Funchal or a Second Base: Where to Stay for One Week in Madeira?

Madeira is a small island whose expressway makes most of the south coast a 40-minute drive from Funchal, so the base question is not about distance. It is about three things: which side of the island you sleep on when the weather turns, how far the two classic hikes are from your bed, and whether you have a car. For a first winter visit of one week, Funchal for all six nights wins on the first and third counts and loses only a little on the second. The cases for a second base are real but narrow, and this guide sets them out with the nights and the drive times so you can see what each choice costs.

The short answer: stay in Funchal for the whole week if you are visiting between October and February, if you do not have a car, or if this is your first time. Split the week as Funchal 4 plus Calheta 2 if you have a car, want the Rabaçal levada and the south-west coast without the long drive, and do not mind one hotel change. Choose Santana or the north coast only if walking is the point of the trip, you accept the wettest lowland on the island, and you can live with three evenings where the only thing to do is eat. The 7-day winter itinerary is built on the first option and shows the second as a variant.

The three options in one table

Driving times are routing-engine estimates without traffic or fog; add a margin on the plateau and mountain roads in winter, and read the peaks figure with the one-way rule in mind: since 1 May 2026 you cannot walk back from Pico Ruivo to Pico do Arieiro, so the peaks day ends at Achada do Teixeira on the Santana side whatever your base.

What Funchal gives you that nowhere else does

The weather. Funchal's 1991 to 2020 normals put December at 95 mm of rain on about nine days with highs of 21 degrees, and the seaside Lido station recorded only 296 mm in the whole of 2024. Santana, by contrast, had 129 days with rain that year, more than any other station on the island, and the central mountain stations recorded 1,500 to 1,900 mm. On the days when the interior is closed, a Funchal base has the Museu de Arte Sacra (Monday to Friday 10:00 to 17:30, Saturday to 13:30), the Madeira Story Centre (daily 10:00 to 18:00), the CR7 Museum (Monday to Saturday 10:00 to 17:00), the Quinta das Cruzes and Frederico de Freitas house museums (Tuesday to Saturday 10:00 to 17:30), the Natural History Museum (daily 09:00 to 17:30 in winter), Blandy's Wine Lodge (daily, including Sunday mornings) and the Monte cable car (08:45 to 17:45 every day except Christmas Day, 22 euros return) within a short walk or a bus ride. No other base on the island has more than one of those.

The transport. Funchal is the hub of the bus network, the Aerobus runs from the airport to the hotel zone in about 50 minutes for 6.70 euros, the shared hiking transfers to Pico do Arieiro collect in Funchal and Caniço only, and the cable car and toboggans are in town. If you are not renting a car, Funchal is not one option among three; it is the option.

The one thing it costs you is the levada day. Rabaçal, the trailhead for the Levada das 25 Fontes, is about 47 km and 1 hour 15 minutes from the city over the Paul da Serra plateau, and a full day that continues to Porto Moniz and back is about three hours of driving. That is the whole case for a second base.

When Funchal 4 + Calheta 2 is the better split

Calheta is a small marina town on the south-west coast, 33 km and about 40 minutes from Funchal on the expressway and about 50 minutes from the airport. From there, Rabaçal is roughly 16 km and 40 minutes up the hill, Porto Moniz is about 35 minutes along the coast, and the cliff villages of Jardim do Mar and Paul do Mar are minutes away. The MUDAS contemporary art museum above the marina is open Tuesday to Saturday, 09:30 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 17:30, which makes it the only serious indoor option outside Funchal. The south-west is on the dry side of the island, so a Calheta base keeps the weather advantage of Funchal.

The split works like this: nights 1 to 4 in Funchal for the arrival, the peaks day, the east loop and one buffer, then a morning drive to Calheta on Day 5, the levada from Calheta on Day 5 or 6 depending on the forecast, the coast on the other day, and the airport from Calheta on Day 7. You lose one Funchal evening and gain a shorter levada day, an easier second attempt at the plateau if the first fails, and a quieter end to the week. It only makes sense with a car: Calheta has Rodoeste buses to Funchal but the single daily bus to Porto Moniz passes at 11:25 and comes back through the town between 17:15 and 17:45, and nothing goes up to Rabaçal.

When Santana or the north coast is worth it

Santana puts you on the side of the island where the peaks day ends. Achada do Teixeira, the exit of the one-way PR1 and the start of the short PR1.2 to Pico Ruivo, is about an hour away by the mountain road, Pico do Arieiro about 40 minutes, Ribeiro Frio and the Balcões walk about 25 minutes, and the Levada do Caldeirão Verde (PR9, 8.7 km each way through the laurel forest) starts at the Queimadas park above the town. For a walker who wants two attempts at the ridge and a wet-forest levada in between, three nights here make sense.

The costs are the weather and the evenings. Santana is the wettest lowland station on the island; the Porto Moniz pools further along the coast close whenever the swell is high; and when a day is lost there is nowhere to go but the Whale Museum in Caniçal (Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00) or back over the hill to Funchal. The plateau and Rabaçal are on the far side of the island, so the levada day becomes the long one instead. And if you arrive by bus, the CAM Santana network from Funchal runs roughly hourly on weekday mornings (07:30, 08:10, 09:00, 10:00), takes 1.5 to 2 hours, and drops to three departures on Sundays; the last bus back to Funchal from Santana leaves at 17:25 on weekdays and 17:28 on Sundays.

What the choice does to nights and days

• Funchal 6: Days 2 to 6 are interchangeable; the buffer day can absorb either hike; every day is under three hours of driving; wet afternoons are solved. The levada day is the long one.
• Funchal 4 + Calheta 2: the peaks and the east loop must happen in the first four days (or the peaks move to the Calheta end with a long morning drive); the levada gets two possible days at the end; one hotel change; the last night is quiet and 50 minutes from the airport.
• Funchal 3 + Santana 3: the peaks get two possible days from the north; the levada at Rabaçal becomes a full-island day or is dropped for Caldeirão Verde; wet days have no plan B; two hotel changes if you return to Funchal for the last night.

Where in Funchal

Funchal has three practical zones. The old town and the Sé area put the market, the museums, the cable car and the bus terminals within a walk, which is the choice without a car. The hotel zone west of the centre around the Lido and Praia Formosa is where the Aerobus ends and where most large hotels are, a 20 to 30-minute walk or a short bus from the centre. Monte and the hills above the city are cooler and quieter, with the garden and the toboggans on the doorstep, but they add a cable car or a bus to every outing. For a week built on day trips by car, anywhere with parking and expressway access works; for a week by bus, the centre saves an hour a day.

The decision in four questions

1. Do you have a car? No: Funchal, six nights, no further questions. Yes: continue.
2. Is the Levada das 25 Fontes a must, and would you like two chances at it? Yes: consider Funchal 4 + Calheta 2. No: Funchal 6.
3. Is the trip mostly about walking, with a second try at the ridge more important than wet-day options? Yes: Funchal 3 + Santana 3. No: one of the first two.
4. Is it late December? The festive programme, the Market Night on 23 December and the New Year fireworks are all in Funchal, and hotels there sell out first; book the Funchal nights before anything else.

Whichever you choose, the day order, the swap logic and the fees are in the winter itinerary, the month's numbers are in Madeira in December, and the bus and transfer options for each day are in Madeira without a car.

Photo credits

Hero: fishing boats at Câmara de Lobos by Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0. Calheta marina by Asurnipal, CC BY-SA 4.0. All via Wikimedia Commons, resized.