Portuguese Islands Travel Guide

This guide will cover the best practices when travelling to the Portuguese islands of Madeira and the Azores islands. While technically a part of the Portuguese Republic, these two autonomous regions find themselves so remote from continental Portugal that it is hard to consider them as the same thing. However, despite their isolation from mainland Europe, these Portuguese islands still maintain their strong national identity.

While the two destinations have several commonalities, they have some critical differences. For a rugged outdoor hiking adventure, look no further than the beautiful island of Madeira. However, if quiet island life and serene walks around volcanic lakes are more your speed, click that Azores link. Adventure beckons on these Portuguese islands.

Madeira Island Travel Guide

Madeira is considered a member of Europe, being politically connected to Portugal. However, Madeira geologically lies upon the African tectonic plate and finds Morocco as its nearest neighbour. But, despite their relative distance, Madeira and Morocco have shared a tumultuous past that has left some lasting effects. Namely, while you can find several influences from Africa on the island, nothing would suggest any interactions with Morocco. In fact, few Moroccans will ever come to vacation on the island. So few that there are no ferries or flights from Morocco that will run directly to the island.

With its mountainous terrain and lush forests, the island itself is an adventurer’s dream. Upon seeing the ominous island, my first impression was of Skull Island featured in King Kong. And, as I later discovered, I wasn’t the first to succumb to the island’s demonic visage.

The Mythology of Madeira Island

As was relayed to me through a local couple I home stayed with in Porto da Cruz, the island was discovered when the Portuguese were at war with the Moors. While on voyage transporting soldiers down the coast, a coastal storm struck, seperating the fleet. And, when the storm finally subsided, one of these ships found themselves facing the island’s dark cloud encircled mountainous peak.

The word among the soldiers was that they had discovered the entrance into hell. Moreover, they believed that the devil himself dwelt on the island, ready to eat those who stepped foot on its shores. So without disembarking, the soldiers returned home to Portugal.

However, they were reprimanded by their king who was driving to expand his empire, and the crew was sent back to settle the island. But, upon returning to the island, they discovered it was uninhabited, reinforcing their belief that the devil had eaten the inhabitants. As a result, they refused to disembark until a priest was sent to bless it. Thus the colonization of Madeira began.

Madeira Island Itinerary

While the island’s entire infrastructure seems to revolve around the principal city of Funchal, the island’s true beauty lies in the nature hikes that you can find around the less populated areas. While it is simple enough to base yourself out of Funchal and experience the island via a car or scooter, the unreliable and often confusing bus systems can make it a little more challenging to navigate. The following itinerary is the route I took around the island.

1. Funchal

While I suggest getting out of the city to explore the island, it is worth spending a day in Funchal. The town itself is beautiful. Its narrow stone streets lead to wide restaurant squares and a waterfront city centre. However, the true gem of the city is the cable car that takes you from the waterfront up over the city. Offering fantastic views, the cable car then drops you off in front of the beautiful Monte Palace Tropical Gardens.

Voted as one of the 13 most beautiful botanical gardens in the world by Conde Nast Traveler, Monte Palace occupies 70 000 square meters of exotic flora and fauna from all over the world. The garden seamlessly combines nature and art in an informative way, telling the story of Portugal’s island and its international relations. Furthermore, its oriental gardens and three-story museum of ‘African Passion’ transports visitors to countries around the world.

2. Porto Moniz

Lying on the northwestern corner of the island is the small municipality of Porto Moniz, famous for its natural volcanic pools. While the public transportation towards the east of Funchal is not the most reliable, the easiest way to get here is by taking the Rodoeste bus company that typically runs two routes a day.

Porto Moniz is the perfect location to base yourself while exploring the western part of the island. The town’s natural lava pools are the ideal place to unwind after a day of hiking. In addition, the pool’s location on the coast offers a tranquil setting as the Atlantic waves naturally filter the water.

While the main pools charge a small fee, offering a restaurant and a more effortless swimming experience, other collections just down the road provide a free experience. While budget-friendly, this option is engulfed with rising rock formations and is not maintained by the town.

