Portugal won us over during our visits to Lisbon, Porto, and the Douro Valley 18 months ago. Creative cuisine, friendly people, delicious wine, beautiful views, interesting history, and unique architecture…Portugal really has it all and at a reasonable price. We couldn’t resist a weekend getaway to the sunny island of Madeira to escape the UK grey.
Madeira has loads of options for tourists from fancy tropical gardens to wine tours to spas with infinity pools to adventure activities. We decided to focus on the natural beauty and unique landscapes. Hiking is one of the best ways to see the island, so we started out each day with a 4-hour hike. Of course, our other focus had to be the Portuguese cuisine and famous Madeira wine. Hiking and eating sounded like a perfect combination to us.
After just a short 3.5 hr flight from Manchester, we found ourselves in old town Funchal, Madeira’s capital, for Friday night dinner as a reward for the hard workweek.
The meal started off with traditional Madeiran bread bola do caco, a circular flat bread cooked on a basalt stone slab and smothered in warm garlic butter. Crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, this bread was awesome and a sure sign we were in for a treat. We focused on the most popular fresh fish in Madeira, scabbard fish, for our main course. We shared one topped with a savory, creamy Madeira wine sauce. The other more traditional dish was incredibly unique and a stunning flavor combination…fried bananas on the scabbard fish in a passion fruit sauce.
We greatly enjoyed both and could have crushed two more helpings. But, we wanted to save room for dessert. The creamy, passion fruit pudding and fluffy, whipped Madeira-flavored zabaione (custard) were delicious, and even better when the waiter gave us a hint to actually combine them in the same bite. Whoa!
Of course, the highlight was the Madeira wine that we paired with it. After paying our bill, the friendly manager of this quaint restaurant called O Portao offered us a taste of his homemade Poncha. Poncha is a Madeiran cocktail made from cane sugar alcohol, lemon juice, sugar, and honey. We were quite spoiled getting a homemade version for our first try of this beverage. We were off to a great start to the weekend!
Day 1: Sunrise hike, local specialties, and Portuguese fine dining
We got up early to enjoy a quiet sunrise on the easternmost point of Madeira, Ponta de São Lourenço. The light was just starting to fill the sky as we started the journey.
We passed through a few rolling grass hills before coming to some sheer cliffs dropping into the ocean. The sun made the rocks appear ablaze with bright red and orange streaks.
In contrast to the rest of the island, the peninsula is barren and made up of volcanic sedimentary rock. The landscape has been shaped by erosion from the wind and waves.
Fluffy pink clouds in the light blue morning sky were a stark contrast to the bold red and orange stripes that popped as the first rays hit the volcanic rocks formations.
After about an hour of hiking, we finally came around a bend in the cliffs and saw the rising sun for the first time.
Absolutely magical! We took a seat on a nearby rock and just soaked in the quiet, peaceful morning. We then had the steepest part of the hike up to the highest point of the peninsula.
Thank goodness for the guardrails and our trusty hiking shoes. Once at the top, we were rewarded with some pretty amazing views.
And speaking of reward, after a four-hour hike we definitely earned a spectacular lunch. And Madeira does not disappoint in the food department. We drove to Camara de Lobos to eat at a restaurant called Casa do Farol.
This restaurant is home to two amazing culinary creations: the Nikita and Espetada Madeirense. Espetada Madeirense are beef cubes on bay laurel skewers smothered in garlic and grilled to perfection. They are served with milho frito, fried squares of firm polenta, to soak up the steak juices.
You might be thinking that beef skewers aren’t super unique, but the Nikita sure is. This adult “milkshake” is made from fresh pineapple juice, pineapple ice cream, beer, and white wine. Yup, that’s correct. Both beer and wine are in this! We were amazed that you can distinctly taste both the beer and the wine and yet it is somehow absolutely delicious and refreshing. Their secret is in the homemade pineapple ice cream. Supposedly, when they became famous for their ice cream, the sailors were intrigued but still preferred booze, so the restaurant started adding the beer and wine to satisfy the local fisherman. And the rest is history.
After lunch, we headed off to see more of the diverse Madeiran landscape. Above Camara de Lobos is the 10th highest cliff over the ocean in the world called Cabo Girao. A skywalk here enables you to see straight down the 680m to the sea.
From Cabo Girao, we ventured inland to a place known as Valley of the Nuns. A settlement and convent were established here in the crater of an extinct volcano and became a place for the nuns to hide out when pirates raided the island back in the day. As you can see from the pics, the city is well protected on all sides by steep mountains.
The village is well-known for their cherries and chestnuts. Their cherry liquor, Ginja, is similar to the Ginja that we had in Lisbon but not as fruit forward and more reminiscent of the fortified Madeira wine.
