Madeira - Heading to Santana

November 21^st, 2025 

We’ve had enough fun in Funchal, it was now time to check out the north side of the island, even though we had a preview when we visited Porto da Cruz a few days ago.  We checked out of the lovely 5-star Vine Hotel, hopped in our rental car and drove east along the southern coast, which took us by the airport.

 

Driving under the runway of Madeira Airport.

There are 180 pillars!

Here's a pic from the Internet where you can see the long extension of the runway...amazing engineering and construction!

The plan was to do the Vereda da Ponta de São Lourenço, a 6-kilometre return hike on the peninsula on the east coast of the island.  It was supposed to be easier than our hike a few days ago as there was not much elevation gain, plus it was 2 kilometres shorter. 

 

When we were over a kilometre from the main parking lot, there was a line of cars on the road ahead of us.  A police officer was talking to each car, and some were pulling their cars half onto the sidewalk to park while others were turning around and leaving. 

 

As we surmised, the parking lot was full already.  Yikes.  We decided that we didn’t want to add a few more kilometres to our hike on this late morning, especially with intermittent showers parading in from the ocean.  We turned around and found a nearby viewpoint, just north of the peninsula that had some great views, and we could see many hikers on the trail in the distance.  It was unfortunate to miss the hike, but we were happy with our decision.

The coastline of the hike we missed.  We could see people walking along the saddle on the right, a bit above the middle of the photo.  The island on the left top is the one we saw from Porto da Cruz a few days ago, it has a tunnel through it.

You can't quite see the tunnel through the tall, rocky island, but it is the darkest bit, just to the left on the bottom.

Looking north.  There are a couple of people on the left for perspective.

Looking west, back towards Madeira.

Naomi liked this photo due to the contrast of the colours...I guess I was wearing the perfect outfit for it.

It was a stunning coastline.

We continued north and stopped in the town of Santana.  Prior to reaching the village, Naomi asked me what music I wanted to hear in the car…well Santana of course!

Starting to head around the east part of the island.

We saw signs for this kart racetrack and stopped by.  It was wet and there was no one racing.  It's not far from our next hotel so like Arnie said: "I'll be back".

She didn't race...but still decided that she was the winner!

An old bridge by the race track.

The tourist attraction here are some typical, historic houses called the “Casas of Santana” (yes, very original).  These small, triangular homes are made of wood with thatched roofs and were usually painted in bright white, red and blue colours.

The first casa we found in Santana.

I didn't quite get the tourist appeal of them...

An overpriced fruit market.  Naomi had done her research so we didn't get suckered into paying tourist prices for the food.

More casas.

This one actually looked like someone lived in it.  See the deck off to the left of the house?  They would be alright for a tiny home...big enough for me.

And they had a nice view of the ocean too.

Naomi sampling the local Poncha alcoholic drink.  It is made from sugar cane.

The island is so lush.  Naomi pointed out that its sub-tropic climate is conducive to growing almost anything.

Unfortunately it's not the time of the year to see the flowers in their full glory.

We spent about half an hour wandering around and then continued to our next accommodation at a winery.

Our new hotel, at Quinta de Furão (Ferret Winery).  I can't remember why I pulled this face...

The view from our room!

It was an amazingly spacious room.

Gorgeous!

Too bad the weather didn't cooperate on our arrival.

The lounge, complete with a fireplace which Naomi loves.

The rest of the afternoon was a lazy one, as it was rainy and windy outside.

At the pizzeria on the property, that was lucky for us as we both love pizza, and this one had a fireplace too.

Yummy pizza.

We have three nights here, and it looks like it’s going to be a lovely stay!