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Museu Relogio
This is one of two watch museums that houses one familys extraordinary private collection (the other is in Serpa). You name it – if it ticks, chimes, beeps and tells the time in some form or another, its here. The highlight is watching a master watch repairer at work.
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Núcleo Islâmico
This small modern museum exhibits impressive Islamic pieces discovered in various excavations around the old town. Theres an introductory video downstairs; one of the most important finds on display upstairs is the Tavira Vase, an alaborate ceramic work with figures and animals aro
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Museu Ibérico da Máscara e do Traje
This visually appealing little museum displays a colourful and fascinating collection of masks and costumes from the ancient pagan-based solstice and Carnaval festivities celebrated in Trás-os-Montes and neighbouring Zamora (Spain). Costumes are displayed across three floors, with
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Museu de Arte Moderna
The Museu de Arte Moderna hosts rotating exhibitions covering the entire modern-art spectrum from kinetic and pop art to surrealism and expressionism. Sheltering Hockney, Lichtenstein and Warhol originals, the permanent collection is part of billionaire José Berardo’s stash, which
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Casa Museu Bissaya Barreto
Bissaya Barreto was a local surgeon, scholar and obsessive hoarder of fine arts, and his handsome, late-19th-century mansion has been turned into an art museum. A guide (not necessarily English-speaking) accompanies guests through rooms jam-packed with Portuguese sculpture and pain
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Portugal dos Pequenitos
The brainchild of local collector Bissaya Barreto, this is an impossibly cute theme park where kids clamber over, into and through doll’s-house versions of Portugal’s most famous monuments, while parents clutch cameras at the ready. There’s an extra charge to visit marginally inter
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Praça da República
This renovated attractive town square with a pelourinho (stone pillory) is the historic heart of the old city. Dominating the square is the 16th-century Igreja de Misericórdia , a hefty church with an immense porch – its crude stonework betrays its origins as a meat market. The Pla
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Arraial Ferreira Neto Museum
The original name of a former fishing community (between 1943 and around 1970) and now incorporated within the Hotel Vila Galé Albacora , the site has original buildings as well as this tiny tuna fishing museum, which has little in the way of description but a diorama of the comple
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Museu Romântico
Nestled on the south slopes of Jardim do Palácio de Cristal , beneath cathedral oaks and sycamores, is the small but stately home where the exiled king of Sardinia spent his final days holed up in 1843. The house has been turned into a modest museum featuring the king’s belongings
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Museu do Brinquedo
Near the turismo , this museum traces the history of Portuguese toys, from the Victorian to the contemporary. There’s a playroom, a collection of toys from other countries and a workshop where kids can watch toys being made or repaired.
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Praça do Príncipe Real
Shaded by a giant cedar tree, Praça do Príncipe Real is a relaxing shady plaza with an alfresco cafe for watching the world go slowly by. The surrounding district is perfect for lazy days spent exploring markets, antique stores, edgy boutiques and design stores. Creatives, hipsters
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Mercados Municipais
By the water, these two noble centenarian red-brick buildings are excellent examples of industrial architecture and house picturesque traditional fruit and fish markets, worth a look at any time, but especially appealing on a Saturday morning. A string of simple seafood eateries an
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Cemitério de São Martinho
One of Funchals largest cemeteries is well off the tourist path, making it all the more fascinating to visit. Funchals wealthy were once laid to rest here, their coffins stacked in family jazigos – sepulchres resembling small ornate sheds. Art nouveau and functionalist examples are
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Museu Histórico Militar de Almeida
This interesting museum is built into the casamatas (casemates or bunkers), a labyrinth of 20 underground rooms used for storage, barracks and shelter for troops in times of siege. In the 18th century these casamatas also served as a prison. Piles of cannonballs fill a central cour
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Fortaleza do Pico
Easy to spot, but taxing to reach, its worth the slog up to this rocktop fortress northwest of the city centre for the stupendous views. Built in the 17th century as a surveillance point, the building has been Portuguese navy property for the last seven decades (hence the out-of-bo
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Town Walls
About one-fifth of Évora’s residents live within the town’s old walls, some of which are built on top of 1st-century Roman fortifications. Over 3km of 14th-century walls enclose the northern part of the old town, while the bulwarks along the southern side, such as those running thr
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Pereira DOliveira
Funchals most easily accessible wine experience, anyone can enter the strongly aromatic barrel room in central Funchal and try almost as much wine as they please, usually accompanied by a wedge of bolo de mel and crackers. Bottles of wine dating back to the early 20th century line
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Quinta das Lágrimas
Legend says Dona Inês de Castro met her grisly end in the gardens of this private estate. It’s now a deluxe hotel, although anyone can take a turn about the grounds and track down the Fonte dos Amores (Lovers’ Fountain), which marks the spot where the princes unwitting mistress was
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Igreja do Socorro
This impressive clifftop church at the eastern end of the Zona Velha is a 1750 rebuild – the original was destroyed in the earthquake of 1748. Slightly off the tourist trail and looking out across the Atlantic in all its baroque pomp, it boasts some impressive azulejos tiling and a
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Bica da Cana
High above the central valley at the eastern end of the Paúl da Serra plateau is a place called Bica da Cana. Apart from serving as a picnic spot for cross-island travellers, there are also wide-screen views here of Madeiras highest peaks across the valley. Its also well known for
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