Tell me about your private tour in Madeira!

[Brahmama]

We are hoping to find a good person for a half-day trip for 4 to 6 people. Did you have a good experience? What do you recommend seeing/doing? What would you change? Would you do it again??

 

Thanks for any insight and....

 

Happy Cruising!

 

Carol

[raudacruise]

We simply walked across the street. Downtown was sort of a mess (although several very cheap internet cafes) but right next to it is a huge park/garden. You can see it from the ship. I'm sure we spent more than a half day exploring it. Lots of flowers and trees. It is however a lot of uphill/downhill walking.

 

If you go, stop at a bank and get some spending money. At least one of the banks had a thing on the outside where you could be in dollars and get local currency. We were very, very thirsty at the park and the little stands there only accepted local currency. This may be euros now, not sure but it should be spelled out in the ships daily bulletin.

[TourDeCruise]

Hi Carol! I miss chatting with you and keep thinking of the 2 of you. I've been meaning to e-mail.

 

We didn't do a private tour in Madeira, but spent the day walking around, enjoying sidewalk cafes, and taking the cable car.

 

We walked through the lovely garden park that raudacruise described. Then we walked along the water to the downtown area where we visited the wonderful flower market and shops and enjoyed the sidewalk cafe there listening to live music. We returned to Galaxy for lunch, visiting another lovely garden park on the way. After lunch, we returned to the downtown area and enjoyed another sidewalk cafe. There are shops there, but they close during the afternoon hours (siesta or the Portuguese equivalent). Then we took the cable car to the top and walked around up there in the small garden and around the church where a wedding was taking place. There is a nice place to have lunch at the top there -- we didn't eat there but it looked nice. We watched but did not participate in the tobaggan ride. Then we walked back to the ship (after taking the cable car back down, not hiking down the mountain!) enjoying the same garden park across from the ship in route. Madeira is a wonderful place. I love their patterned streets.

 

We contemplated doing a levada walk, but opted just to enjoy the town of Madeira.

 

I'll e-mail you soon,

Kathy

[wesp]

DW and I have signed up for a private 4x4 tour with Terras Adventura for our upcoming cruise. They were very accomodating.

 

http://www.terrasdeaventura.com/html/btmain.html

 

Wesley

[Brahmama]

raudacruise,

Thanks for your reply and it does sound as if Madeira will be a place to just "enjoy" and maybe not take a tour. Good advice about the currency!

Kathy,

How nice to get a reply from you! I too have missed our correspondence - I hope all is working out wonderfully well for your Instanbul adventure. And I particularly enjoyed hearing what you did in Madeira. Do send me an e-mail and get me up-to-date with your plans.

Wesley,

Thanks for the URL - Now I don't know if I want to pursue a tour or just spend the day in Madeira! Decisions, Decisions,

 

Carol

[Michele Noel]

It is a really good idea to get some euros before you go to Europe. We went to the bus station kiosk and we took a bus up to the top where there are beautiful gardens. It was an incredible drive up the cliff on the bus. Like the Hollywood hills or a steep winding hill in San Francisco. Then we took the ride on the toboggan. This was an incredible thrill. There are two men who are holding your toboggan with ropes and keep you from going so fast. A friend of mine had done this (she has a fused back) told me that I would love it. She was right. It is not a fast ride just an unusual one. A few years ago it was $12 American but the euro has changed and you give the men a euro each for their assistance. My DH and I laughed so hard on the slide down the hill. Then we used our round trip bus ticket and got on a bus to go down to the center of town. We found out where to go by reading any good guide book on Europe, probably Frommer or Fodor. The book gave us very good instructions on how to purchase the bus ticket and where to find the kiosk.

I am hoping some day to do another transatlantic cruise and go back to Madeira and take that ride again. It was one of our greatest memories of that cruise, along with the apes in Gibraltar.

[lisiamc]

We did a ship's tour, but enjoyed it very much. All of the separate "elements" of the tour were good, and I would recommend them to anyone visiting Funchal for the first time. We rode the cable car up to the top of the mountain (great views), and tobogganed down.

 

Michele Noel says the toboggans are not fast, but they were fast enough to scare the bejeebers out of me! I loved it!:D They take a photo of you on the way down, and my knuckes were literally white in the photo. The men steering our toboggan had to stop part-way down and grease the runners, as they were starting to catch fire!

 

We also toured the Madeira factory, which was interesting, with very generous tastings. After that we left the tour (it went back to the ship) and walked around town for a bit and had lunch before walking back to the ship.

