Leisure

After a brief experience of the local lifestyle, you might wonder why on earth anyone needs leisure activities on this island. Fast is not a word that comes immediately to mind when considering the pace of island life and stress is a consideration on your halyard not for your doctor. However, the climate on Madeira is perfect for all sorts of outside activities both land based and sea based.

Perhaps the most astonishing activities on the island are the walks along the ‘levadas’. These water channels that run along the contours of the island transporting water from the north side to the south side and from rivers to the ridges are the ideal way to see the island. The walking is easy, if on occasions a little vertiginous, and the countryside spectacular. For more advanced walkers and climbers there are challenging routes over the interior mountains.

Sports addicts can get their feel of golf on two courses that would test the calf muscles of a mountain goat. There is also tennis and squash offered by many of the hotels and available as public facilities in the Quinta Magnolia. The armchair sportsman can go to the Barreiros football stadium to see Marítimo, the local football club in the Portuguese first division, usually on a Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon. Look out also for the local car rallying that takes place every other Saturday during the whole year.

If you are a water baby then head for the coast and try the Lido swimming pools in Funchal with their excellent salt-water pools and access to the sea or try the natural rock pools at Porto Moniz. The best of the deep-sea fishing is from June through to September, where the best in the world come to try and land the Blue Marlin and Blue Fin Tuna that roam the island. Check in with your hotel on the boat excursions that are available and that will take you down the coast past Cabo Girão, the highest cliff in Europe.

Botanists and members of the Horticultural Society must head for the Jardim Orquídea and the Botanical Garden, and other beautiful gardens open to the public at the Quintas of Monte, Palheiro Ferreiro, Palmeira and Boa Vista. Hire a car and travel into the countryside to see the wild garden of Madeira, with hydrangeas and agapanthus growing wild along the roadside.

To enjoy the local people’s favourite weekend activity you must find a suitable ‘festa’, which occurs every weekend throughout the summer. ‘Festas’ are the place to hang out with a cool Coral beer and maybe eat some chicken or ‘espetada’.
Nothing really much happens at a ‘festa’ but there is plenty of noise and walking about. There are local ‘festas’, traditional music, live rock bands and municipal bands. Listen out at midday on Saturday and you will hear, and maybe see, the fireworks that announce where the ‘festa’ will be held.