The Portuguese island of Madeira has had a major glow-up. Discover the island’s most luxurious hotels.
Forget what you think you know about retirees tippling on sweet wine in fusty old hotels. Madeira has had a major glow up. The subtropical Portuguese island off the coast of Morocco is emerging as one of the most interesting luxury getaways right now — not just a Lisbon stopover but a destination in its own right. The pastel-colored capital, big resorts, and grand old gardens and tasting rooms are still there. So are dramatic cliffs, stunning mountains, and a network of levada footpaths that wind through the laurel forest and terraced hillsides.
For hotels, there are two main choices: Stay in the busy capital, Funchal, and embrace the chaos (but in style, in the island’s historic grande dame or in its splashiest, most unabashedly over-the-top newcomer) or hide away in the countryside. Some of the most appealing places to stay are in the old sugar-cane country along the wilder south and west coasts. There, design-forward hotels and intimate farmhouse-style stays are offering new ways to know an island that continues to defy expectations.
Reid’s Palace
No hotel is more synonymous with Madeira than Reid’s Palace, the pastel-pink landmark that emerged more than 130 years ago when teenage Scotsman William Reid arrived on the island seeking a cure for respiratory illness. It worked, and he stayed to build a hospitality empire. Now a Belmond Hotel, the property sits on a rocky promontory above Funchal Bay. Winston Churchill and George Bernard Shaw reportedly took tango lessons in the expansive botanical gardens there. The 126 rooms and suites lean into old-world glamour, and afternoon tea on the terrace is still a must do. At the Michelin-starred restaurant, William, Madeira-born chef José Diogo Costa turns out inventive tasting menus in a dining room with cinematic views of the bay, and the 1891 Bar pairs a resident pianist with cocktails based on the island’s exotic fruit.
Savoy Palace / The Reserve
Since it opened in 2019, the 352-room Savoy Palace has dominated Funchal’s skyline. Its unapologetically maximalist sensibility is courtesy of Madeira-born designer Nini Andrade Silva, who didn’t hold back on the statement pieces. A chandelier fashioned from four miles of metal chain hangs over the lobby. The free-form swimming pool is clad in thousands of gleaming mosaic tiles, and curvaceous golden staircases nod to the island’s centuries-old lace-making tradition. A couple of years ago, the owners made a bet on the hotel-within-the-hotel concept and turned the top floors into a separate brand. The Reserve operates as a more intimate, more high-touch hideaway — a members club-like enclave with its own check-in and dedicated concierge service, club lounge, and restaurants. The airport transfers via white Rolls-Royce are optional.
Saccharum
Built on the site of a former sugarcane mill in Calheta, on Madeira’s sunnier west coast, the boldly industrial Saccharum turns its agrarian heritage into a contemporary design language. Island designer Nini Andrade Silva worked on this one too, incorporating salvaged mill machinery, chairs fashioned from old barrels, and railings modeled after sugarcane stalks. It’s all atop stained concrete floors the color of cane syrup. Many of the 243 rooms and suites have Atlantic-facing balconies, and the rooftop infinity pool is a knockout. It’s guests only, and it draws much of the hotel’s energy at golden hour. The sugarcane theme runs through the three restaurants and four bars, from the industrial-chic Engenho to the more elevated Alambique, but they also knew when enough was enough. The holistic spa is a low-lit refuge with Ayurveda-inflected treatments, and there’s an extensive array of yoga, meditation, Pilates, and tai chi classes.
Socalco Nature Calheta
A world away from Madeira’s lavish resorts, Socalco is the passion project of Octávio Freitas, one of the island’s most celebrated chefs. (His Desarma holds a Michelin star.) Set above Calheta amid terraced vineyards and organic gardens, the property comprises just eight stand-alone houses and 10 hotel rooms, each converted from old agricultural structures. One is a former straw warehouse, another is a wine mill, and a particularly impressive one occupies a cave carved into volcanic rock. The restaurant, Razão, changes its menu daily depending on what comes in from Freitas’s hotel garden, local fishermen, and nearby farms, and the activities roster emphasizes the hands-on. Guests can tour the gardens with the gardeners, join cooking demonstrations, or learn to prepare traditional Madeiran dishes.
