Porto Santa Maria Hotel

5 readers found this review helpful

This lovely hotel has a great location in the Zona Vehla (the old town), near the cable car and lots of great restaurants. Most of the rooms have a lovely sea view.
It was very clean and has lovely, friendly staff. It has a peaceful feel.
There's a small outdoor pool, but we loved the much larger indoor pool. We frequently had this pool completely to ourselves. There is also a small gym, but we never saw anyone using this!
The room was very comfortable and the kitchenette was a great bonus.
I highly recommend the Saturday night entertainment in the hotel - Banda d'Alem - a hugely entertaining local folk band.
Restaurants we particularly enjoyed were Le Jardin (superb - and entertaining - fruit flambé) and O Tapassol near the hotel, and the Cerveja Beerhouse on the seafront. The cafe in the Jardins de Sao Francisco next to the Blandy's wine lodge was good for a really cheap meal or drink.
Definitely get out of Funchal and experience some of the staggering scenery of Madeira. We took minibus tours with Strawberry World - it would take a braver person than me to negotiate the incredibly steep, twisty and narrow roads in a hire car! It is well worth doing a few levada walks too.
Madeira is an amazing place. It was sometimes cloudy and did rain once, but that's why the scenery is so verdant and the fruit so tasty, so we can't complain!