Porto Santo (December 2017)

For anyone wondering where exactly Porto Santo is located and why December is a great time for a vacation there, I have a few impressions from our 2017 Christmas trip, which didn't start at all as planned.

Wednesday - 12.13.

The suitcases are packed and already stowed in the car. Tomorrow we're off to Munich for the Christmas market. Yay..... We're planning to go to Tollwood and then to the medieval market in the city. We're traveling two days before our flight to Madeira so we can spend some time in Munich. Our flight doesn't leave until Saturday morning at 5:50 AM... ugh.....

But wait... what's this? Right on time at 10:30 PM on Wednesday evening, an email pops up from Air Berlin. They deeply regret that Fly Niki is insolvent and that our tickets have unfortunately been cancelled. Oops.... =)

Thursday – 12/14.

First, I'll tackle the Fly Niki problem in the morning 🙂 The hotlines are naturally all dead, the offices closed. Of course, they all got the day off. Lucky you. After a short deliberation and a call to MUC, I get information from Munich Airport on the phone: The check-in crew is for Saturday not assigned. Thanks for the info, because that means there's no replacement flight.

Quick check on the internet… Madeira is not flown to from Germany on Saturdays. And that's exactly where we have to go, as we already have tickets for the ferry on Sunday. But thank goodness there's Swiss.

There we get a flight within 5 minutes at even more humane times. At 07:00, departing from Zurich. Cool, only an hour's drive instead of 2.5, but unfortunately we'll miss the Christmas market. Oh well, since it's going to start snowing in the evening anyway and we're looking forward to the flight from ZRH.

Zurich Shopping – 12/15.

Naturally, we won't go straight to the hotel on Friday, but will go into town beforehand. Some things are still missing for our trip to Portugal. Packed well, we'll then head to the hotel in the evening, where a shuttle service will take us directly to the terminal in the morning. Perfect.

Madeira – 12/16.

An hour later than originally planned with Fly Niki, we arrive in Funchal with Edelweiss. The flight was great, with champagne breakfast in the Swiss Lounge at the airport, business breakfast again on the plane, and we already had our first breakfast at the hotel... LOL... a culinary journey.

Spontaneously, we find a bus in Funchal that takes us to the hotel. We're only staying there one night, because Sunday morning the ferry leaves for Porto Santo.

We're enjoying the mild evening in Funchal and visiting the Christmas market. There's a bit of a different atmosphere here. It's 19°C and instead of mulled wine, there are fruit juices and iced tea, plus fresh fish from the Atlantic, yummy. The Christmas market is designed with a lot of love. In general, we notice that there's a lot, a lot of decoration everywhere. Significantly more than in Switzerland.

Porto Santo – December 17th to December 29th.

On time at 8:00 AM, we're sitting in the Porto Santo Line, which brings us to Porto Santo within 2.5 hours. It's about 50 km north of Madeira and with approximately 5,500 inhabitants, it's not exactly large. Therefore, it's also perfect for relaxing. A taxi takes us to our hotel. In Pestana Golden Island We rented a place for 12 nights. We're getting a villa with no neighbors, so we can relax much, much better 🙂

The island is beautiful, especially at this time of year. The pleasant temperatures invite hiking and exploring the island. And that's exactly what we'll be doing for the next two weeks.

Island life

Everything here on the island is top-notch organized. A small bus runs several times a day directly to the village. For a good euro per person, you can easily get to the shops. The bus stops exactly where you wave it down, perfect. But the walk is also beautiful. It's exactly 4.5 km along the beach, and at a normal pace, it takes about 1.5 hours. Since we always have an early breakfast, we were always in the village before lunch, where there are numerous shops and, of course, restaurants. The stretch of beach also invites you to linger, but we only do that once. The beach at our hotel is 1000 times more beautiful.

The really great thing about the island of Porto Santo is precisely the beach. It's 9 km long and attracts a lot of day-trippers from Madeira, especially in the summer. There are virtually no beaches there, only rocky cliffs. But back to our island. From the hotel, you're just a few steps away from a beautiful, deserted beach, exactly as I imagine a beach and how I like it. The first two days are still a bit chilly for sunbathing, but the remaining 10 days we have ideal weather for it.

