The royal trail of Funchal & Monte

The visitors in this record came to Madeira for the same few things: the soft air, the warmth of the south, the green hills above the harbour — and, too often, a quiet place to be ill. Most of what they knew is still here. You can walk a good part of it in a single day, climbing from the old town of Funchal to the cloud-cool hill of Monte and coming back down to the gardens by the sea. This is that walk: a route through the island's royal and imperial past, told in the order you would actually take it.

Treat it as a half-day at a gentle pace, or a full day if you linger. The churches and public gardens are free; the cable car and the Monte Palace garden are ticketed. Times and prices change, so check the current cable-car schedule before you set out — and remember that the first stop on this trail is also a place of pilgrimage, not a museum.

The route, stop by stop

1. 1

   Up by cable car

   Begin in the old town, by the seafront at Campo Almirante Reis, where the Funchal cable car (the teleférico) lifts off over the rooftops. In roughly fifteen minutes it carries you up the green flank of the valley to Monte — the same hill the royal visitors once reached by carriage. If you would rather stay on the ground, buses and taxis also climb to Monte.

   Ticketed. Check current times and prices before you go; the views over the bay alone repay the ride.

2. 2

   The emperor's tomb at Monte

   At the top stands the Church of Nossa Senhora do Monte — Our Lady of the Mount — whose white towers look out over Funchal and the Atlantic. Inside rests Emperor Charles I, the last Habsburg emperor, who died on this hill in 1922 and was buried here. His tomb is a place of pilgrimage; this is an active church, and quiet, respectful dress is appreciated. Nearby you will find the Monte Palace Tropical Garden and, by tradition, the famous carros de cesto — the wicker toboggans steered by drivers down the hill toward Funchal.

   Church free; the tropical garden is ticketed. Read the emperor's story →

3. 3

   Down to the Sisi statue

   Back in central Funchal, walk the seafront gardens near the Pestana Casino Park, where a bronze statue honours the Empress Elisabeth of Austria — Sisi — who wintered here for her health. The statue stands on the site of the old Quinta Vigia, the villa where she stayed. The Quinta Vigia itself is today the official residence of the President of the Madeira Regional Government; its gardens are open to the public.

   Public gardens, free. Read about the empress sent to heal →

4. 4

   A princess's memorial

   Also in Funchal stands the building of the former Princesa Dona Maria Amélia hospital, inaugurated in 1862. It was raised in memory of the young Brazilian princess who died on the island in 1853 — a death that turned grief into a lasting act of care for the sick who, like her, had come to Madeira hoping the air would save them.

   Read the princess's account →

5. 5

   The cliff west of town

   West along the coast, on its own headland above the water, sits Reid's Palace — today the still-operating Belmond Reid's Palace. Beside it once stood the Villa Vittoria, the house where Charles I first stayed when he arrived in exile in 1921, so that for a strange interval a deposed emperor and a grand hotel shared a garden wall.

   A working hotel; admire it from the public cliff paths. Read about the grand hotels →

6. 6

   Optional — the painter's view

   If the day is long and the light is good, carry on west to the fishing village of Câmara de Lobos and the Miradouro Winston Churchill, the viewpoint over the bay that Churchill set up his easel to paint in 1950. It is a fitting last stop: another famous visitor, drawn — like the kings and queens before him — to the same warm light on the same blue water.

One island, one hill, one harbour — and a long line of visitors who came for the air and stayed in the record. The register

Walk it slowly. The trail is short in miles and long in years, and the best of it — the climb, the white church, the gardens by the sea — costs nothing but the time to stand still and look.