We stopped at a little café to enjoy a glass of Ginja and the cool breeze coming down from the mountains. In Nun’s Valley, we were also introduced to the bolo do caco with chouriço.
We were walking by a food stand and couldn’t resist the amazing aroma coming from the gentlemen’s stone grill. Mmm….a great snack…leading to yet another fantastic meal.
That evening, we had dinner at Il Gallo d’Oro, a 2-star Michelin restaurant considered the best restaurant in Madeira and one of the top in all of Portugal. Fresh ingredients from the island of Madeira as well as high quality ingredients from nearby regions are brought together with inspiration from the Mediterranean and Iberian Peninsula.
The plates were both stunning and delicious. Each course was also perfectly paired with wine to enhance flavors. We started with the Golden Egg. Each layer revealed a unique dish, an edible work of art, really. The first dish was one of our favorites of the night: honeycomb foie gras with pollen, banana, and a chocolate bee.
Other layers in the Golden Egg included seabream tartar with tangerine pearls and squid noodles with enoki mushrooms in a dashi consommé.
The frozen, sweet tangerine pearls were a unique contrast to the savory, salty tartar. The squid noodles were delicate, and the broth full of umami flavors. The Golden Egg was a great start to the meal.
We then moved on to lobster medallions with ponzu (citrus) caviar, tuna tartar with passion fruit ponzu and pressed watermelon, and tandoori fish with fennel leek purée and clams with Kafir lime foam.
Our other favorite dish was the suckling pig with pickled vegetables and a Portuguese sausage ball.
One bite of the sausage ball, and we knew it was a fancy take on our favorite Alheira sausage, which I will discuss more later. The pork was perfectly crispy on the outside and juicy in the middle. I wish I could remember what all the components of each plate were. But, they all blended harmoniously in my mouth to create a symphony of complex, stunning flavors.
The dessert course was another stunner called Banana Surprise. I’m not entirely sure what it was but a banana-like creation drizzled with passion fruit and madeira wine sauce and topped with honey cake crumble.
Overall, this gourmet dinner was a delicious and memorable experience and adds another dimension to our Portuguese food experience with a modern gastronomy spin.
Day 2: Lavada hike and coastline views
After an extravagant dinner, we were back out the door for more hiking the next morning. In complete contrast to our first hike, we hiked from the plateau of Paul da Serra through lush Laurissilva forest along a water route known as a levada.
Levadas are special aqueducts designed to carry water from the rainfall-heavy north side of the island to the dry southern side of the island. The levadas zigzag through the mountains to carry water to banana plantations, vineyards, and vegetable gardens. Some of these lavadas originated from as early as the 16th century.
We chose to hike Levada 25 Fontes, which ends at a beautiful turquoise lagoon with 25 natural springs coming out of the mountain walls.
On the long climb back up to the plateau, we stopped at a café along the route to refuel. The sandwich was mediocre, but the highlight was that I got a caffeine boost from the popular Madeira soda, Brissa Maracuja, a passion-fruit flavored soft drink with real fruit juice in it.
The weather took a turn when we crossed over to explore the other side of the island for the afternoon. Thick fog covered the mountain tops, and when we came down to the coastal town of Porto Moniz, we were greeted with thick, grey clouds and a gentle rain. The highlight of Porto Moniz is the lava pools filled with turquoise water, which would have been a perfect way to spend a sunny afternoon by the ocean. Alas, no swimming for us in the cold, dark, rain, and sunshine is apparently needed to appreciate the turquoise color.
To make myself feel better about the lost opportunity, I treated myself to a Maderian specialty, bolo de mel. This honey spice cake was the first dessert made in Madeira by the nuns back in the 15th century from Indian and European spices.
The finale for the day was supposed to be a romantic sunset on the westernmost tip of the island called Ponto do Pargo. Although the cloud cover prevented us from seeing an actual sunset, the weather cleared up enough for us to get some stunning views anyway.
Day 3: Funchal and Madeira wine
Our last day (or was it?) was spent strolling the cute, cobblestone streets of downtown Funchal. We visited their market, Mercado dos Lavradores, and tried a bunch of exotic, tropical fruits. One of the most unique is the monstera deliciosa, a fruit that tastes a bit like a banana combined with a pineapple. Pretty crazy!
Our personal favorites were the variations of passion fruit including the banana passion fruit and the lemon passion fruit.
We took a quick stroll through the 15th century cathedral and admired the statue of the Portuguese explorer that discovered Madeira.
Finally, the time had come for our official Madeira wine tasting and tour at Blandy’s wine lodge.
