Car hire in Madeira

Not for a city stay in Funchal. Barceló Funchal Oldtown is 2 minutes on foot from the Sé and Hotel Madeira 6, the Aerobus from the airport stops on Avenida do Mar and at the Lido, and Horários do Funchal's lines 001 and 002 run from the hotel zone, by The Cliff Bay and VidaMar, into the centre. A Regional Tourist ticket covers all of them: €13.75 for a day, €36 for seven.

One of the ten needs a car. Hotel Quinta do Furão, on the cliff above Santana, is a 51-minute walk from the town and about 50 minutes' drive from Funchal, though line 801 serves Santana. Three more are far easier with one: Casa Velha do Palheiro, 71 minutes on foot down to the Sé and nearly two hours back; Sentido Galomar at Caniço de Baixo, on line 555 into Funchal; and the Estalagem da Ponta do Sol, on Rodoeste lines 320 to 323. From any of the ten, the trailheads at Pico do Arieiro, Rabaçal and Caldeirão Verde, and the natural pools at Porto Moniz, need a car.

For the odd trip, taxis run on the meter. By day, Casa Velha do Palheiro to the Sé comes to about €12 and the airport to central Funchal about €30, estimates from the regional tariff and the routed distance.

Madeira has one airport, at Santa Cruz on the south-east coast, with one terminal. On the airport's own list in August 2026, eight firms had desks on Floor 0, in arrivals and before security: Avis-Budget, Europcar, Goldcar, Guerin, Hertz, Madeira Rent, Rodavante and Sixt. About one offer in four comes with a free shuttle to a depot outside the airport instead. On expedia.ie on 26 October 2026, of the 187 offers for a week from 8 June 2027, 146 had the desk and the car at the terminal and 41 used a shuttle; for the February half-term week, 147 of 198 were at the terminal and 51 used a shuttle, where the cheapest offer, €88, was. A shuttle adds a transfer at both ends, so allow for it before a flight home.

At the desk, the main driver needs a full driving licence, a passport or ID card and a payment card in their own name for the deposit. Rodavante asks for a physical Visa or Mastercard credit card; Goldcar blocks the deposit on a credit card or charges it to a debit card. Before you drive off, walk round the car with the agent, make sure every mark is on the condition report, and take photographs. Do the same, inside and out, when you return it.

On expedia.ie on 26 October 2026, a week from Madeira Airport cost from €88 with a manual gearbox and €110 automatic for the February half-term, and from €174 and €204 for 8 to 15 June 2027: summer is the dearer season here. Taxes, fees and free cancellation are in those totals.

Not in them is Madeira's usage fee, charged on every hire contract since 1 June 2026: €2 a day, €1 for a zero-emission car, up to 10 days, €14 a week, paid at the counter on top of Expedia's total. Then come the excess, your share of any damage, and the deposit held against it. Goldcar's Portuguese terms set a small car's excess at €2,300 and hold €950 of it; its Relax cover cuts the deposit to €300 and Super Relax removes it. Excess insurance bought before you travel is often much cheaper than the desk's, ECC Ireland notes, though at Goldcar only its own cover lowers the deposit.

On fuel, choose full to full. Extras add up: Goldcar lists €9.23 to €10.20 a day per extra driver and €13 a day for a baby seat.

Rodavante, a Madeiran firm with an airport desk, sells direct: its online price includes third-party and collision damage cover, with an excess, and it sells reduced-excess cover to drivers aged 26 to 75.

Madeira drives by Portugal's highway code. A UK photocard licence is valid without an international driving permit; a paper licence may need updating to a photocard, or the right permit alongside it. EU and EEA licences are valid while in date. Hire firms set their own minimum ages: Goldcar asks for 21 with a year's licence, Rodavante for 23, and Sixt adds a young-driver fee under 30.

The drink-drive limit is 0.5 g per litre of blood, and 0.2 for drivers in their probationary period after passing. Children under 12 and shorter than 135 cm ride in an approved child seat in the back; a child under 3 may ride in front only in a rear-facing seat, with the passenger airbag switched off. A phone may be used only through a single earpiece or a hands-free speaker that needs no handling. Unless signs say otherwise, a car may do 50 km/h in towns, 90 on other roads, 100 on expressways and 120 on motorways.

Every car carries a warning triangle and a reflective vest. After a breakdown on the road or the verge, put the vest on, set the triangle at least 30 metres behind the car, where it can be seen from 100 metres, and call 112 or the hire firm's assistance line.

The VR1 expressway carries most of the island's traffic along the south coast, from the airport through Funchal and west towards Ribeira Brava; the VE3 climbs from it to Ponta do Sol, and the VE1 crosses from the east to the north coast for Santana. Off-peak, like every time here, the Estalagem da Ponta do Sol to Santana, coast to coast, takes 64 minutes.

The mountain drives are the reason to hire. Pico do Arieiro is 41 minutes from Casa Velha do Palheiro and Sentido Galomar and 46 from Reid's; the Rabaçal trailhead on the ER110 is 33 from the Estalagem; Queimadas, for the Caldeirão Verde levada, is 15 from Quinta do Furão, and Achada do Teixeira, for Pico Ruivo, 26. Porto Moniz's natural pools are 55 minutes from the Estalagem and 63 from Reid's and Quinta do Furão. Inland the roads climb hard: Rodavante notes that the slopes can test the power of some cars, and that an automatic can help less experienced drivers.

Book the walk before you drive: every classified trail needs a timed slot on the SIMplifica portal, and in October 2026 the PR1 from Pico do Arieiro was open only to the Pedra Rija viewpoint. Stay on surfaced roads: Goldcar's protections do not apply on unpaved roads, forest tracks or beaches.

One of our ten parks you free: Reid's, where valet parking costs guests nothing. Five charge, at published prices: VidaMar's indoor car park, €1 an hour; Sentido Galomar's public car park, €5 a day; Savoy Palace's underground car park, €10 a day or €20 with valet; The Cliff Bay, €10 a day outside or €15 in the garage, booked ahead; and Hotel Madeira, €11 a day in the underground car park in front, where spaces are limited, so book ahead. Three have parking without a published price: Casa Velha do Palheiro, with a charging point for electric cars; Quinta do Furão, on the estate; and the Estalagem da Ponta do Sol, whose car park is small. Barceló Funchal Oldtown has none of its own, but arranges paid spaces, when available, in the Almirante Reis car park, 650 metres away. Galomar's car park cannot be reserved, so arrive with time to spare.

In central Funchal, the council runs more than 1,600 metered street spaces, each with a time limit, and its own car parks, among them the 2000 and Campo da Barca. Below Savoy Palace there is also a public car park on level -3.

Not with most hire cars, so ask before you book the crossing. Sixt's Portuguese conditions rule out moving its cars between islands within the Madeira and Azores archipelagos, and Goldcar's terms forbid carrying a car on any boat without its express written authorisation.

The crossing is Funchal to Porto Santo on Porto Santo Line's Lobo Marinho, which leaves from Funchal's south harbour and takes about 2 hours 15 minutes, with room for 145 cars. On its 2026 price list, the latest published in October 2026, a car of up to seven seats costs €195.74 return from January to March and October to December and €250.40 from April to September, plus the passengers' fares and a fuel surcharge set each month; a package of two adults and a car in tourist class runs from €208 return in January to €375 in August. Cars board from the car deck an hour before sailing.

The simpler alternative is to cross as a foot passenger, €58.90 return for an adult in tourist class from October to March and €72.02 from April to September, and arrange a car on Porto Santo itself.