Funchal is a city of ups and downs: the centre sits right by the sea and the neighbourhoods climb the hillside until they disappear among eucalyptus trees and clouds. From any viewpoint you see the bay, cruise ships coming into port and white houses with tiled roofs dotted with green. It is small and you can walk it in a day, but it has layers: 15th-century churches, cellars where wine has been aged at room temperature for two centuries and an old town with doors painted by artists.
What sets it apart is what lies half an hour away. You ride the cable car up to Monte, wander through a huge tropical garden and come back down the streets in a wicker toboggan pushed by two men in rubber boots. Another day you head up to 1.818 metres, to Pico do Areeiro, to watch the sunrise above the clouds, and by the afternoon you are in a seawater pool at the Lido. All of that with cheap buses and a climate that almost never gets in the way.
For travellers from Latin America, Funchal is usually a stop within a trip around Portugal, and it deserves at least four days. Watch out for a few new rules: since 2026 the island's official trails must be booked and paid for online, the city charges a nightly tourist tax and at the market you need to ask the price of the fruit before they cut it for you. With that clear, it is one of the places in Europe where your money goes furthest.
Madeira was uninhabited when the Portuguese navigators João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira reached the island in 1419–1420. Zarco took the captaincy of the south, and settlement began a few years later in a fertile valley with plenty of water and a sheltered bay, covered in wild fennel: the 'funcho' that gave Funchal its name. The settlement grew quickly as a port and administrative centre. In 1452 it was raised to the status of town, and in 1508 King Manuel I granted it the title of city, the first in the archipelago. A few years earlier, in 1493, the same king had ordered the construction of the cathedral (the Sé), completed in the early 16th century. That was the century of sugar: Madeira became one of the great producers of the Atlantic and Funchal a regular stopover between Europe, Africa and the Americas. When sugar declined, from the 17th century onwards, Madeira wine took its place, and with it came British trading houses that shaped the city's economy, architecture and social life; the Blandy's cellar is an heir to that era. In the 18th and 19th centuries Funchal became famous as a place to recover thanks to its mild climate: Empress Sissi and Winston Churchill both stayed here, and in 1921 the last Austro-Hungarian emperor, Charles I, arrived in exile; he died here and is buried in the church at Monte. During the First World War, German submarines attacked the harbour in 1916 and 1917. With regional autonomy in 1976 the city became the capital of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, and tourism became its driving force. In 2021 the census counted 105.795 inhabitants in the municipality.
A local guide tells you in half an hour what no sign at the site will ever explain. We look ours up on Civitatis: guided in Spanish and booked online with no fuss. They have over 20 activities in Funchal. And there are free tours here: you book without paying and tip the guide whatever you think at the end, so trying one costs you nothing. Three are below so you get the idea: tap any of them and they all open.
If you book from here we earn a commission and you pay no more. Prices and availability come from Civitatis.
No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
