Where to live
The island, and where on it
Madeira is fifty-seven kilometres long and has a 1,862-metre ridge down the middle of it. Which side of that ridge you live on changes your weather, your commute, your light and your price per square metre more than any other decision you will make here.
Drag to turn the island. Click a marker for the place.
Loading the elevation data.
Pick a place to see what it is like to live there.
What this model is, exactly. The relief is real elevation data — NASA SRTM, sampled to a grid and checked against Pico Ruivo, Pico das Torres and Pico do Areeiro before it is allowed to ship. The land and the coastline come from the same data, not from a traced outline. Two things are display choices, not measurements: the vertical scale is exaggerated four times so the terrain reads at this size, and detail below about half a kilometre is smoothed away. So the shape is true and the relative heights are true, but it is still not a survey — do not read a metre off it. Porto Santo is a separate island north-east across open water and is deliberately not on this model; it has its own page. It is here because the one thing a photograph of Madeira never shows you is the thing that decides where you should live: a mountain wall down the middle of a fifty-seven kilometre island, splitting the weather in two.
The south coast
Drier, sunnier, and where most of the island lives. The hospital, the airport road, the international schools and the money are all on this side — and so is the price.
- Funchal — the only city, and the only round-the-clock emergency departmentThis is Funchal
- Caniço — new-build flats, and closer to the airport than to FunchalFunchal 14 min by road, modelled
- Câmara de Lobos — a working fishing town, not a resortFunchal 13 min by road, modelled
- Santa Cruz — sea level, a beach, and the runway overheadFunchal 20 min by road, modelled
- Ribeira Brava — where the coast road meets the road northFunchal 24 min by road, modelled
- Calheta — golden sand and a marina, at the end of a long expressway runFunchal 36 min by road, modelled
- Ponta do Sol — the warmest weather station in the region, and no urgênciaFunchal 28 min by road, modelled
- Estreito de Câmara de Lobos — vineyard terraces, and a very short run into the cityFunchal 12 min by road, modelled
- Arco da Calheta — Calheta's second most populous parish, with no centre to walk toFunchal 34 min by road, modelled
The north coast
Greener because it is wetter. Fewer people, more space, longer drives, and weather that will genuinely surprise a reader who only came in August.
- São Vicente — the north coast with a working town attachedFunchal 38 min by road, modelled
- Santana — nearly twice the capital’s rain, and a Biosphere Reserve around itFunchal 42 min by road, modelled
- Porto Moniz — the emptiest municipality, and the smallest temperature swingFunchal 58 min by road, modelled
- Porto da Cruz — north-coast weather, and closer to the airport than to FunchalFunchal 33 min by road, modelled
- Seixal — a few hundred residents, and close to an hour from the capitalFunchal 47 min by road, modelled
The east coast
The low eastern end of the island. Machico sits at sea level in its bay with the valley sides climbing behind it; Caniçal is on low ground beyond, out towards the dry, windy peninsula. Neither is inland, and neither is the resort coast.
- Machico — a full-service town, and a very short airport runFunchal 25 min by road, modelled
- Caniçal — a working port at the dry, windy end of the islandFunchal 30 min by road, modelled
Inland and the high ground
The valleys and the plateau. Cheaper, colder, and the drive is the whole story.
- Monte — nearly four degrees cooler than the seafront, same municipalityFunchal 8 min by road, modelled
- Curral das Freiras — one village, one road in, and walls on every sideFunchal 23 min by road, modelled
- Camacha — a proper village square, at cloud-base heightFunchal 15 min by road, modelled
A separate island
Porto Santo is not a quieter part of Madeira. It is a different island north-east across open water, and its own page shows the sources disagreeing on how far. Flat, dry and sandy, with no road to it — a ferry or a short flight. Nothing on this page about coasts and commutes applies there.