So if you just want to relax, Porto Santo is the perfect island for you. Oh, and about 2 years ago, direct flights from Denmark started, which is why there are always around 200 Danes on the island every week, even in winter! In fact, no matter where you go, in every restaurant, every shop, and at every sight, there's at least one Dane 🙂

But apart from the 200 Danes, there are perhaps a few tourists from all over the world, and that's pretty much it.

Porto Santo has nearly 50,000 tourists a day in the summer, and about 500 in the winter, according to locals. Therefore, most beach bars and restaurants are also closed. Fortunately, the good restaurants are open. But more on that below.

Attractions

Now, of course, it's also exciting to see what this island has to offer, so we'll take a closer look at the Porto Santo sights. The English would call it Porto Santo Sightseeing, but I'm only mentioning that here so that the post also gets listed on Google 😉

We find some great places on foot. There are wonderful hills that the islanders call mountains. The view from up there is magnificent. From every higher point, you can see the entire island or at least the mostly inhabited section, from the harbor in the northeast to the island's tip in the southwest, where we're staying.

But if you want to see the island completely, you should rent a car. There is exactly one car rental company, at least outside the airport. Moinho Rent-a-Car, who have an office directly in the center, and also in the Hotel Vila Baleira, which is diagonally across from our hotel and where the Danes are staying 🙂

They are so kind and will bring the car to our hotel so we can leave first thing in the morning. To see the entire island, you need about 4 hours. Including all photo stops, hikes, and intermediate stops *g* The island is really small.

We're going to the mountains first. The highest elevation here is about 550 m. We will climb the mountain „Pico Da Juliana“ at 447 m and have a great view of the island, including the other side, the part behind the mountains. Afterwards, we'll drive down to Porto De Frades Beach and take a short break there. The rock formations look amazing at this spot.

Then it goes up the street to the most beautiful viewpoint: Portela Viewpoint. From here, you have a direct overhead view of the harbor and can see all the way to the other end of the island. In the gallery, you can see a panoramic picture from there. After taking what felt like 150 photos, we were starving and drove to the Botanical Garden. It's called Quinta das Palmeiras, and driving there hungry turned out to be a big mistake. There was absolutely NOTHING there, strictly speaking. At least nothing to eat. But since we were already there, we decided to look around the garden for a bit.

Quinta das Palmeiras

The botanical garden costs 3 EUR to enter and also houses a small bird park. This park is maintained by donations and is lovingly arranged. Many bird species, chickens, and even an ostrich live in this park. The entrance is really worthwhile, although hunger got the better of us 🙂

After a sumptuous lunch, we continue across the island and explore the surroundings. Since Porto Santo is a volcanic island, we feel completely at home here.

We're still using our rental car for the big grocery shop and driving back to the hotel.

is also ideal for sightseeing Calheta at the end of the island. Here you can see more great rock formations of volcanic origin. In addition, the beach here is super beautiful and you have a view of the two neighboring islands.

Restaurants

During the Christmas holidays, we book tables at restaurants. It's super convenient that all restaurants offer a free shuttle. This saves you a lot of money on taxis.

According to TripAdvisor, we'll pick the best restaurants. Panorama Restaurant is our favorite, as the view there is really great, especially in winter and in the evening, as you look out over the main town. It's all wonderfully decorated for Christmas and therefore nice to look at and brightly lit.

The Old Dragon Tree House I can also recommend it. It belongs to a British couple who are spending their retirement on the island. Great idea, by the way. The food is a mix of Portuguese and English cuisine. Very delicious and generally all the people here are very, very hospitable.

Furthermore, we can the João do Cabeço's Bar recommend where we ate lunch multiple times. The island is very culinary and not just focused on fish. For example, there was delicious veal and also filet mignon, which we had on the 25th. Very delicious.

Conclusion

All in all, a successful vacation, despite initial difficulties with Fly Niki 🙂 But they are surely worse off than us now. Porto Santo is perfect for a quiet and relaxed holiday, at least in winter. Even in summer, it won't remind you of Mallorca, but the hotels are usually fully booked then. Everything here is top-notch, everyone takes care of you, and you feel completely well looked after. The guests are also pleasant, a mix of young and old. We were certainly around the average age =)

In this spirit, I wish you all a happy transition into the New Year and a joyful and fulfilling 2018!