Looking for tips/info on travelling to Madeira.

[Anniemcc2]

Looking for hints and tips on going to Madeira ~ possibly end of March next year.

Is that a good time to go? Is it best to book a package, say through Thomsons?

Answers on a postcard, please

[graphskill]

We went to Madeira this April, a lovely island. We stayed in the Funchal outskirts. My main comment would be that the weather is not guaranteed and probably not as good as the Tenerife area. Nice and warm when the sun was out but we had a lot of cloud and fog. Strange, there was a 1/4 strip of sun around the shore area, which gave way to heavy cloud after that

If you hire a car, make it as small as you can get away with, the roads are narrow. Be careful with carparks. There are plenty but most are underground or in very tight p[laces. And where I say tight I mean nearly impossible not to scratch the car. We had a volkswagon golf, and gave it a nasty scratch in a carpark - so get the extra insurance

Take your walking boots, there are some lovely walks, but they are not easy

Take no notice of all the scare stories about the airport (short runway, on stilts over the sea, most accidents etc) because it is all fine and dandy

Some lovely restaurants, they all like the skewers where they bring your meat on a skewer and hand it up at your table for you to get your own

All in all a lovely place - but NOT touristy

[Anniemcc2]

Thanks for that