Quinta da Casa Branca
Surrounded by nearly 15 acres of botanical gardens, Quinta da Casa Branca was Madeira’s first design hotel when it opened in 1998. It still feels like an oasis rather than a city-adjacent property, and it’s better than ever after a just-completed renovation. The 49 rooms and suites are split between a contemporary glass-and-wood wing and the original 19th-century manor house was once the private home of the Leacock family of Madeira wine producers. The manor house suites have antique furniture and 18th-century paintings. Pathways are lined with trees and flowers gathered from around the world, and the swimming pool is flanked by bougainvillea. There are two restaurants, one for bistro-style lunches and the other for formal dinners with tasting menus built around Madeiran ingredients.
The Cliff Bay / Les Suites at Cliff Bay
Atop a cliff above the Atlantic just outside central Funchal, Cliff Bay has long been mentioned along with Reid’s Palace as one of Madeira’s benchmark hotels. That’s thanks in part to Il Gallo d’Oro, its Michelin two-star restaurant helmed by chef Benoît Sinthon. The guestrooms are traditional and comfortable, most with balconies looking out over the gardens or Funchal Bay, and they come with direct access to the ocean. Another hotel-within-the-hotel concept, Les Suites at the Cliff Bay occupies its own wing within the same property, with larger, more contemporary suites, an additional infinity pool, and a separate breakfast restaurant. Les Suites guests retain full access to all of the Cliff Bay’s other restaurants and grounds.
Casas da Levada
It’s not luxury in the traditional, opulent sense, but for travelers chasing Madeira’s wilder, greener side, Casas da Levada is a dream. Like an Italian agriturismo, it’s set within a working farm in Ponta do Pargo, on the island’s remote western tip. The property consists of six individually restored, deliberately rustic cottages, each rebuilt from a former agricultural structure — an old wine cellar, a hay barn, a cattle shed — and named for a piece of island life (house of the garden, house of the shepherd, house of the cow). The farm’s organic vegetable gardens, orchards, and small animal enclosures surround an infinity pool that looks out toward some of the most dramatic sunsets on the island, and guests are invited to pick produce freely from the grounds.
Casa Velha do Palheiro
In the hills above Funchal, Casa Velha do Palheiro is the island’s only Relais & Châteaux hotel, a country house that trades on old-world elegance. Built in 1804 as a hunting lodge by the Count of Carvalhal, the estate was restored in 1997, blending its historic charm with modern luxury. The property today comprises three buildings, including the antique-filled “old house,” which underwent a meticulous restoration in 2022. All of the buildings have direct access to the 370-acre Palheiro Nature Estate, which includes a par-72 golf course, a full-service spa with indoor and outdoor pools, and miles of walking trails. Dining is a highlight too: The elegant, Madeira-inspired Oxalis Restaurant has fine-dining intentions, while the more casual Vista Balancal lives up to its name with sweeping ocean views.
1905 Zino’s Palace
Impossible to miss on the approach to the newly hip town of Ponta do Sol, 1905 Zino’s Palace is a flamboyantly pink Romantic-era manor house. It was built at the turn of the 20th century as a summer residence for the noble Zino family before serving as an agricultural school. A full renovation preserved its ornate façades and a private chapel while adding sumptuous modern furnishings. The nine guest rooms are pastel toned, and several have balconies overlooking the terraced banana plantations that cascade down toward the Atlantic. The hotel’s small, distinctly pink pool has become something of an Instagram fixture, but the real draw is the setting: a hillside perched above one of the sunniest, quietest corners of the island.
Feature image courtesy of Armando Jorge Mota Ribeiro, Reids Palace. Travel Curator may earn a commission from booking links on this page.
