Where to stay in Madeira: Funchal's old centre or its hotel zone, the cliffs to the east, the green north or the sunny south-west, area by area

Funchal climbs from its bay like an amphitheatre, and the old centre sits at the bottom of it: the Sé, the Mercado dos Lavradores and, to the east, the Zona Velha, where the city began, with cobbled lanes, the painted doors of Rua de Santa Maria and a nightlife the tourist board counts among the island's major attractions. Along the front the streets are level; behind them they climb steeply.

There is no sand. The pebble Praia do Almirante Reis is 9 minutes' walk from Barceló, and from the Sé the market is 9 minutes on foot, the cable car up to Monte 10, and the Fortaleza de São Tiago, beside the Barreirinha lido, 15. The Aerobus reaches Avenida do Mar from the airport in 24 minutes, €6.70 on board. Off-peak by road, the airport is 20 minutes, Cabo Girão 21 and Pico do Arieiro 42.

The cost: compact rooms, small rooftop pools rather than gardens, and paid parking or none.

Ours: Barceló Funchal Oldtown, a five-star opened in 2023 behind six old façades, 2 minutes from the Sé, from about €225 with breakfast; and Hotel Madeira, taking guests since 1969, by the Jardim Municipal and 6 minutes from the Sé, from about €150 with breakfast. Both suit a city break with everything on foot.

West of the centre, Avenida do Infante runs into Estrada Monumental, the road of hotels out to the Lido, with resorts on the cliffs above the sea. There is no sand: the hotels have seawater pools, platforms and sea ladders. The public Lido bathing complex, open all year, has three saltwater pools, two of them for children, steps into the sea and lifeguards in the bathing season, and the seafront promenade runs on to Praia Formosa, the island's largest public beach, of pebbles and dark sand.

From the Lido complex, Praia Formosa is 36 minutes on foot and the Sé 41; from our four hotels the Sé is 23 to 33 minutes, gently downhill, and the walk back climbs. City buses 001 and 002 run to the centre. Off-peak by road, the Sé is 10 minutes, Cabo Girão 22 and the airport 27.

The cost: the highest prices in this edit, and a walk into town along Estrada Monumental, a busy road for most of its length.

Ours: Reid's Palace, on its cliff since 1891, from about €825 with breakfast; Savoy Palace, with an adults-only rooftop pool and a 3,100 m² spa, from about €495; The Cliff Bay, with a saltwater pool at sea level, from about €385; and VidaMar, the family pick, with a free kids' club in season, from about €355.

Caniço de Baixo is the resort strip below the town of Caniço, in the municipality of Santa Cruz, on the cliffs east of Funchal. The water is the draw. The Garajau Partial Nature Reserve, created in 1986, lies along this coast, home to dusky groupers and, at times, manta rays. The Lido Galomar, built on the volcanic rock with a panoramic lift down the cliff, has a large saltwater pool, a children's pool, lifeguards and the Manta Diving Centre. Praia dos Reis Magos, a pebble beach with a concrete sun deck, a pier and lifeguards, flies a Blue Flag every year.

From Sentido Galomar, above the Lido Galomar, Reis Magos is 11 minutes on foot and the Cristo Rei statue at Garajau, unveiled in 1927, 46. Line 555, formerly 155, runs from Ponta da Oliveira into Funchal. Off-peak by road, the airport is 12 minutes, the Sé 16 and the Ponta de São Lourenço trailhead 26.

The cost: an evening in Funchal means a bus or a taxi, and the town of Caniço is a 37-minute walk uphill.

Ours: Sentido Galomar, for adults 16 and over, on the cliff with lifts down to the Lido Galomar and a seawater pool of its own, from about €220 room only. It suits couples, divers and sea swimmers.

São Gonçalo is Funchal's eastern hillside parish, and the Palheiro estate sits high on it, about 500 metres above the sea, looking down over the city and the bay. This is gardens and golf country. The Palheiro Gardens, planted by the first Count of Carvalhal in the early 19th century and owned by the Blandy family since 1885, have trees about two centuries old, lawns, lakes and camellias at their best from November to April. Palheiro Golf, 18 holes laid out by Cabell B. Robinson in 1993, runs through the pine woods beside them.

