Simon Calder’s Madeiran highlights: Discover this stunning island’s must-dos

I first came to Madeira in the year 2000. Yes, I was very young, thank you. Since then, I’ve returned many times and I want to share my favourite spots with you.

Nature’s spa: Splashing around in the volcanic rock pools

Most alluring resort on the island? In a very crowded field, it’s Porto Moniz. Making a splash anywhere in Madeira is great fun, especially in the volcanic rock formations of this town at the far northwest of Madeira. Here, the raw materials of the island are clear for all to see. The lava has solidified into a superb series of tempting pools – nature’s water park.

You can feel the buoyancy the salt water provides as you drift around in the warm ocean water, admiring the scenery from exactly sea level. Part of the fun is being showered by spray from the Atlantic breakers meeting the first land they have found after travelling 3,000 miles from North America. An experience to be savoured.

Levelling up: The levada

(Andre Carvalho)

For my second pick, I’m going to the other end of the altitude spectrum and a Madeiran original.  Since the first settlers arrived from Portugal six centuries ago, humanity has helped shape the island. Meet the levada.

The highlands of Madeira look like a natural wilderness. Yet they conceal a gigantic hydrological project with thousands of kilometres of irrigation channels and paths beside them, which makes for wonderful walking.

The levada is found only in Madeira. These channels were ingeniously devised to distribute water from the west and northwest of the island to irrigate the drier southeast. And now they distribute holidaymakers across the higher altitudes of Madeira. Many hikers become addicted to this simply beautiful way to travel gently through spectacular landscapes.

One of the joys of the levada is that you are walking on the flat. That has another consequence: some really tight swerves. The levada hugs the contour of the hill. Organise your own linear walking trip, using the excellent maps that are available and working with the very good local bus schedules. Either way, wear good footwear and you are guaranteed a thrilling journey.

Downhill fast: Basket weaving through the traffic

In third place: another experience you’re only going to find in Madeira: a gravity-assisted descent via a wheelless wicker car.

An abundance of altitude helps – as you discover at the pretty hilltop town of Monte, 550 metres above sea level. At the foot of the steps of the Church of Our Lady of Monte, you may feel you have stumbled into a gathering of gentlemen about to go boating or play cricket. In fact, they are practitioners of an ancient and effective form of gravity-assisted transport.

The ‘carro de cesto’ is not a complex piece of engineering. This exotic conveyance evolved from the same gene pool as the toboggan two centuries ago. A large wicker basket, capable of carrying up to three passengers, is attached to a pair of wooden runners. Its initial purpose was to carry produce downhill to Funchal more safely and reliably than a wheeled vehicle, given the gradients. Today the cargo comprises tourists – enjoying the exhilaration of speeding down a series of steep hills using public roads.

As with a jet airliner, two pilots guide the craft as it descends. These fit young men are known as ‘Carreiros do Monte’. One of them, Arnando Gama, says his passengers tend to react in the same way: “They get very excited before the run, then they go quiet on the way down.”

I speculate that the descendants (as I call them) are inwardly whooping with joy as they glide downhill with a superb view of the capital, Funchal, aboard a fairground attraction that has been released into the wild.

Design for life: a fortified fort

(Alamy Stock Photo)

Last but one: the Design Centre, the visionary approach. A former fort on what was once an island overlooking the Bay of Funchal has been transformed. It’s the work of Nini Andrade Silva, a globally recognised designer who happens to be from the island’s capital. She won the worldwide competition to transform the centuries-old fortification into “a place of meeting and sharing – a laboratory of ideas.”

It has a permanent exhibition, part of her private collection – with works that are strong, almost organic, and which guide the eye to appreciate every curve and contour. The bold, straight line anchors the designs. “I used to dream and then walk to my dreams and then dream again and walk to my dream,” Nini told me.

A line leading to one’s dreams is a constant concept in Nini’s work. And to add to the sense that this is a dream location, there’s an excellent bar and restaurant, providing a fine perspective on the island’s capital, Funchal.

Seven heaven: one of the all-time football greats

Completing the five – it’s number 7, as featured by the island’s favourite son. Cristiano Ronaldo, perhaps the greatest football player of all time, is a Madeiran – and however many glittering prizes the celebrated number 7 has won for clubs including Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus as well as the Portuguese national team, Ronaldo has never forgotten his roots.

If you’re into football, you will be in heaven here. You’ll even find out how to take a free kick like Cristiano. But even if you’re not a great football fan, I think you will still love it because it tells you about one man’s incredible success story and what it means for the island. Madeira loves its most famous son so much that the island’s airport is now known as Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport. With so much local culture on offer from wine to football. Well, maybe you should allow yourself a bit of extra time as Cristiano might say.