Sentido Galomar

Sentido Galomar is the adults-only building of Galo Resort, a clifftop complex at Caniço de Baixo on Madeira's south-east coast, 16 minutes by car from Funchal's cathedral. It reopened in July 2018 after a renovation of about €9 million that took it from three to four stars and to 77 rooms, with 408 photovoltaic panels and Green Key and Travelife certification. It runs under DERTOUR's Sentido brand as an adults-only hotel; DERTOUR gives the minimum age as 16, so ask the hotel if anyone travelling is under 18.

Every room has a balcony or terrace, blackout curtains, a kettle and a 40-inch TV; the Cliff rooms and the suite have a king bed, and the other doubles twin beds that can be made up as a king. The ladder runs by view: Garden View rooms on the west side, then Side Sea View, Sea View and the Cliff rooms on floors 0 and -1, close to the cliff edge. The Suite Side Sea View adds a separate living room, bathrobes and a walk-in rain shower. Breakfast is served at the Atlantis restaurant, which hangs off the cliff above the sea.

It is chosen as the grown-up base on the island. The adults-only areas are the building, its outdoor seawater pool of about 100 m² on the clifftop, the terraces and solarium, and the Ashoka spa, whose Finnish and bio saunas look straight out to sea; the sauna area is included and treatments cost extra. Lifts run down the cliff to the Lido Galomar, a bathing complex on the volcanic rock with a large saltwater pool, steps into the sea and the Manta Diving Centre. Its house reef lies in the Garajau Partial Nature Reserve, created in 1986 as Portugal's first exclusively marine reserve, where groupers, barracuda and the occasional manta ray are among the fauna; the dive centre opens Monday to Saturday from March to early January, and kayaks and paddleboards are for hire at the lido.

The trade is that the resort is shared. Half-board dinner is a buffet at the Ondamar restaurant in Sentido Galosol, the resort's other hotel, which takes children, and the Lido below is a public bathing complex open to families with children, with no adults-only platform at sea level, so the adults-only calm stops at the building, its pool and the spa. Funchal is 16 minutes by car or a ride on bus 555, and the walk up to Caniço takes about 37 minutes. Book it for a quiet week of sea swimming, diving and saunas on the cliff, take breakfast only if you plan to eat out in the evenings, and pay for a room that faces the sea.