There is no sea within walking distance. From the gardens the Sé is 61 minutes on foot, downhill; from our hotel it is 71 minutes down and nearly two hours back up. Off-peak by road from the hotel, the cable car base in the Zona Velha is 15 minutes, the Sé 18, Pico do Arieiro 41 and the airport 20.

The cost: a taxi for every evening in town, and cooler air at about 500 metres up than on the seafront.

Ours: Casa Velha do Palheiro, the estate's hunting lodge of 1804, now a Relais & Châteaux hotel of 37 rooms beside the gardens, with a MICHELIN-listed dinner at Oxalis, from about €320 with breakfast. It suits couples and golfers with a car who want quiet above the city.

Santana is the north coast's best-known town, at the heart of a municipality UNESCO named a Biosphere Reserve in 2011, and famous for its triangular thatched houses painted red, blue and white. Inland rise the Laurisilva, the old laurel forest that is a World Heritage Site, and Pico Ruivo, at 1,862 metres the island's highest point. There is no beach to speak of here; the walking is the draw.

From the town hall, the Casas de Santana are a minute's walk and the Madeira Theme Park 10. Off-peak by road, the Queimadas forest park, start of the PR9 Levada do Caldeirão Verde, is 10 minutes, Achada do Teixeira, for the path up Pico Ruivo, 20, and the Ponta de São Lourenço trailhead 37; the airport is 30 and Funchal's Sé 46. Line 801, formerly 56, runs between Funchal and Santana. Every classified trail needs a timed slot booked on SIMplifica, €4.50 a trail for visitors.

The cost: rain. In 2024 Santana had 129 days of it, the most of any weather station in the islands, and the highest average humidity, 83%. A hire car is close to essential.

Ours: Hotel Quinta do Furão, a vineyard estate on the cliff 3.1 km north of the centre, with indoor and outdoor pools, from about €245 with breakfast. It suits walkers and couples after quiet.

Ponta do Sol, on the south-west coast, is the municipality the tourist board calls the hottest on the island, known for generally enjoying the most hours of sunshine a year, with bananas and sugar cane on its terraces. The village sits in a cove: a pebble beach of about 160 metres between the cliffs, cafés on the front and an arched stone pier of 1849, now a bar and restaurant. Further west, Calheta has the island's first artificial beach, opened in 2004 with golden sand imported from Morocco, 100 metres long behind two breakwaters and busy in summer.

From the town hall, the beach is 3 minutes on foot. Off-peak by road, Calheta's beach is 15 minutes, the Rabaçal car park, for the 25 Fontes and Risco levadas, 32, Funchal's Sé 27 and the Porto Moniz natural pools 54; the airport is 36. Lines 320 to 323, formerly line 4, run between Funchal and Ponta do Sol.

The cost: Funchal is half an hour away, and every outing beyond the village needs a car.

Ours: Estalagem da Ponta do Sol, a black-and-white design hotel built around an old quinta on the cliff above the village, with an infinity pool and a lift down to the street, from about €225 with breakfast. It suits couples, design lovers and walkers bound for the west.

Câmara de Lobos, just west of Funchal, was the island's first settlement, where the navigator João Gonçalves Zarco stayed from 1420, and it is still a fishing town: colourful boats, the xavelhas, in a small bay that Winston Churchill sat down to paint in January 1950, with bars, poncha and fresh fish around it. Vigário beach, about 400 metres of pebbles south of Largo da República, is the town's main place to swim. Above it, Cabo Girão rises 580 metres, the highest cape in Europe, with a glass skywalk, €5 to enter for visitors over 12 since 1 January 2026.

From the town hall, Vigário beach is 2 minutes on foot, and Praia Formosa 47 along the seafront promenade that joins Funchal's. Off-peak by road, Funchal's Sé is 15 minutes, Cabo Girão 16, Pico do Arieiro 48 and the airport 24.

The cost: a single main beach, of pebbles, and Funchal's restaurants and old town a drive away.

None of our ten is here. It makes an easy afternoon from the Lido, 17 minutes by road off-peak, and suits travellers who would rather wake up by a working harbour than in a resort.