revtothelimit - motorbike forum

Anybody been…?

Looking at getting a week’s winter sun with the GF now we’ve finally moved house. I fancy renting a bike for 2/3 days, maybe a day solo and 1-2 days with her pillion too…

Any help and advice anyone can give me?

Oh and the bike would NEED to be fairly big and comfortable, something that can deal with 180+kg of rider and pillion (so not a CB500!!!)…

If you have any routes or places or roads that are must dos, then I’d love to hear them. Alternatively if there’s a tour company that does day rides that I need to check out, then I’m all ears too…

Will almost certainly be staying in Funchal so should make it easier in this respect…

Went for 5 days a year or so back with the missus, not on a bike though.

Personally I'd avoid Funchal - it's all about he plague infested cruise ships, dead quiet and then 7000 Americans turn up for 8 hours, then dies again. We did a few bits that were fun away from that area but certainly wouldn't rush back.

I went several decades ago and I liked the place, very peaceful. There is/was a training restaurant and hotel on one of the peaks, excellent food and stunning views. The sunset and sunrise over the mountains. Good sea swimming and lots of walks. The sled down the hill was a laugh but check they are open in the afternoon before walking back up the hill for another go.

I'm struggling to find it with an internet search, all I get are 10 best restaurant type sites.

mboy wrote: Tue Nov 05, 2024 12:15 pm Anybody been…?

Looking at getting a week’s winter sun with the GF now we’ve finally moved house. I fancy renting a bike for 2/3 days, maybe a day solo and 1-2 days with her pillion too…

Any help and advice anyone can give me?

Oh and the bike would NEED to be fairly big and comfortable, something that can deal with 180+kg of rider and pillion (so not a CB500!!!)…

If you have any routes or places or roads that are must dos, then I’d love to hear them. Alternatively if there’s a tour company that does day rides that I need to check out, then I’m all ears too…

Will almost certainly be staying in Funchal so should make it easier in this respect…

If you're thinking of hiring anything over 125cc, then you may need specialist travel insurance (most travel insurance won't cover any form of riding) - see the other threads that have discussed this recently.

Been to Madeira a couple of times, but not on a bike. Mainly walking with a couple of days car hire to explore. I recall we drove up a mountain into a cloud, with visibility down to about 10 yards. That and a coast road where you actually drove through a waterfall. Neither experience made me wish for a bike.

We went in Jan. Hired a car rather than bikes. Bloody lovely place
Let me dig out what I wrote up for a mate...

Here ya go:

We hired a car (Seat Ibiza) from a highly rated local place - pretty cheap, really nice people, who sit and draw on a map and recommend places to go and places to eat etc: Auto Rent a Car

Cabo Girao Skywalk - cool glass viewing platform - used to be free, but now costs something daft like 2e

Miraduro de Guindaste - smaller glass skywalks (free) on the other side of the island, and nice cliff top viewing point

Lavado walks - go on a clear day, as the first day we tried there was a cloud on top of the mountain when we drove up and we couldn't see shit, so had to go back another day!
We did PR6- the 25 fountains walk (with a small detour to PR6.1, which is zero extra effort, and nice). Take cash, because from the Rabacal car park at the top down to the actual start of the walk is a shuttle mini bus that runs every 10-15 mins. It was less than 10e each (one way) and worth it not to walk down/up three miles of road. (Trust me, we walked down, it was steep, hot and miserable!)

Roads!
The VE4 cuts from the south to the north and is stunning.
The ER110 is awesome from one and to the other (you'll drive it to get to the start of the Lavado walk).
After the walk, drive down the Estrada de Rochao - another stunner.
Drive along the ER101 on the south of the island and you drive THROUGH a waterfall, that just lands on the road - Cascata does Anjos. Mind out for the Instagrammers stood in the middle of it

Drive around the whole island, it's tunnel heavy, but the mountain roads are epic, and the coast roads are decent too.

Watch surfers at Faja de Areia!

You can drive to the top of a mountain - we got there just after sunset, but it still looked cool! Called Pico de Arieiro. Lots of folk do a one-way-walk to there, so don't be surprised if random people ask if you have a car - we gave a couple of french students a lift back down to Funchal!!

Funchal - nice mooching place - get the Telerifico cable car up and do the terribly touristy, but fun toboggan back down! (They kick you out of the toboggan before you get back to town, we walked back, but there's plenty of opportunistic taxis waiting too).

We mooched around Monte Palace garden at the top of the cable car too. It was alright, but I wouldn't rave about it. It's also really steep!

Santa Maria Street has painted doors, which is cool.

You can eat at little cafes on the piers which is nice - we ate at Cais de Ribiera which was decent

We did a whale and dolphin watching catamaran trip from Funchal which was excellent:
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractio ... Madei.html

Food:

La Vaca Negra, a little bit outside of Funchal, is up there with the best steak places I've ever eaten at - and for proper decent steak it's cheap AF - go!!!

We also ate at a place called Cris's Place, which was nice.

From a bike specific point of view, I'd add:

The main highway-type roads are tunnel after tunnel after tunnel.

The coast roads were often covered in loose rocks and shit.

The whole place is basically a big pointy mountain, so as you go up you can easily leave a nice sunny coastal area and go straight into a very wet and rainy cloud.

The roads I mention up there ^ were bloody lush.