You can spend 7 days in Madeira without a car and still visit gardens, coastal towns, a levada and the north coast. The practical approach is to stay in Funchal, use public buses for straightforward trips, and book transport for the days where bus connections would dictate too much of the itinerary.
This plan combines independent sightseeing with two paid outings: a guided walk and a west coast excursion. It is car free, not tour free. Arrival and departure count as days one and seven, with enough flexibility to shorten either day around your flights.
Where to Stay for a Week Without a Car
For this itinerary, choose accommodation in lower central Funchal, within a comfortable walk of the waterfront. Look around the cathedral, Avenida Arriaga or the lower Old Town. Prioritize the actual walking route to your accommodation over its distance from the center on a booking map.
A hillside apartment might look close enough until the final climb with groceries. Check elevation, steps and access from the nearest bus stop before paying. Our guide to where to stay in Funchal compares the main areas.
The Lido area can also work, particularly if you prefer a hotel with a pool. For this plan, though, central accommodation removes an extra journey from several days. Before booking excursions, ask whether your address qualifies for pickup or whether you must reach a meeting point.
Arrange Your Transport Before Building the Schedule
The official SIGA Aerobus information includes the airport route, timetable and fares. Its route serves central Funchal and continues through the hotel district toward Praia Formosa. Match your accommodation to a named stop, then check the walk from that stop to reception.
If your flight arrives outside a suitable departure, prebook a transfer rather than assuming a bus will be waiting. The same applies to an early flight home. A cheap room loses some appeal if reaching it requires an expensive late arrival transfer.
For local journeys, use the official SIGA bus timetables. The listings show current and replacement route numbers where applicable. Check the travel day, direction and route variant rather than copying a number from an older itinerary.
Save the outbound and return information before leaving your accommodation. Choose a return service with a later backup where possible, carry small cash, and confirm the boarding stop. Our Madeira bus planning guide covers the wider network; below, the focus stays on making this week work.
Your Seven Day Itinerary
| Day | Main plan | Transport |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arrive and walk around Funchal Old Town | Airport bus or transfer, then walking |
| 2 | Monte Palace and Monte | Local bus or cable car |
| 3 | Câmara de Lobos | Bus, with a taxi as a fallback |
| 4 | A guided levada walk | Excursion with return transport |
| 5 | Porto Moniz and selected west coast stops | Organized day trip |
| 6 | Machico beach and waterfront | Public bus |
| 7 | Flexible Funchal morning and departure | Walking, then airport transport |
Treat this as an order of activities, not an unchangeable calendar. Move the hiking day around suitable conditions and available reservations. Keep the final day local rather than using it for an excursion with a tight airport connection.
Day 1: Arrive and Walk Around Funchal Old Town
After checking in, make the first outing deliberately simple. Head toward the waterfront and Rua de Santa Maria, then walk through the surrounding Old Town streets. The painted doors give the walk a focus without requiring a ticket or a fixed arrival time.
Use our self-guided Funchal Old Town walk for a longer route if you arrive early. Otherwise, choose a short section, have dinner and leave the rest for day seven.
This is also the time to settle practical details. Find your next morning’s bus stop, buy water and confirm excursion pickup instructions. Avoid reserving an activity immediately after your scheduled landing. Flight delays are inconvenient enough without adding a missed garden ticket to the welcome committee.
Day 2: Visit Monte Palace and Monte
Spend the morning above the city at Monte Palace Madeira. You can travel up by bus or make the cable car part of the outing. The garden’s official visitor information lists bus options, entrances and seasonal opening hours.
Allow a generous morning rather than squeezing the garden into a quick stop. Its steep terrain matters: reaching Monte by transport does not remove the slopes and steps inside. Wear shoes with grip and consider whether the paths suit everyone in your group.
Afterward, leave time for lunch and a short look around Monte before returning to Funchal. One garden is enough for this day; there is no need to add another simply because it appears nearby on the map.
If you choose a toboggan ride, establish where it finishes and how you will continue from there. Treat it as a separate activity, not your complete return journey to the waterfront.
Day 3: Take a Bus to Câmara de Lobos
Make Câmara de Lobos a relaxed outing rather than the first stop in an ambitious coastal circuit. The tourism board’s Câmara de Lobos Bay page highlights the fishing boats, waterfront streets and places to eat around the bay.
Confirm a bus that serves the town center, including the return boarding point. Check the stops as well as the destination displayed on the vehicle; a service heading farther west may serve the place you need.
Allow roughly half a day for the harbor, nearby streets and lunch. That is a planning allowance, not a requirement to keep walking until the clock permits you to leave.
