3 days in Porto Santo Island | Family-Friendly Itinerary Tips
At Easter, we went to Porto Santo Island for a few days. Any place that takes us away from screens and gets us outdoor is on our wishlist. Porto Santo Island suited our needs perfectly.
Porto Santo is a paradisiac destination. It has a pure and beautiful landscape, easy to fall in love with, the minute you lay your feet on the sand. It’ s so soft and golden, plus the sea colours are so vivid, with a thousand shades of blue, almost hypnotizing. It’s a peaceful destination, perfect for families that are looking to relax by the beach, play golf, dive, go trekking, soak up the local lifestyle or all of the above.
How to visit Porto Santo Island?
By boat from Madeira or by plane.
At the moment there were direct flights to Porto Santo Island from Madeira, Lisbon, Milan and Copenhagen.
How is the weather in Porto Santo Island?
It’s usually mild, with average temperatures of 18, 5ºC, however it can be tricky and you can get a bit of rain or clouds in between, the most perfect sunny days. We were very lucky in April and got 3 full days of sunshine.
3 days in Porto Santo Island | Family-Friendly Itinerary Tips
Day 1 ⇒ The boat departed from Funchal at 8 a.m and arrived around 10:20 a.m at Porto Santo Island. We walked to the city centre and checked-in at the hotel – it took us about 35 minutes walking to reach the Hotel Praia Dourada. The Hotel is simple but quite nice. It’s centrally located (no car needed). The staff is very friendly, breakfast is included with plenty of fresh fruit and it has a solarium with swimming pool. Highlights: On the day of your check-out, you can take a shower at the hotel before catching the boat.
We went straight to the beach and had some drinks and lunch by the sea. Love the “gaiado de escabeche” (pickled Skipjack) as well as the octopus and tuna.
We then went back to the hotel to take a nap/ enjoy the pool and read books in the loungers. There’s also a ping-pong table that kept the kids entertained. We finished the afternoon with the typical Porto Santo ice-cream – “Lambeca”.
In the evening we went for a walk to the pier and had dinner in the nearby pizzeria. It was a beautiful full moon evening.
Day 2 ⇒After breakfast, we decided to explore the local arts and crafts market, just in front of the church, where I found this beautiful postcard from Loja do Profeta, with the iconic elements of Porto Santo. Loved it!
We then rented some bicycles (nearby Hotel Torre Praia) to explore a bit of the island. Prices start at 3€ per hour/per bicycle but of course, it’s cheaper if you rent it for the day. We went all the way to Calheta and back to Aparthotel Luamar, there’s a shop on the other side of the street where you can drop off the bicycles (we only rented for one hour, so just on time to drop off). We spent the morning on the beach, enjoying the soft warm sand, the waves and the sunshine.
For lunch, we had the famous prego and Picado at João do Cabeço.
We spent the afternoon at the beach. We took a long walk back to the hotel, admiring the landscape in between conversations.
When we got hungry we stopped at by a beach bar for some prawns and bolo do caco and then continued our walk back to the hotel. For dinner we went to O Forno, famous for its chicken!
Day 3 ⇒We decided to go hiking in the mountains. We started off the morning with a walk to Capela da Graça (1,8 km about 25 minutes walk) where the PR3 trail begins.
The PR3 trail has 2 options one to Camacha and the other one to Ribeiro Formoso, we took the shorter option 2,9 km to Camacha.
The walk is easy to follow, and the views are outstanding. There are parts where you walk about beautiful cactus and others with wide open views over the beach.
We all loved the walk, especially because it offers different perspectives, all unique. Pico Castelo, Capela da Graça and beautiful trees and flowers. We also saw some snails and lizards.
It took us about one hour to complete this walk from Capela da Graça to Camacha.
We finished at this local bar where we called a taxi to take us back to Calheta, where we went swimming and had lunch. Calheta has the most beautiful rock formations and the children were very entertained exploring the area.
Lunch was delicious and then I walked all the way back to the hotel with my oldest son. On the way, we were able to see the baby monk seal that has been recently on the news! Apparently, she comes to rest on the beach during the day and goes food hunting during the night. There is a big security area with some nature guards looking after her and making sure that she was not disturbed. Oh, what a gift to be able to take a close look at this beautiful creature. I hope she keeps growing bigger and stronger!!
Time to go home…showers and bags all packed just in time for one last ice cream! We took the local bus to the pier and enjoyed the island views back home.
Beautiful sunset and rejuvenated spirits to go back to school after the Easter break.
Thank you, Porto Santo!♥
