For the time being it is a free service.
Family that are planning to move to Madeira often ask the question if there is an International school on the island.
Yes …. there is one. Located in the centre of Funchal at Calçada do Pico nº 5 … next to the “Museu das Cruzes†… is the Escola Internacional da Madeira (International School of Madeira). It is a primary school with classes from Nursery (age 3) to Primary 4 (age 9 to 10). It is a fully bilingual school where they teach daily all subjects in both English and Portuguese in the same length of time allocation.
For more information visit their site
Other FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions):
Are there buses from Funchal – Airport – Funchal between 11:30 at night and 4 in the morning?
The Areobus leaves from the airport to Funchal at 09h30, 11h15, 13h15, 16h15, 18h00, 19h30 and 21h15. And from Funchal to the airport at 08h30, 10h15, 12h15, 15h30, 17h00, 18h45 and 20h15.
Other buses (20, 23, 53, 78, 113, 156) run between 07h00 – 23h00
In your case the best thing to do is take a taxi. It takes about 15 minutes from the centre of Funchal to the Airport.
The fares are (according to information today):
For 4 people: each km 0,60 EUR with minimum charge of 3,95 EUR
Taxi without meter (approximately)
Airport – Funchal centre (and vice versa) = 25,46 EUR
Airport – Garajau (and vice versa) = 17,59 EUR
Airport – Santa Cruz centre (and vice versa) = 6,25 EUR
Airport – Machico (and vice versa) = 10,25 EUR
20% extra when taking a taxi from 22h00 to 07h00 and on public holidays and weekends.
Many traveling options are open to people who love adventures and who love to travel. For destinations with longer distances economical flights can be booked. Cheap airline tickets and travel deals are also factors to consider when choosing for a travel option. Many beautiful holiday resorts are located along coastal areas for which another traveling option has to be considered. Search for cheap cruises online to select the best option available. A cruise not only takes you to your destination but also provide an entertaining tour around the resort area. You can also opt to travel on cheap rental cars which provide low rates and stay deals at their affiliate hotels.
Just received an unexpected question from Joan S. (Cincinnati, US)
My husband and I are fed up. We are searching the web for places with no or low criminality. We came across your blog. Is this island Madera a safe place? We need to go away from all these VT killings, massacre and terror. Thanx Joan
Madeira is a friendly and safe island to visit and also to live. Extremities and terror (what you daily see on the news) are a rarity here and there is hardly any large crime ….. because “Where are you going to go?â€. However every place can have its challenges of course …. including Madeira. The key is not putting yourself into compromising positions.
The island itself emits tranquility that affects everyone … well … almost everyone. Exceptions are sometimes the personnel in the holiday branch that are stressing to please the visitors of Madeira. But luckily they never get insane!
People who lives (or visits) the Madeira Islands will notice that it has an extraordinary climate. The island shows several (large) microclimates thanks to its orography, its geographical location and the kaleidoscopic effect of the mountains and Atlantic Ocean. Here on the island of Madeira Mother Nature plays with the weather … dividing it into two (even three) regions: south/west coast gets to be subtropical warm most of the time, the north tends to be more wet and moist, east receives most winds. So … driving through Madeira you might experience some winds in Caniço area, … warm/sunny day in Funchal … all the way to Ponta do Sol …. clouds in the north of the island …. and clear blue sky on Paul da Serra.
The weather salsa of Madeira has a very mild climate taste. Average land temperature of 22°C in the summer and 16°C in the winter, sea water enjoys similar temperatures thanks to the influence of the warm Gulf Stream. My experience till now with the rain falls here …. is that most of it takes place during the first two – three months of the year (winter period).
What is the best time of the year to go to Madeira? To go to the beach. And how is the nightlife on Madeira? Where in Madeira can you do all this?
During the whole year it is a good time to go to Madeira. Only during the first months of the year I have experienced some periods with showers, wind and rain. Assuming you are looking for beaches … Madeira does not actually have a beach scene what most sunbathing beach lovers are used to. Natural sandy beaches you will not find here easily. Great deal of the natural beaches is rocky. There are however a few (new) man-made beaches, such as Calheta Beach, and the sea pool complexes in Porto Moniz and in Funchal. BUT … when you are on Madeira you can always visit its little sister-island Porto Santo … which has 8km beautiful golden sand beach. The Porto Santo ferry line Lobo Marino sails frequently between the two islands.
For nightlife the best place is the city of Funchal. There are a great deal of activity going on that tourists and people from outside the island does not know of … because it is locally advertised (thus often in Portuguese) however everybody is welcome to participate. My advice is … just to ask! When you are in Funchal … ask any Madeiran (at the restaurant, hotel, taxi driver, personnel at the shop etc.) where and when is the next nightlife activity. The trick is to ask where they would go themselves when going out. You will be surprised the options that are here.
Portugal, and also the Madeira Archipelago, has a long history of repression and public intolerance of homosexuality. Luckily these days … the voices of repression have simmered down and can be ignored … as Madeira has become generally tolerant of homosexuality, which was decriminalized in 1982, eight years after the Carnation Revolution.
While in Lisbon, Oporto and Algarve the gay scene is increasing, in other smaller cities and regions such as Leiria, Braga and Madeira the (local) gay and lesbian activity is still very repressed and discrete, although the gay community is actually much larger than it seems. In Funchal there are no specific clubs and bars for gays and lesbians, which is uncommon for a European city with over 100,000 inhabitants.
Unfortunately, there are still some anti-gay feeling among more conservative elements in Portugal. The consistently reactionary and influential Catholic church, for example, is still light years from accepting the homosexuality as normal. Also issues like single-sex marriage and adoption by homosexual couples still have to be resolved, as in other countries.
Other than that … gay and lesbian are most welcome as any other visitor here on Madeira. Only do not expect to find everything here (yet).
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that is located between 32°22.3′N 16°16.5′W and 33°7.8′N 17°16.65′W in the north Atlantic Ocean.
It is since 1976 an autonomous region of Portugal.
The largest of the group of islands is Madeira. Of the other three islands in the group, only Porto Santo is inhabited; the Desertas and Selvagens groups are too rocky and narrow for habitation.
The equable climate has made the island of Madeira a popular health resort, and the famous Madeira wine is a chief export; its capital city, Funchal, was founded in 1421.
The islands are of volcanic origin and are the summits of lofty mountains, rising in Pico Ruivo to 1861 m (6106 ft).
Although the islands were known in Roman times, they were uninhabited until the early 1400s, when they were rediscovered by the Portuguese.
Total area, 794 sq km (307 sq miles).
Is it possible, as citizens from another country, to have a marriage on the island of Madeira?
In this case the question came from the Netherlands. I enquired the Dutch consul here in Funchal and also a few hotels. They informed me that for Dutch citizens to be able to marry (civil marriage) in Madeira – Portugal, is only possible if one person from the couple lives in Portugal (with a minimum of 3 months).
To have the ceremony here in a church you will have to go through a very long and expensive procedure, which it may not be worth it … except if you have the time and money for it. The best way would be to have the church ceremony held in a hotel. There are (5 star) hotels that have already organized such events.
If you whish to have a marriage here on Madeira, and you are citizen from outside Portugal, I would suggest that you contact your country’s embassy or consulate in Portugal, and ask them for more information.
For a marriage ceremony in a hotel I would suggest that you make a (short) trip to Madeira and pay a visit to some of the hotels. If you need any help on this, feel free to ask.
