There is a new Madeira Shopping Centre in the Hotel Zone which has several restaurants. I suggest you try the Brasilian one there. Waiters fill your plate with several types of meat until you tell them to stop coming by putting a little red flad on the stick on your table ! Get your own side salads from the salad bar. All for a fixed price. Also lots of other restaurants and bars around the Monumental area which isnt far from you. As far as going around the island, I don't think there is any public transports which does that, but for about 50 euros you can get a taxi who will take you where most tourist buses don't go. Many of the taxi drivers speak English. There are many half day excursions to the north of the island. Dont book anything through your holiday rep. Go to one of the many tourist kiosks on the Marina front or even in Monumental area. Also you must visit the "Old Quarter" where the Madeirense retaurants are. This is just beside the terminal for the cable car. Taxis at night cost about 8 - 10 euros from there to the Hotel Zone. Some of these restaurants also have "fardo" singing. You must also try the "espada" pronounced "eshpada" which is the meat from tne scabbard fish, not to be confused with estepada which is steak!

BTW, be prepared for some humidity when you get off the plane. The end of May and start of June tend to be the only times when it is humid on the island!

hi kate

have a read through this topic

it may help

wizard

Thanks for the advice. The market sounds well worth a visit, and the old town just our kind of thing. Hope "humid" isn't a euphamism for rainy season! We always get rain- have umbrellas from all over europe!
Kate

hi Kate,
No "humid" is not "rainy"! I mean humid as in "warm and sticky"!

Hi Kate,
We stayed at the Edenmar in Nov 2006 and it was fine. We had booked a double room but it also had self catering facilities which was handy at lunchtime. If you like steak you must go to Sol d'juda (think that's right) It is up the road at the side of the Monumental Lido hotel. They do 'steak on the stone' to die for. The espada fish is wonderful too. Book any bus trips with Strawberry World. in the Monumental Lido shopping area.

You could try a trip across island on 4X4 (Range Rover) to avoid the crowds. Every time I've been to Madeira its rained (Dec, March April) its what makes the island so green.

Every time I've been to Madeira its rained

Dec and Jan is the "rainy season", after all it is their winter. kate, you might get the odd day of rain, or even the very occasional wet storm, but out of 10 days 8 will be sunny. When you are there the temp will hardly rise over 26 degrees during the ay and will not fall below 20 at night. It will be pretty constant. The Hotel Zone is to the west of Funchal and tends to get better weather than is forecast for the whole island. The weather station is based at the aeroport which is in the SE of the island which is cooler. The north is by far the wettest as it is directly in the path of the prevailing trade winds, which at that time of the year will be blowing from the NW. These are part of what is known as "The Asores High". Whooooops I've gone off on my sailing chatter!

Thanks for all your help- really looking forward to it.
Sensitive topic- are the cigarettes much dearer than mainland?

Sorry, can't help you there, kate, about ciggies; however Madeira has a lower rate of tax due to the fact that most comsuner goods have to be imported from mainland Europe, so ciggies may well be the same price.

Hi katie
cigarettes are the same price as Portugal but they dont sell superkings mostly phillips cigs marlboro etc.
Sioux

Thanks for that

Hi You have chosen a nice hotel. One suggestion which might help for seeing the island is a private taxi hire, your hotel or holiday rep will be able to book one for you, it usually costs about 60 euros per car and driver (not per person) half day about 110 euros for a full day. They will tailor the day to your needs and are very good. You need full day to see the East (pretty side), full day for West (dramatic) or half day for centre or along the South coast line.
Restaurants and bars in that area are excellent and suit many differant tastes, there are Indian, Japanese, Chinese as well as very good Madieran cuisine. all on the doorstep.

Hi

We have just returned from two weeks in Madeira, staying in Santa Cruz, and we had a wonderful time. Although it was Jan/Feb we had no rain at all (although Funchal had some on the night of the Carnival).
I would recommend Santa Cruz for a visit. I think a lot of people overlook this delightful little village as it is close to the airport. However if you want to see a typical Madeiran village this fits the bill. It is small and relaxed, several small cafes (Doce Satisfacioa near the Vila Gale Santa Cruz hotel, on seafront, near park, with yellow canopy - The cakes, quiches, toasties and Galoe (milky coffee in glass) are lovely and very cheap). Santa Cruz really makes you feel that you are abroad. It has lovely cobled, treelined squares, and very few tourists. You can travel there by public bus. It takes maybe 40 minutes and costs approx 2 euro each way and they run at regular intervals.
We also enjoyed Porto Moniz on the northwest of the Island but I don't know how difficult it is to get there as we went on a full day tour of the whole Island.
We like natural beauty and places that still retain their character and in our opinion although there is not a lot to do in Santa Cruz we found it delightful and unspoilt, it was lovely to just wander, sit in the squares and enjoy the atmosphere with the locals (you won't get pestered by timeshare either).