Funchal Travel Guide

Introduction

853km (529 miles) SW of Portugal, 564km (350 miles) W of the African coastline

The island of Madeira, 850km (527 miles) southwest of Portugal, is just the mountain peak of an enormous volcanic mass. The island's craggy spires and precipices of umber-dark basalt end with a sheer drop into the blue water of the Atlantic Ocean, which is so deep near Madeira that large sperm whales often come close to the shore. If you stand on the sea-swept balcony of Cabo Girão, one of the world's highest ocean cliffs (590m/1,935 ft. above sea level), you'll easily realize the island's Edenlike quality, which inspired Luís Vaz de Camões, the Portuguese national poet, to say Madeira lies "at the end of the world."

The summit of the mostly undersea mountain is at Madeira's center, where Pico Ruivo, often snowcapped, rises to an altitude of 1,860m (6,100 ft.) above sea level. It is from this mountain peak that a series of deep, rock-strewn ravines cuts through the countryside and projects all...