Landscapes of Madeira by John Underwood, Pat Underwood   Winner of the Thomas Cook Travel Guide Award, this guide to Madeira offers over 100 different walks, including five new routes.   More information and prices from: Amazon.co.uk - British pounds Amazon.com - US dollars Amazon.ca - Canadian dollars Amazon.de - Euros Amazon.fr - Euros 35 Madeira Walks by David Brawn, Ros Brawn   35 Madeira Walks provides a wide range of walking routes from easy strolls up to challenging ascents, that will appeal to a wide range of walking abilities.   More information and prices from: Amazon.co.uk - British pounds Amazon.de - Euros Amazon.fr - Euros

 

A visit to Madeira is like a nice weekend or a day in the country. It is both familiar and a delightful change from routine life for northern Europeans.

Semi-tropical and located in the Atlantic Ocean, 600km off Morocco, Madeira is an autonomous part of Portugal and is therefore within the Euro-zone. The island has been transformed by European Union funding over the past decade. A new airport with a remarkable runway carried on stilts over sea and cliffs allows easier access from mainland Portugal and other parts of Europe. Access to many coastal and inland villages is being improved with extensive tunnelling through the mountainous terrain.

The lack of beaches means that Madeira must focus on more specialised tourism than the mass-market 'sun and sangria' visitors catered for by the Spanish Canary islands. Despite the growth in the number of hotels, Madeira provides a more gentile and upmarket experience than its neighbours to the south. English is widely spoken and the numerous banks have multilingual ATMs (cash machines) that accept most common debit and credit cards.

The Rough Guide summarizes Madeira as an 'extraordinarily dramatic island of wild mountain scenery and fantastic walking terrain. Combining precipitous valleys and sheer cliffs - including the second-highest sea cliffs in the world at Cabo Girão - the island boasts an astonishingly diverse array of colourful semitropical vegetation and gently cultivated terraces.'

The climate is pleasantly mild. Air temperatures range between 16°C and 19°C in winter and 21°C to 25°C in summer with an annual average of 20°C. Sea temperatures range from 18°C to 23°C. The north is generally wetter than the south with rain on an average of 80 days a year. Sunshine over the last 30 years has averaged 166 hours of sunlight in January and 255 hours in September. Northern Europeans tend to visit over the Winter and Spring, while Portuguese and Spanish visitors come in the Summer months.

Fishing is not as predominant as it was and the great whaling tradition is no more but coastal villages still have their fishing communities.

The neighbouring island of Porto Santos is also inhabited. This was discovered by the Portuguese in 1418 - a year before Madeira. It is quite different to Madeira, being much smaller and flatter with a fine 9km beach. There are two other groups of (uninhabited) islands in the Madeira archipelago: the Desertas group of islands, consisting of Deserta Grande, Bugio, Ilhéu Chão and Prego do Mar; and the Selvagens Islands, consisting of Selvagem Grande, Selvagem Pequena and Ilhéu de Fora.

More about Madeira:

Madeira's history and attractions

Funchal, Madeira

Hotels in Funchal, Madeira

Reid's Hotel, Madeira