3. Porto da Cruz

While known as one of the leading surf destinations on the island, these waves are really only more suitable for experienced surfers. However, Porto da Cruz is the perfect spot for hikers, with many trails starting or ending near the town. You can find local dishes at A Pipa restaurant at night, where you can try their locally brewed beers or famous Madeira wine.

Madeira Missed List

2.Madeira Botanical Garden

Housing more than 2000 local and exotic plants, the Madeira Botanical Garden is a highly suggested stop when visiting Madeira, Portugal. The botanical garden is located only a short walk from the Monte Palace Tropical Garden, in the Monte neighbourhood of Funchal.

3.More Hikes

The highlight for my trip, and a massive draw for a large portion of the Madeiran tourism, are the hikes, which I only got to experience a tiny fraction of. As one of the locals put it, “you haven’t truly travelled Madeira if you haven’t done a Levada walk.” With over 2500 km of Levadas snaking their way through the mountainous terrain, the island has over 100 hikes, offering unique sites and experiences.

Madeira Food

Azores Islands

Sao Miguel Island

Deemed the ‘Hawaii of Europe,” the Azores is made up of 9 volcanic islands, easily accessible via frequent flights offered by Azores Airlines. Unfortunately, for my first trip here, I was confined to just the main island of Sao Miguel. And, since I arrived in the middle of November, four of my seven days here were ruined by rain. However, the island is not very large, and the three days it did not rain proved to be sufficient time to cover its majority.

The island is known for its volcanic identity. And, with its large mountains rolling out from the plethora of pastures, it is easy to lose days driving its roads. Despite that, no matter where you go on the island, you are bound to find your way to one of gthe beautiful crater lakes or hot springs scattered throughout.

Since the island is relatively small and easy to navigate, I’m not including a destination by destination itinerary like I usually do. Instead, here are the locations I hit, and I will have some of those I missed. I will leave you to choose the things that speak most to you to make your itinerary.

Santana, Sao Miguel Island, Azores

While most people base themselves out of the central city of Ponta Delgada, I opted to stay in the smaller municipality of Santana. Located just outside of Ribeira Grande, Santana is famous for having some of the nicest beaches on the island. However, in hindsight, and due to the amount of rainfall during my trip, Ponta Delgada may have been the better option for nearby attractions. The only thing within walking distance of my place in Santana was a nearby astronomical observatory. However, with the amount of cloud cover at the time, a trip to the observatory proved to be less fruitful than I had hoped.

Overall, Santana is a beautiful place to stay. However, I suggest doing your homework and making sure you go during a more admirable time of the year. This is one of the destinations where travelling during the low season is not worth beating the crowds.

Sete Cidades

The first of the beautiful hikes of Sao Miguel, and an absolute must-do when visiting the island, is the seven cities loop. Starting the walk by the parking lot near the old aqueduct, the hike begins with a brief climb to the caldera’s highest point. From there, the first half of the hike is primarily downhill and easy, offering beautiful views of the caldera lake and the small town sitting on its bank.

On the far side of the lake, you’re going to take a short stroll through an isolated countryside with several cow pastures dotting the verdant landscape. While the beginning of the hike was all downhill and relatively easy, the walk back towards the starting point will be 3 km of a steady incline. While not exceedingly steep, the hike can be strenuous but manageable. This part of the trail will bring you by an old abandoned hotel beckoning to be explored, as well as the three lagoons of the area; the Blue Lagoon, Green Lagoon, and Santiago Lagoon.

But the day is not over…

While this brings you to the end of the hike, there is still more exploration to be done. At this point, you will want to get back in your car and take it down the lonely road into the caldera itself. This quiet thoroughfare rolls through the hills until you come across a bridge. The bridge spans the lake and enters the small parish town of the Sete Cidades civil parish. Continueing your drive through thel township will bring you out to the other side of the caldera and onto the island’s western coast.

From there you are free to continue your drive around the island towards the north. Here, you will be presented with beautiful views of coastal towns before returning to the centre part of the island and finding your way back to your accommodation for dinner.

