Hotel Cocktail

Hotel Cocktail

This is a return visit to Funchal for us – we spent a week at Reid’s Palace in June 2010 and hardly left the hotel – our intention this time is an expectation to see a little more of the island.  We did make an intermediate visit a few years ago when travelling on Cunard when we were moored in the bay ready for the fireworks on New Year’s Day 2012 – which were pretty fantastic and included setting an adjacent hillside alight.

As a result of an unbelievable offer this time we are staying at Hotel Porto Santa Maria which is adjacent to the Old Town of Funchal and only just above sea level.  With the main aim of seeing some sun during what has been a grey winter at home with a lot of rain.  The hotel is part of the Porto Bay group which also own Cliff Bay, adjacent to Reid’s Palace at the other end of town and other locations.  The central part of the hotel is of some vintage and has been sympathetically extended.  I do not believe it is full during our time here and certainly at breakfast they could manage the demand, although there were hints that sometimes a wait might be needed.  The hotel is well maintained, the staff were generally excellent and the other occupants to whom we spoke did seem to be repeat visitors – which in itself speaks highly of the place.

immediately outside the hotel and running  parallel to the sea – but one street back – is a completely pedestrianised street with restaurants on both sides – one end leading into the fort and the other end the centre of the town.  Most evenings we eat at one of the restaurants.  We had a good meal at the restaurant in the Fort itself – which can arrange special trips in some vintage cars they maintain.  Another night we ate in an Indian restaurant as well as a couple of others – all of a good standard and there were several more which I have no doubt could achieve equally good standards.

We had booked one night at a fado – which is not native to the island but has migrated here from the mainland.  Our choice was Restaurante Sabor a Fado – you come out of the hotel and it is the first fado you reach.  A small family run place – and the family do the singing as well!  The place was packed and whilst we might not understand a word of the singing the emotion was much to the fore.  There is at least one other fado a little further up the same road – so somewhere to go next time we visit.

We also booked dinner one evening at Reid’s Palace where they have rebranded or upgraded their main restaurant – Williams.  We had the tasting menu and wines and as might be expected from a Belmond restaurant was absolutely top class.  We took taxis both ways as there is a steep hill between the two hotels.  Reid’s has another restaurant – Ristorante Villa Cipriani which we sampled on our previous visit, but not this time.

Camara de Lobos

Camara de Lobos

Our hotel had a list of the visiting cruise ships which berth close to the hotel and the numbers on board have a huge impact on the usage of the open top buses and the cable car.  Many take the cable car to Monte and then return (half way) by the wicker toboggans.  We did this on our previous visit and whilst I would be happy to repeat the experience there are always new things to do.  We decided this time to take one of the open top bus routes (there are several) and it is best to choose a day when there are not numerous cruise ships in the port!  There are at least three open top tours and ours took us to Camara de Lobos – the neighbouring fishing port.  We stayed on – the vehicle was well loaded as there were cruise ships in port and we did not want to get stuck and unable to return – but they are supposed to operate as hop on and off – we did not see many people doing that.

We had one day out of Funchal – prior to departure we had booked two tours – one on foot sampling food in Funchal and a second to visit wineries.  The first was cancelled and I will make a separate post about our other day out.

Overall an excellent week away.  I suspect there remains much which can be done in Madeira which we have not covered and at some point we will return.