Seven places to stay on Madeira, listed by what the building actually is, not by what it costs. Each card says what the building was, how big it is and what you give up; the full write-up sits behind it.
01
Fajã dos Padres
Quinta Grande, Madeira
This is the house with a cliff-foot farm of vines, bananas and mangoes reached only by cable car or boat — eight cottages and a restaurant on the shore below.
The eight houses are named rather than numbered — the Boat House, the Sailor's House, Tia Maria — and the access decides the shape of the whole stay: once you are down there, you stay down.
- The building
- A cliff-foot farm of vines, bananas and mangoes
- Size
- Eight cottages
- Shared space
- A restaurant on the shore below
- Reach it by
- Cable car or boat only
- The tradeoff
- You cannot nip anywhere once you are down there
- Checked
- August 2026, against the property's own pages
See the house → (opens the property's own site in a new tab) Read the full profile →
02
Casas da Levada
Ponta do Pargo, Madeira
This is the house that is six old farm buildings — the cow house, the shepherd's house, the spring house — rebuilt on an organic quinta at Madeira's westernmost point, with levada trails off the gate.
The house you choose matters more than the property here — the six run from thirty square metres to two hundred and twenty — and the levada paths start at the gate.
- The building
- Six old farm buildings on an organic quinta
- Size
- Six houses, 30-220 m²
- The tradeoff
- The largest house is more than seven times the smallest
- Checked
- August 2026, against the property's own pages
See the house → (opens the property's own site in a new tab) Read the full profile →
03
Socalco Nature Calheta
Calheta, Madeira
This is the house that is a cave dug into a farm terrace — one of ten old straw stores and farm buildings brought back on Calheta's socalcos, with a chef's restaurant above them.
Ten units strung along the farm terraces, and most of them are buildings you can picture rather than room numbers: the cave, the old straw store, the apothecary's house, the caretaker's — plus two standard rooms.
- The building
- Old straw stores and farm buildings on Calheta's terraces
- Size
- Ten units
- Shared space
- Razão restaurant on the terrace above
- The tradeoff
- Ten keys, so you are sharing the terraces
- Checked
- August 2026, against the property's own pages
See the house → (opens the property's own site in a new tab) Read the full profile →
04
Escarpa – The Madeira Hideaway
Ponta do Sol, Madeira
This is the house with micro-villas and private infinity pools cut into the slope a hundred metres above the Atlantic at Ponta do Sol.
Five kinds of unit are listed, from an ocean-view room up to micro-villas with their own infinity pools, on a slope a hundred metres above the water at Ponta do Sol — but no total, so how many other parties are on that slope with you is something to ask before you book.
- The building
- Micro-villas cut into a slope above the Atlantic
- Size
- Not published
- The tradeoff
- No published total, so how many parties share the slope is unknown
- Checked
- August 2026, against the property's own pages
See the house → (opens the property's own site in a new tab) Read the full profile →
05
Mountain Eco Shelters
Funchal, Madeira
This is the house that is a timber shelter inside Funchal's Ecological Park, with no Wi-Fi by design.
The absence of Wi-Fi is a decision here rather than a coverage problem, and there is no published count for either of the two sites, so how many shelters share your hillside is not something you can settle in advance.
- The building
- A timber shelter inside Funchal's Ecological Park
- Size
- Not published
- The tradeoff
- No Wi-Fi, and no count of shelters sharing the hillside
- Checked
- August 2026, against the property's own pages
See the house → (opens the property's own site in a new tab) Read the full profile →
06
Canto das Fontes
Madeira
This is the house with a thirty-metre waterfall running through its banana grove, and yurts and a tipi arranged around it.
Canvas rather than stone: three yurts and a tipi in banana-grove grounds with a thirty-metre waterfall running through them, four units in all, each sleeping two — and the location is the one thing you will have to ask for.
- The building
- Yurts and a tipi in a banana grove
- Size
- Four units, each sleeping two
- The tradeoff
- The address comes with the booking rather than the listing
- Checked
- August 2026, against the property's own pages
See the house → (opens the property's own site in a new tab) Read the full profile →
07
Soul Glamping
Madeira, Madeira
This is the house with five domes stepped down a hillside at Prazeres, each with a kitchen of its own and a deck facing the open Atlantic.
Five domes stepped down a hillside at Prazeres, on the south-west coast, each with a kitchen of its own — though the fireplace and the sunbeds belong to the Luxury grade rather than the Standard one.
- The building
- Five domes on a hillside above Madeira's south-west coast
- Size
- Five domes, in Standard and Luxury grades
- The tradeoff
- The fireplace and the sunbeds belong to the Luxury grade only
- Checked
- August 2026, against the property's own pages
See the house → (opens the property's own site in a new tab) Read the full profile →
None of these are Casoneta features. Each link goes to the property's own page. If we have something wrong about your house, tell us.
When to go
Madeira does not have a closed season, and that is the thing to plan around: sea-level temperatures move within a narrow band all year, so the question is less which month than which coast. The north is wetter and greener, the south drier and brighter, and the interior can be sitting above the cloud while both of them are under it. Summer fills the south-coast towns; spring and autumn leave the paths quieter without giving much away on the weather. If the house is the reason you are going, take the shoulder months and treat the forecast as a suggestion.
Getting around
The island is small enough to cross in a couple of hours and steep enough that the map lies about it. Tunnels have taken most of the pain out of the drives between coasts, but the last stretch up to a house on a terrace is usually a narrow road with a gradient on it, so read the arrival instructions before you set off rather than after. Funchal is the only place that behaves like a city; every other address on this page is a village. One car per party is the usual arrangement, and one house here is not reached by road at all.
Walking from the door
The levadas are irrigation channels, built to carry water from the wet north of the island to the drier south, and the maintenance paths beside them hold their gradient along the contours. That is why a walk here can be long without being a climb, and why several of the houses on this page have a path leaving from somewhere near the gate. The interior is a different island again — laurel forest, cloud, and high ground that clears on its own schedule. Two or three days on one coast will show you more than a lap of the whole island.
