São Vicente

Visit rate: 3/5 / Rating: 4/5 

We chose São Vicente as the base for most of our week-long stay on Madeira. More specifically, we stayed right by the coast, just a short walk from a poncha bar at coordinates 32.8139656N, 17.0290297W, which we would honestly call the best poncha and nikita bar on the entire island. It's a tiny local roadside bar that tourists almost never stumble upon due to its location. The bartender may initially have a somewhat unfriendly expression when she realizes you're speaking English, but after a few drinks and a sincere thank you for the best poncha on the island, her mood quickly changes. With every round, you also get peanuts, which is a common tradition on Madeira.

Why is the poncha here the best? Because the fruit for every single drink is freshly juiced by the bartender, one drink at a time, which makes a huge difference. We'd strongly recommend skipping bottled poncha from shops, it's basically just rum mixed with juice and can't be compared to a freshly made one. Even in some bars, they don't prepare it fresh but serve it from a jug that may have been sitting there all day. It's still better than the bottled version, but nothing special. However, be careful, the drinks look harmless at first glance, but it's local rum with over 50% alcohol, and thanks to the fruit juice it goes down like lemonade. After three drinks, you're pretty much done for.

Every evening we went to the bar for a drink, and each time we learned something new about the island from the locals. Encounters like that are priceless and not something you easily get in mass tourism settings. When we had time after our daily trips, we walked along the promenade in the centre of São Vicente, which was almost empty throughout our stay. There are several restaurants there that remain largely deserted, and according to locals, that's intentional. They are privately owned, trying to squeeze as much as possible out of tourism, which has led to a drop in food quality and, on the other hand, higher prices.

This is, in general, a rather sad reality of Madeira, where local residents often don't see a single cent from tourism. Of course, most of us fly to the island for its nature and relaxation, and how the locals live is usually a secondary concern. But that is exactly why Madeira in a few years may no longer be the same as the one we know from Instagram and TikTok.

São Vicente is the darkest place on the entire island (and we don't mean that in a bad way). For most of the day, the sun hardly reaches here, and during our nearly five-day stay we barely felt any sunlight at all. It rained every day, although locals said the weather was unusually bad, so conditions might be somewhat better at other times of the year. This dark, gloomy atmosphere gave the town an incredible vibe. The black rocky coastline, the sound of the ocean, and the nearly one-kilometre-high mountains surrounding you look truly unreal. It reminded us of Iceland on a warmer day. We're really glad we chose to stay here.

São Vicente is also a fairly strategic base for exploring the entire island. You can reach the south in about thirty minutes, the west in around twenty, and the east in roughly forty. We honestly couldn't imagine a better base on Madeira. A car is, of course, an absolute must.

Week on Madeira for 2 (7 nights)                                                                                                   Flights (Smartwings): 820,-                                                                                                                 Car rental (Sixt): 370,-                                                                                                   Accommodation (Booking): 570,-                                                                                             Spending: 610,-                                                                                                                               Total: 2 370,- EUR