Best central hotels in Madeira

The centre is walkable; the hills are not, for most visitors. Along the seafront and in the old centre round the Sé the streets are level, and from the Sé the market is 9 minutes on foot and the cable car station 10. Behind the centre the streets climb steeply. Barceló Funchal Oldtown sits on the level streets by the sea, and Hotel Madeira at much the same height as the Sé, about 20 metres above the seafront. Casa Velha do Palheiro, up the hill at São Gonçalo, is 71 minutes down on foot and 115 back up.

The lower station of the cable car to Monte is in the Zona Velha, 10 minutes on foot from the Sé. From Barceló Funchal Oldtown it is 10 minutes along level streets, and from Hotel Madeira 15. The cable car is the easy way up the amphitheatre: it saves you the steep climb to Monte, so walk the old town and let the cable car do the hill.

Yes, in central Funchal. The Aerobus runs from the airport to Avenida do Mar in 24 minutes, €6.70 on board, stopping about 180 metres from Barceló Funchal Oldtown, and at Plaza Madeira, about 3 minutes' walk from Hotel Madeira. The Regional Tourist ticket, €13.75 a day, covers every operator's buses and the Aerobus. City lines 001 and 002 run out to the Hotel Zone. For Pico do Arieiro, Rabaçal and Porto Moniz, a hire car is far easier, so hire one only for those days.

From the Lido bathing complex the Sé is 41 minutes on foot, and from the Hotel Zone's resorts 23 to 33 minutes, gently downhill on the way in, with a climb back along Estrada Monumental, a busy road for most of its length. City buses 001 and 002 cover it, and by road off-peak it is 10 minutes. If you want to walk to dinner every night, stay in the centre: from Barceló Funchal Oldtown the Sé is 2 minutes, from Hotel Madeira 6.

Hotel Madeira has reserved spaces in the underground car park in front of the hotel at €11 a day, limited, so book one with the room. Barceló Funchal Oldtown has no car park of its own; it arranges paid spaces, subject to availability, in the Almirante Reis car park, 650 metres away. In the centre a car is not needed for the city itself, so many guests hire one only for the days they drive out to the peaks or the west.

Independently, through extensive research, trusted sources and first-hand visits. Hotels cannot pay to be included, and every one of the ten has to exist for a different reason.