Madeira - is it a good choice?
 

I am looking to plan a 1 week vacation for mid April. The vacation would be for me, my wife and our 2 year old son. My wife and I have done a substantial amount of traveling before children but this will be our 1st trip outside the United States with our son.

Looking for decent weather
Place that would be appropriate for a small child

My wife and I have traveled enough to feel comfortable traveling to multiple locations within 1 trip but I think with only having 7 days and our son with us.
, 1 location would be the best choice.

I am leaning towards Madeira, but I am open to suggestions and advice.

If you think Madeira would be good choice, please let me know which hotels you would recommend. Ideally I would like to spend 200 euro per night but would be willing to spend more on the right hotel/location.

Thank you in advance,
Tim

We have not been there in years. I think it is an excellent place for those who have travelled a bit, no matter how charming and nice the weather. The island is small and there are limited things to see and do.

We've been many times and it's one of the few places in the world we return to over and over again. The climate is wonderful - never too hot, never too cold all year round, and although there are some rainy days in the winter, by April time it's normally dry and sunny almost every day.

I don't agree with BigAl's observation about Madeira being small with limited things to do and see. At around 300 square miles I wouldn't describe that as "small". As for what to do, there's amazing sub-tropical mountain scenery has to be seen to be believed, beautiful gardens, cable cars, great walking and picnic locations, whale watching, sea fishing, caves, wonderful restaurants ... I could go on. It's also very safe, user-friendly and everyone who has contact with tourists speaks good English.

Young kids would love the parks in Funchal which have kids playgrounds, paddling in the hotel's kids' pool (all the big hotels have them), the Aqua Park and the Madeira Theme Park. The Portugeuse are very family-oriented people and love children.

There's a huge choice of hotels mostly in Funchal (the only big town on the island) and your €200 per night is a generous bughet that would easily get you a good 4-star or even 5-star hotel room (prices are much lower in Madeira than many other European destinations).

My flight has been booked. 7 nights in April. I am lookin into hotels and it appears that I have a number of choices. I would say my 3 most important things with the hotel would be.
1- location
2- pool (kid friendly)
3- view

Anyone highly recommend a particular place?
Anyone have thoughts on cliffs bay?

Thank you
Tim

Reid's Hotel is the famous one but is probably quite expensive.

Try LTI Pestana Grand

Reids is very posh and stuffy - I wouldn't say it was really suitable for small kids. I had afternoon tea there once and you can smell the "old money".

The Cliff Bay is a fabulous hotel with a great reputation for good service and great views perched on the cliff side. I don't think you get many small kids there though.

Good choices in Funchal would be the Porto Santa Maria (right next to the Old Town), its sister hotel, the Porto Mare/Eden Mare and pretty much any of the Pestana hotels (Pestana are a big Portuguese chain with some very nice 4 and 5-star properties on Madeira).

As far a views are concerned nearly all the hotels in Funchal have great ocean views (it's worth making sure your room has an unobstructed ocean view). I have spent many happy hours gazing out across the deep blue Atlantic contenplating that the next shoreline you'd reach is in Georgia, USA!

Another kid-friendly hotel is the Quinta Jardins do Lago - see this article in the UK press:-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/de...-cool-mum.html

We stayed at Reid's for a few nights a thousand years ago. We stayed at an inexpensive place for a few nights and then Reid's.

We were taking levada walk and we ran into a few British couples who were quite good company. When we told them we were staying at Reid's they laughed. Obviosuly people covered in mud and dirt from the walk, don't often stay at Reid's.

We are from the states and are going to Madeira next week. We ended up renting a place through Airbnb.com with great views of the harbor but with three bedrooms,pool,etc. I will try and post some notes to you when we return in January as there is very little info for Americans on Madeira.I bought all of our books and maps in the UK!
How are you getting there and where from in the states? We are flying from Chicago to London and then down to Madeira on TAP. The whole family is very excited!

Hopefully flemingtime will see your info duty-free. He registered and started this one thread back in August, one follow up post a couple of days later . . . and he's not been back to the formus since.

Thanks Janisj. Happy Holidays everyone!

Really, someone called Madeiraholidays is saying Madeira is good.

What a surprise and there is no advertising her.

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