Return to Funchal for an unhurried afternoon. Do not assume Cabo Girão is a simple walk from the harbor. If you want to add it, arrange the extra transport and return journey beforehand, or choose a west coast excursion that includes it on day five.
Day 4: Book a Levada Walk With Return Transport
Use one paid excursion for a walking day. For this itinerary, a guided levada outing with transport is a better fit than trying to connect rural buses, trail access roads and an uncertain pickup after the walk.
Levada das 25 Fontes at Rabaçal is one option, provided the route, conditions and walking demands suit your group. Ask the organizer for the full distance, ascent, steps, exposure and any tunnel sections on its chosen route. Different starting points and added walks can produce different versions of the same advertised day.
For classified routes managed by IFCN that fall within its reservation system, entry requires an online booking for an available time slot. Check the official IFCN trail status and reservation rules, then ask the organizer whether it handles your reservation and includes the applicable fee. A transport booking is not automatically a trail booking.
Read the 25 Fontes hiking guide before choosing that outing. Pack water, lunch, rain protection and suitable footwear, plus a headlamp if your confirmed route includes tunnels.
If the walk is unsuitable or canceled, use a local sightseeing day instead. Do not replace a closed trail with an unofficial shortcut, or choose a harder route simply because transport is available.
Day 5: Visit Porto Moniz on a West Coast Excursion
Reserve the second organized outing for Porto Moniz and selected west coast stops. Choose the itinerary by its stopping time, not the number of place names in the description. If swimming matters, ask how long you actually get in Porto Moniz after lunch and other stops.
The managed Porto Moniz natural swimming pools occupy volcanic rock formations and provide facilities including changing rooms. Check whether admission is included in your excursion price.
Bring swimwear and a towel, but make swimming conditional on the pools being open and suitable conditions on arrival. Follow staff instructions and closures. “Natural pool” is not a promise that the Atlantic will behave.
If Seixal or Fanal is a priority, select a tour that explicitly includes it. Do not assume either comes with every west coast departure. Avoid combining this excursion with the levada hike: both deserve more than whatever time remains between minibus stops.
Day 6: Travel to Machico for a Slower Coastal Day
After two excursion days, keep Machico simple. Take a suitable Funchal–Machico bus, walk around the bay and have lunch before deciding whether to spend the afternoon on the beach.
The golden sand at Banda d’Além beach in Machico makes this a change from the volcanic pools visited the previous day. Bring beach clothes when conditions suit, but do not build the day around guaranteed swimming.
Check the return timetable before settling down for lunch. A direct journey with a convenient return is preferable to a slightly earlier departure that leaves you managing awkward connections later.
Keep Ponta de São Lourenço out of this day unless you deliberately replace the beach outing with a hiking plan. It needs its own assessment of trail conditions, booking requirements, walking time and transport. Reaching Machico does not mean the peninsula walk is already taken care of.
Day 7: Keep Funchal Flexible Before Departure
Use the final morning for something close to your accommodation: breakfast, a waterfront walk, souvenir shopping or the Old Town section you missed on arrival. Leave luggage with your accommodation if that service is available.
Work backward from your airline’s check-in requirements, allowing for the walk to your stop, the airport journey and a sensible buffer. Confirm the departure point rather than assuming the inbound airport stop also serves the return direction.
If you have another night in Madeira, this becomes a useful spare day for an activity moved because of conditions. Otherwise, resist squeezing in a distant viewpoint. A final coffee is a better departure strategy than watching the time from the wrong side of the island.
What to Book and How to Control Costs
Book accommodation and airport transport first, then compare the guided walk and west coast excursion. Read the inclusions carefully: pickup, trail reservations, pool admission and lunch can change the price you actually pay.
The cable car is an optional expense rather than a requirement for this itinerary. The operator’s published Funchal cable car prices currently list €16 one way and €22 return for an adult. Compare the complete combination you want; two separate single journeys would cost more than a return ticket.
For the rest of the week, budget separately for local buses, garden admission, meals and a taxi contingency. Do not assume a bus pass covers the airport service or every journey you intend to make. Check its validity against your actual plans before buying.
When This Car Free Itinerary Works Best
This week suits travelers who want a varied first visit without driving, changing hotels or arranging transport every morning. It is less suitable if your priority is reaching several remote trailheads, staying out for mountain sunsets or stopping whenever a viewpoint catches your attention.
If you want to avoid organized outings entirely, replace the two excursion days with extra Funchal sightseeing and bus trips whose outward and return schedules work for your dates. Accept a smaller geographical range rather than forcing distant places into an impractical timetable.
The broader seven day Madeira itinerary offers another starting point if you later choose to drive. Without a car, keep this version’s main discipline: one base, manageable bus days and booked transport where it earns its place.