Southwest Tour
Madeira Southwest Tour is an alternative tour to the West Tour and offers fantastic views of sea cliffs and fishing villages.
This full day tour is done by minibus on Wednesdays and Saturdays. With all stops being from 20 - 30 minutes long, and lunch for about 90 minutes, you end up spending more time out if the vehicle rather than in it. Starting off from Funchal, we head off for the viewpoint of Pico da Torre, with fantastic views of the famous fishing village of Câmara de Lobos. We then visit Cabo Girão, with a height of 580m, making it the highest sea cliff in Europe. Our next stop is the village of Ribeira Brava where we stop to visit its church and famous chandelliers. We then visit, what has to be the most beautiful village on the island, Ponta do Sol, which means point of the sun. Passing by Madelena do Mar we reach Calheta, where in summer we stop for a swim at its artificial beach and in winter we visit its sugar cane factory. Next on the list we have two fishing villages of Jardim do Mar and Paul do Mar. The later was only reachable by boat, right up to the late 1960´s. These picturesque fishing villages seem to have stood still in time. Making our way up, with a couple of viewpoint stops along the way, we reach the plateau of Paul da Serra. We then make our way to the most western point of the island. Ponta do Pargo, where you will find one of the highest working lighthouses in the world. We also stop here for lunch. After lunch we return to Paul da Serra where we will stop a few times to enjoy the views of both sides of the island. Here we also do an optional, very easy, Levada walk. Our last visit will be the breathtaking views we get from the mountain tops of Encumeada, before making our way back to Funchal.