Lagoa do Fogo

Like Sete Cidades, Lagoa do Fogo is another beautiful lake in the centre of a caldera. However, unlike Sete Cidades with the town in the centre, Lagoa do Fogo has nothing but nature. Supposedly there is a circular hike around the bank of the lake. However, after walking the trail for the first hour, I came across a section where I couldn’t figure out how to continue without going into the water. And, while the lake literally translates to “Fire Pond,” it was pretty damn cold, at least when I was there in the middle of November.

Regardless, I still tried to make my way through the water. However, not having planned to go through the water, I had to turn back when it got a little too deep and began to immerse my gear. Despite this obstacle, this quiet lake would be a perfect place to spend a summer day kayaking in tranquillity.

Azores Missed List

1.Explore Santa Maria Island(the second eastern island)

The Southernmost destination in this Portuguese island group, Santa Maria, is known for its white-sand beaches, distinctive chimneys, and dry, warm Azores weather. A perfect destination for engaging in water sports.

2. Explore The Central Islands

Terceira, Graciosa, Sao Jorge, Pico and Faial islands offer further land to explore through hikes or water. All while providing the beautiful beaches, lakes, and warm summer weather found in the rest of the Azores, Portugal.

3. Explore The Western Islands

Flores and Corvo islands are the final two islands waiting to be explored, with Corvo being the smallest of the nine main islands.

Budget

75 CAD

While Portugal is known as one of the world’s cheapest travel destinations, these two autonomous regions both find themselves isolated in their little corners of the Atlantic, resulting in the additional costs of importing products from the mainland. However, despite not being as cheap as the mainland, these Portuguese islands are still pretty inexpensive, especially compared to other European countries or remote island destinations.

Accommodations- $25-$30/day

The most affordable accommodations in both Madeira and Sao Miguel, Azores are found within their principal cities, Funchal and Ponta Delgada, respectively, with hostels being as low as $20-$25/night. If you plan on getting out of the main cities, you can expect to pay between $30-$40/night. With that being said, and with only the exception of the western part of Madeira, it is easy enough to navigate these islands while starting and ending each day in these two cities. Since I’m offering a ballpark of the lowest possible budget for a trip here, I’m going to say you can get by on $25-$30/night.

Transportation- $20/day

As for transportation, I again will give you two price ranges. The first price range is that for buses. In Madeira, you can get nearly anywhere on the island for around $10. So if you are comfortable navigating and using the island’s bus schedule, you can expect to pay between $6-$10/day.

A word of warning for those planning on using the buses; really look into the bus lines and don’t be afraid to ask your host for help. I thought I had the bus schedule worked out but found myself spending an entire day jumping lines only to find myself a few towns back from my end goal. This ended up forcing me into one expensive ass cab ride.

Other possible methods of transport are; renting a scooter for about $20/day, or a car which you can find between $25-$40/day. Since I didn’t use the bus system in Sao Miguel, I can’t speak too much about it, and as such, I’m going to say the budget for transport in both of these regions will be about $20/day.

Attractions- $3/day

Since the big draw to these islands is the beautiful hikes and their escape to nature, you’re not going to spend too much on activities. It’s easy enough to get by spending nothing on admissions, and those few things that require a fee will only run you $5 or $6 every couple of days. For this reason, you should only need to add about $3 to your budget.

Food- $20/day

As with most island destinations, buying local products and cooking your meals is the cheapest way to eat. But that’s not to say you won’t be able to eat out occasionally. While most restaurants run more expensive, a few are scattered around that offer domestic dishes and wines that are more affordable. Keep in mind that while cooking, I was getting by on $20/day, whereas even at the cheaper restaurants or snack bars, I was spending between $10-$20/meal. So as I said, we will add $20/day for cooking our meals for my total suggested budget of $75/day for the budget-friendly.

But remember, this budget is definitely for the backpacker-type traveller that doesn’t mind roughing it. If you are looking for a little more comfort, I’d expect to be paying at least $100/day.