Machico

One of the most charming coves on the east coast, sheltered by green mountains facing a clear sea, and yet little known. The promenade along it links it to Caniçal — perfect for jogging or walking by the water. Full facilities: loungers and parasols on a large sun deck, lifeguards in season, a bar and a car park. Its waters received Quercus's "Gold" rating in 2016. Blue Flag 2026. Bathing season 2026: 16 June – 27 September, a supervised beach with lifeguards assured; classified as a limited-use beach. In a swell follow the flags: red = no bathing.

Machico's sandy beach, on the right bank of the mouth of the Ribeira de Machico: about 70 m long and 100 m wide, in golden sand imported from Morocco — one of the few of its kind on the island, now one of the bay's most popular leisure areas. Lifeguard in season; cabins, showers, toilets, parking, access walkways and conditions for people with reduced mobility, leisure and sports equipment. Blue Flag 2026. Bathing season 2026: 16 June – 27 September, a supervised beach with lifeguards assured. In a swell follow the flags: red = no bathing.

The east coast's only natural sand beach: near Ponta de São Lourenço, Prainha stands out from the pebble beaches with its natural volcanic sand in coppery tones, and with its arid yellow-and-brown setting, the opposite of the island's green. Just above, the Piedade dunes and their 300,000-year-old limestone fossils, unique in Europe, below the Nossa Senhora da Piedade chapel (16th century). Restaurant, changing rooms, toilets, parasols, loungers and parking. Blue Flag 2026. Bathing season 2026: 30 June – 27 September, a supervised beach with lifeguards assured; classified as a limited-use beach. In a swell follow the flags: red = no bathing.

The big pebble beach of Machico bay, between the mouth of the Ribeira de Machico and the São Roque chapel, built in 1489 by Tristão Vaz Teixeira, one of the island's discoverers. Free access; toilets, showers, a first-aid post, a parasol area, restaurants and bars nearby; watched by lifeguards in season. Bathing season 2026: 26 June – 27 September, a supervised beach with lifeguards assured. In a swell follow the flags: red = no bathing.

On the north-east coast, at Porto da Cruz, a picture of contrasts: the clear blue of the water, the great green mountain overlooking the sea and, between them, black volcanic sand — which, depending on the season and currents, sometimes gives way to rounded pebbles. Good access to the sea, a restaurant, a bar, changing rooms, toilets, loungers and parasols for hire, a playground and public parking. A spot much loved by the surfing community. Bathing season 2026: 8 June – 27 September, but lifeguard cover not yet confirmed. In a swell follow the flags: red = no bathing.

On Caniçal's seafront, a complex opened in 2003 with a view over the vastness of the Atlantic: two seawater pools — a large one for adults, a small one for children — and two staircases leading straight into the sea. Changing rooms, loungers, parasols, a bar with terrace. Paid entry. Not an official bathing water in 2026: no lifeguard service is guaranteed; follow the notices on site and the flags.

The island's eastern tip, a world apart: a nine-kilometre volcanic peninsula, basalt with some limestone sediments, extended by the Desembarcadouro and Farol islets, where the semi-arid climate and northern winds allow only creeping plants — not a single tree. A regional Natural Monument and Natura 2000 site (1,320 ha with the marine part), an important bird area (Cory's shearwater, Bulwer's petrel, Madeiran storm petrel, terns), one of the Region's largest gull colonies, some 160 plant species including exclusive endemics, and now and then a monk seal offshore. Baía d'Abra is a remarkable anchorage; to the west, Prainha and the Piedade dunes with their 300,000-year-old fossils below the 16th-century chapel. PR 8 (4 km + 4 km, 2:30) leads to Casa do Sardinha; the tip, bought by the Region in 1994, is under total protection. Views of both coasts from Ponta do Rosto.

Geosite in the parish of Caniçal (Machico). A geosite of the regional inventory, on Ponta de São Lourenço: many dykes, upright or criss-crossing, and faults whose tectonics shaped today's coastline.

At the end of the Vereda da Ponta de São Lourenço (PR 8), after three kilometres of walking one way, a small cove where you can swim. It is not a fitted-out beach: no support services, no lifeguard, and the official page asks for care. The water is translucent and the site lies inside the partial nature reserve. From here the view runs far over the Atlantic, with the Desertas and Porto Santo on the horizon.

On the northern slope of the parish of Caniçal, a protected site of reddish tones known locally as 'Mars in Madeira'. The name comes from a local legend: a bode, a goat, is said to have fallen from these cliffs; it already appears on maps of the late nineteenth century. The place holds two geosites. The first is where the Upper Volcanic Complex reaches the surface: it is the island's best point to observe spheroidal weathering. The second, inside the Natura 2000 network and the Ponta de São Lourenço Natural Monument, shows a 'dykes within dykes' complex, typical of fissural volcanism.

A group of four cavities in the parish of Machico, one of the few known lava-tube examples on the island. These conduits form when the surface of a flow cools fast while the inside stays liquid and drains away, leaving an empty channel. The four cavities, of different sizes and altitudes, hold a varied cave fauna, with species found only in Madeira. The name refers to a legendary figure, a horse with bat's wings.

