They say places we were happy in are remembered best.
This was the case for my incredible adventure in Madeira island, Portugal, that started out as a regular celebration of a friend's birthday.
Choosing a vacation place for a group of friends, Madeira was not an obvious choice at first. "Calm", "relaxing", "hasteless" and even "boring" were the words people usually used to describe the experience. Still, we decided to give it a shot and were not disappointed! The place is a paradise on earth.
The first vivid impression was an unusually 'shaky' landing - the runway of the Madeira's airport (named after Cristiano Ronaldo, a local celebrity) is quite short, thus quite dangerous.
We've spend the week in a rented apartment near Funchal, not far away from the Christ statue. What an amazing place to have long strolls, the terrain is quite steep, all about 'ups & downs', which results in quite an exercise. You won't see many bikers around due to that, however we managed to see some reckless ones trying hard to go to the top.
Never had I ever seen so many wild hydrangeas!
An absolute must on the island is renting a car. This can prove to be more expensive than, for example, in the continental Europe (especially in the high season of August), but it's totally worth it. This provides you with the mobility you'll not be able to experience otherwise. So many spots are awesome at a specific time of the day - like sunrise, sunset or even at night. Sure, you want to be flexible enough to ensure you get to the point on time.
Vacation at Madeira is not typically described as a beach vacation, but in every part of the island, there are very nice ones: with light or dark sand, closed harbors or open ocean, warmer and sunnier in the South and colder and cloudier in the North. My top ones are Seixal and Porto Moniz destinations. Natural pools are absolute likes. Be careful though: I once got carried away by a strong wave and got my ankle heavily hurt. There are usually guards who prevent people from taking dangerous pictures and behaving irresponsibly towards their safety in general. After being hurt myself, I realize they're there for good reason.
Botanical gardens, tracking routes, foggy forests and sandy beaches - everyone is sure to find something to their taste. Highly recommend going there one day to breath some extraordinarily fresh flowery air!