 

Lisa

[Bev]

Hi

DH and family members and I sailed on the Spring Galaxy Transatlantic. Here’s the information I gathered for our stop in Funchal, Madeira:

 

Bendix Tours Madeira

Rua Velha da Ajuda, 10 B - Edif. Colinas do Lido

9004-559 Funchal / Madeira

Direct Telef.: + 351 291 700352

Fax: +351 291 764159

 

http://www.bendixtours.com/ig/index.htm

 

I dealt with: Rita Bendix

Manager Groups Incoming Madeira

rita.bendix@bendixtours.com

Mobil: +351 91 991 8849

 

 

I initially contacted 5 companies and received replies from 3 of them; messages for 1 were returned undeliverable. The other wrote to tell me a virus had ruined his system and he’d get back to me in a few days but he never did; he is also only able to offer taxi services for 4 persons. Per person prices offered by the other companies ranged from 30 Euros for full day tours and 20 Euros for half-day tours. Celebrity offers some full day tours at $98/125 and some half-day tours at $45 – 69 per person.

 

I was pleased with the responses and pricing offered by Bendix Tours and decided to work with them. Their tour descriptions are similar to those found in the Celebrity Shore Excursion guide or on the Celebrity web site:

 

Full Day Island Tour

From Funchal to Câmara de Lobos, Pico da Torre, then to Ribeira brava, Canhas and Paul da Serra plateau, Porto Moniz (stop for lunch – not included), São Vicente along Madeira’s most romantic regions with several waterfalls. On return to Funchal, stop in Cabo Girão- 2nd highest sea cliff in the world.

 

Full Day in Madeira’s Mountains

"Pico do Arieiro" ( 1810 m), with fantastic views over the whole island. Ribeiro Frio, Faial with stop for lunch. (not included), Porto da Cruz, the oldest town of Madeira – Machico, to Pico do Facho and Ponta de São Lourenço and Caniçal a former whale station village.

 

Half Day Câmara De Lobos /Botanical Garden /Market

From the harbour to Câmara de Lobos, to Pico da Torre, then visit to the Botanical Garden and visit is to the market place “Mercado dos Lavradores“ in Funchal, with it’s fish, vegetables, fruit and flowershop

 

Half Day Eira do Serrado and Monte

Viewpoint of Pico dos Barcelos (350m), to Eira do Serrado (1094m) panoramic view over the Nun`s Valley "Curral das Freiras", taste famous "Ginja" cherry liquor and Madeira honey cake. Visit Monte, church of "Nossa Senhora do Monte" and possibility to descend to Livramento in traditional toboggans.

 

Half Day Madeira handy crafts and flowers

Visit to a small village Camacha, the island’s wicker work centre. Stop in the Botanical Garden, visit the embroidery factory “Patricio e Gouveia” to see famous hand made Madeira Embroideries.

 

Bendix Tours offers the full day tours at 135 Euros (approx. US$170) and the half-day tours at 71 Euros (approx. US$90) for the minibus which seats 8, or 17E (US$21.50) and 9E (US$11.50) per person respectively with an English speaking driver/guide – the minibus would be waiting at the Funchal harbour and return us there. Lunch and entrance fees are extra.

 

We arranged for a half day tour - to Eira do Serrado and Monte. Eira do Serrado and the Curral de Freiras (Valley of the Nuns) is where nuns fled with gold, silver and other riches to keep them from pirates in days of old. You would not believe how deep this valley is - it's just incredible. The roads to get there are really narrow with just enough room for two vehicles to pass. But the views are spectacular!!! Then we went to Monte and indulged ourselves in a 10 minute toboggan ride down the streets - it was a lot of fun!

 

Bev

[Michele Noel]

Lisa, You got the ride we were looking for. Our men really held on and didn't give us a fast ride. Thanks for telling me that you can go faster. Next time I will tell them we like it rapido. Best, Michele

[Blazerboy]

Carol,

 

Had to jump in when I saw this and add that I did the basket ride with my mother and brother in 1976! Doesn't sound like much has changed in the last 30 years, but it was fun! Mom's been back since, and did the same thing- negotiating with and hiring a guide she found at the dock. Doesn't help you get things all booked in advance, but is an option if you decide just to go with a spur-of-the-moment plan. We did that in Belfast (when we sailed with you) and found a great and inexpensive guide that way.

Still miss the gang form the Constellation last Fall- have a great trip, and I'm sure we'll run into eachother on the seas at some point!

 

Andrew