The bay where the first navigators landed in 1419. It stretches several hundred metres and brings together a pebble beach, a beach of imported yellow sand, a quay and a marina. The green mountains that close it form a kind of amphitheatre running down to the sea. Sailing, canoeing and windsurfing are practised here; the Desertas and Ponta de São Lourenço close the backdrop.

Classified a Monument of Municipal Interest, the nineteenth-century aqueduct runs between Caminho do Engenho and Rua da Estacada. It carried water to Machico's old sugar-cane mill — since the sixteenth century the island had been one of the great producers of sugar, the 'white gold'. Of the original fourteen arches, eight survive, in red Caniçal stonework, with spans of 4.40 m, leaning on the retaining wall of Ribeira de Machico. The masonry is rustic basalt rendered in lime mortar; the channel, the levada, is stone and lime. The structure became a museum in 2001, to a conservation design by the architect Victor Mestre.

A church of 1967 at Caramanchão, dedicated to Saint Joseph, patron of workers and families. A small eighteenth-century chapel stood on the same spot; ruins of archaeological value remain. The church is best known for its Christmas services: the missas do parto draw a crowd, and sharing regional food after mass is part of the ritual.

The parish church of Água de Pena, built in 1745 on the rubble of a sixteenth-century chapel. Baroque in style, it has a longitudinal plan with a single nave, a gabled main front and a bell tower. The substance is inside: the high choir and the pulpit, and two side altarpieces in white and gilded carving from the late Baroque. The historic Fonte do Seixo is the parish's other point of interest — the same parish where the runway of Madeira airport was extended.

Built in 1907 by Canon Henrique Modesto de Bettencourt, in the parish of Água de Pena (Machico). A fire destroyed it in 1976; it was rebuilt in 1987. The architecture is Revivalist and neo-Mannerist, on a longitudinal plan. Inside, the chancel is topped by a rendering of the Agnus Dei; the altarpiece is framed by two corbels carrying sculptures of Our Lady of Fatima and Saint Joseph. It is also called the Cardais chapel.

"An open door to knowledge and a window to the sea": at Caniçal, the former whaling port, the museum founded in 1989 and housed since September 2011 in new premises is one of the most innovative of its kind in the world, with life-size models of whales and dolphins and stereoscopic 3D films. A vast ethnographic collection — old tools, testimonies, accurate documentation — traces whaling in Madeira through the 20th century, while the museum runs research and conservation projects on the archipelago's marine life. Rua Garcia Moniz 1

In the centre of Machico, in the renovated 17th-century manor of the Solar do Ribeirinho, the museum of the municipality's history: four interactive thematic areas around the figures and moments that made Machico — a cross of Machim, the portrait of Tristão Vaz Teixeira, first captain-donee, a 17th-century processional cross, a 16th-century seal with an ivory handle and silver stamp, an engraved poem by the 18th-century poet Francisco Álvares de Nóbrega, the "little Camões" born here. Regional Directorate of Culture

The village of the north-east coast, in the municipality of Machico, at the foot of Penha d'Águia, the rock of about 600 m that separates Machico from Santana. Seen from the Portela pass, its small orange-roofed houses scatter down the slopes to the lively sea; below, the black volcanic-sand beach of Alagoa — sometimes turned to pebbles by the currents — much loved by surfers, and the bathing complex of the Passeio Marítimo with its two pools. It is the northern end of PR 10 Levada do Furado via Portela and the starting point for views of Faial.

The town where Madeira's human history begins: it was here, in July 1419, that Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira landed on discovering the island, and legend has it that a century earlier the Englishwoman Anne of Arfet and the knight Robert Machim — who gave the town its name — found refuge here. About 20,000 inhabitants and five parishes (Água de Pena, Caniçal, Machico, Porto da Cruz, part of Santo António da Serra) over 68 km². The bay, one of the archipelago's finest, lines up the São Roque pebble beach and the golden-sand Banda d'Além beach, a pier and a marina, with the Desertas and Ponta de São Lourenço behind; the Milagres chapel marks the site of the first Mass, the Solar do Ribeirinho tells the local story, Pico do Facho watches over the valley.

The fishing village of the eastern tip, in the municipality of Machico, beyond the Caniçal tunnel: Madeira's former whaling capital in the 20th century, whose Whale Museum (founded 1989, new premises 2011) keeps the memory with life-size models and 3D films. On the sea side, the 2003 bathing complex, the Ribeira do Natal cove and the coppery-sand Prainha below the Piedade fossil dunes; on the nature side, it is the gateway to Ponta de São Lourenço and its PR 8 trail.

On a high plateau at 700 m overlooking Machico and Santa Cruz, the small romantic parish shared between the two municipalities (8.65 km² on the Machico side): mountains, abundant exotic vegetation and private quintas give it a rural, intimate atmosphere. At the centre, the Quinta do Santo da Serra — built in the late 19th century by the Blandys, known as Quinta da Junta — is a public park with fallow deer, peacocks, Garrano horses, mini-golf, tennis, a picnic area and a lookout as far as Porto Santo. Next door, the Santo da Serra golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones Senior, home of the Madeira Island Open.