Madeira self drive holiday
Tailor made to suit your departure dates with local assistance throughout.
Ask for an international flight quote.
Description of Madeira self drive holiday
The Portuguese island of Madeira, just off the coast of Africa, is a fantastic place to explore by car. With stunning natural landscapes around every turn, welcoming local communities and a host of activities and attractions, there are many different routes you can take. On our Madeira self drive holiday you’ll be able to create an itinerary that suits your own interests, travelling around at your own pace to stop whenever you like. Plus, you’ll stay in locally owned hotels and guesthouses throughout, ensuring that your visit carries plenty of benefit for the communities you visit.
Begin your adventures in the capital, Funchal, where you can perhaps spend a few days wandering the old town to admire the creative street art, the traditional Portuguese architecture, and perhaps have lunch at the Mercado das Lavradores farmers’ market.
You can collect your hire car and head to the north coast – Madeira is just 57km long and 22km wide, so it doesn’t take long to get from place to place. But this is a mountainous island, so you can expect plenty of steep, curving roads – a great pleasure to drive around, with stunning viewpoints at regular intervals. You can see the famous thatched stone houses of Santana or do a little walking along the levada irrigation channels that criss cross the island.
Heading on to the sunny south coast you can relax for a few days at a quinta with a pool, get stuck into the freshly caught seafood or, if you’re the adventurous type, try everything from mountain biking to canyoning. A self drive holiday in Madeira is an absolute joy when arranged by an expert team who can advise on must-see locations and also offer plenty of less-visited, off the beaten track ideas.
Price information
Tailor made to suit your departure dates with local assistance throughout.
Ask for an international flight quote.
Departure information
Travel guides
Reviews
3 Reviews of Madeira self drive holiday
Reviewed on 15 Jun 2025 by Diana Ruthven
Hotel Caju were very good and the evening buffet and hotel do campo was very nice. Staff were very friendly. Read full reviewReviewed on 17 Mar 2024 by Deborah Robinson
Stay away from the bigger resorts and visit the smaller towns (Ponta Delgada, Seixal, Canical, Ponta do Sol, Camacha, Curral das Freiras) Read full reviewResponsible Travel
Planet
This itinerary focuses on exploring the highlights of Madeira by foot, local transport and rental car. Wherever possible, we use hand-picked eco-friendly accommodation that have their own environmentally-friendly policies and encourage their guests to behave in an environmentally-friendly manner to limit energy usage.Visiting local places we encourage our travellers to report anything which doesn’t seem right during their trip so that we can act upon it.
Before departing on this trip, our customers will always receive an informative document called 'Be a responsible traveller', which provides useful advice on how they are able to travel in an environmentally-friendly way such as using reusable water bottles and limiting the amount of energy that they use.
We are very passionate about recycling, beginning in our Brighton office where we use a local company to ensure we all know where our waste is going, we encourage a no wastage policy, by asking staff to take leftover food home. We also have a largely ‘paperless’ office, refraining from publishing brochures and other marketing collateral, and instead of producing electronic documentation to ensure we use as little paper as possible.
People
Throughout this itinerary, we have arranged lots of excursions that are all run by local guides. During our stay in Funchal, we organise a walking tour with a local guide, who takes you to the local markets and eateries. If you need a local guide for any other part of your trip, we are happy to source those for you and explore like a local, benefiting the community.Wherever possible, we work with independently owned accommodation so that more of our travellers’ money stays in the local communities they are visiting. On the south coast, we have hand selected a locally-run bed and breakfast that is deeply routed in the local community. The property is a big promoter of agro tourism and are certified producers of bananas, grapes and many other fruits and vegetables.
In our documentation that we send out prior to their departure, we inform all of our travellers on the appropriate customs and etiquette when travelling in Portugal and Madeira.
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