Imperatriz Hotel

The hotel is situated just a couple of minutes walk from the casino and 10 minutes from the town centre.
The reception staff are very obliging and knowledgable, the premises are spotlessly clean and the rooms come complete with mini kitchen.
The only drawbacks are the nightclub situated underneath the hotel which opens at about midnight and discharges its very noisy customers at about 4am and the very scruffy building plot which is overlooked by all the sea facing rooms on the front.
Funchal itself is a lovely small town and isn't over commercialised with the locals rubbing shoulders with the tourists everywhere.
Book taxi transfers from the airport and vice versa in the UK as the two fares, if paid for locally will come to 80 euros or, better still, use the Aerobus for 5 euros each, although the service is patchy it is well worth using if your hotel is in the Funchal area.
Funchal holidays are not cheap, but if you are on a tight budget I suggest that eating out and meeting the locals is best done at the very large Pingo Doce supermarkets, there are three in the town and Lido. A half decent meal for two with a bottle of wine will be about 15 euros. The restaurants open until 11 o,clock in the evenings.
Do explore the island as it is delightful and very compact. We found that the best tours are sold at the kiosk situated in the gardens of the Pestano Casino Park hotel which is next to Santa Catalina Parque, don't forget to ask for discount.