We’ve been huge fans of Port for some time, which was a large reason why we went to Portugal the first time. We rarely drink Madeira wine and didn’t know much about it, so we were excited to learn more about the difference between these two Portuguese fortified wines. Turns out, the first winemakers on Madeira were shipping their barrels back to the mainland, and they noticed that the heat and evaporation that occurred during the journey actually created a more favorable product. Today, higher quality Madeiran wine goes through a process called canteiro, in which the wine are cask-aged in lodge attics that naturally heat the wine in a gentle manner for slow maturation. Larger quantities of Madeiran wine go through a process estufagem, in which the wine is heated in specialized stainless steel vessels to accomplish a similar result in a shorter time. This process is unique to Madeiran wine and gives its distinctive character. Overall, we greatly enjoyed the tour and the Madeiran wine that we drank during the tasting and throughout the trip, but we still remain bigger fans of Port.
After the tour and tasting, we were on a mission to find one thing for lunch: alheira. We discovered alheira sausage while on a tour in Lisbon. Alheira is a bread/chicken sausage that was created by Jews in 1497 to make it look like they were making and eating pork when they were being persecuted and forced to leave the country if they did not convert to Christianity. Alheira sausage was fairly easy to find in Lisbon and Porto, so we were so disappointed when restaurant after restaurant didn’t have it on the menu. Finally, one of the hosts at a restaurant went out of his way to help us. He went back to the kitchen of his restaurant to see if we could get the sausage on the charcuterie plate even if it wasn’t a main dish. His chef said no, but then he went to their sister restaurant a few doors down. Although not on the menu, the chef agreed to make it for us. We thought that we would most likely just get it served on a charcuterie plate along with other meats, so we were surprised when we got the traditional preparation with a fried egg!!
Our final activity in Funchal was to ride the cable car to the top of the surrounding mountain to get a better view of the city. The ride up was truly the highlight as it was a really cool perspective to be just above the homes and streets to appreciate the architectural feat that this city really is.
The main highway that cuts through town is impressive, and we have never seen anything quite like it. We expected Madeira to look like the Amalfi coast in Italy with windy roads snaking around the cliff edges above the water. Instead, Madeira’s primary road was a combination of long tunnels blasted through the mountainside and vast bridges spanning the valleys. Absolutely incredible!
Full from alheira sausage, a little buzzed from Madeiran wine, and in awe of the beauty of this city and island, we headed back to the airport for what was supposed to be a late night but relatively quick flight back to the UK. We had no idea that the airport on Madeira has been designated one of the most dangerous in the world due to the short runway, nearby mountain peaks, and potential for serious wind speeds.
The winds had picked up around the time we arrived, and flights were being delayed because the conditions were not safe to land or takeoff. I tried not to stress as I stuffed my face with another Portuguese specialty that I couldn’t get enough of while on the island…queijadas.
Queijadas are a sweet pastry made from eggs, sugar, milk and either cheese or requeijão (milk-based product). For a few hours, we waited for news as we were told that our plane was circling the airport and couldn’t land and finally had to go to a different island. Our flight was officially cancelled around 11pm, and we had to go through the painful process of getting back through security/immigration, on to busses with hundreds of other grumpy tourists, and transported to a hotel for the night. The next morning, we were brought back to the airport, and this time we found it in even more of a chaotic state. No flights landed or took off for the entire day.
Just imagine all those people spilling outside onto the streets, sitting on the floors and trying to eat from the only two small cafes available. We had to wait 2 hrs in a line to get dinner and were surviving most of the day on Twix bars from the vending machine. On top of that, we were both scheduled to work that day, so we were on conference calls and trying to work on our laptops in uncomfortable airport seats the whole day in the airport. To make matters worse, our flight was one of the last to be cancelled…not until 1 am…and this time, the airline told us that they could not find accommodation for us. Many people started spreading out jackets and bedding down for the night on the airport floor. We weren’t going out like that. Jimmy kept calling hotels until finally found one with availability on the other side of the island.
The hour drive was totally worth it to be able to have a bed to sleep in for the night and a shower to get cleaned up (never mind that we were wearing the same clothes at this point though anyway). This time, our flight was scheduled a bit later in the day, so we spent most of the day working in our hotel room. As a reward for being stuck in an airport for an entire day plus two partial days, we decided to take a stroll to the beach after breakfast and then have a relaxing lunch by the infinity pool with a beautiful view and a glass of poncha.
As the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, drink lemon poncha! We did finally make it out that night, and we will still look back on our weekend trip to Madeira with fond memories. We also plan to continue to spread the word how amazing Portugal is and include Madeira in that conversation; however, an asterisk must be included…*beware high wind speeds and excessive airport waits.
Thank you for sharing another amazing adventure!
Thanks Wendi. We need to get you on a trip with us so that you can guest post 🙂