Wondering if anyone has ever been to the island of Porto Santo, Madeira.

We have been thinking of renting on the island. It looks beautiful, what
with the beautiful beaches. And I believe it has an interesting history
with Columbus having spent a few years living and raising his family there.

I would be very interested to hear what people thought of the island.

"roger" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Wondering if anyone has ever been to the island of Porto Santo, Madeira.
    > We have been thinking of renting on the island. It looks beautiful, what
    > with the beautiful beaches. And I believe it has an interesting history
    > with Columbus having spent a few years living and raising his family
there.
    > I would be very interested to hear what people thought of the island.

I spent a few days there when I visited Madeira, since Madeira itself
doesn't have any beaches.

The island has only 5,000 inhabitants, so there is not much to do there
except lie around on the beach, do some cycling and maybe do some hiking on
the side of the island that is composed of cliffs. There are not many trees
on Porto Santo and when I was there in September of 2001, they had not had
any rain for several years to the detriment of what little agriculture they
had there previously, although I believe they continue to produce wine. The
real disaster for the island was the rabbits that were introduced during the
period of colonization, eating all the local plants and turning the island
into a semi-desert. They are currently at work trying to reintroduce the
native flora.

Oddly, it was while walking along the beach there that I first heard the
news about the planes flying into the World Trade Center in New York, making
the news seem particularly surreal.

In my opinion, to make the most of your holiday, you should distribute your
time equally between Madeira and Porto Santo. That way you can combine
sight-seeing with relaxation.

Lana

"szozu" <hoppbunny at hotmail com> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

    >
    > "roger" <[email protected]> wrote in message
    > news:[email protected]...
    >> Wondering if anyone has ever been to the island of Porto Santo,
    >> Madeira.
    >> We have been thinking of renting on the island. It looks beautiful,
    >> what with the beautiful beaches. And I believe it has an interesting
    >> history with Columbus having spent a few years living and raising his
    >> family
    > there.
    >> I would be very interested to hear what people thought of the island.
    >
    > I spent a few days there when I visited Madeira, since Madeira itself
    > doesn't have any beaches.
    >
    > The island has only 5,000 inhabitants, so there is not much to do
    > there except lie around on the beach, do some cycling and maybe do
    > some hiking on the side of the island that is composed of cliffs.
    > There are not many trees on Porto Santo and when I was there in
    > September of 2001, they had not had any rain for several years to the
    > detriment of what little agriculture they had there previously,
    > although I believe they continue to produce wine. The real disaster
    > for the island was the rabbits that were introduced during the period
    > of colonization, eating all the local plants and turning the island
    > into a semi-desert. They are currently at work trying to reintroduce
    > the native flora.
    >
    > Oddly, it was while walking along the beach there that I first heard
    > the news about the planes flying into the World Trade Center in New
    > York, making the news seem particularly surreal.
    >
    > In my opinion, to make the most of your holiday, you should distribute
    > your time equally between Madeira and Porto Santo. That way you can
    > combine sight-seeing with relaxation.


Lana, thank you so much for your very helpful response.

I didn't know about the rabbit problem. Altho I did read that hundreds
of years ago, Christopher Columbus and his wife would go rabbit hunting
at night. So I guess the rabbit problem still exists to this day. I would
have thought that it would have been in everyone's interest (especially
the farmers) to have eradicated the problem. I wonder if the newly
introduced flora will flourish with the rabbits around.

I also didn't know about the island having no rainfall for several years.
I had assumed that in summer there was the odd water shortage. I wonder
if the houses on the island have piped in water supply, as well as
electric.

I'm going over to Madeira and Porto Santo in the middle of this month. I
really like the look of both islands, from the brochures/images. I only
wish that Madeira had some sandy beaches. A mixture of the best aspects
of both islands would be ideal!

By the way, I was talking to a person on Porto Santo yesterday and he
tells me that they have just opened a new 18 hole golf course on the
island. It opened on October 1st. This might really pull in more
interest to the island. Altho I do wonder how they will keep the golf
course looking green...with the lack of rain.

"roger" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

    > I didn't know about the rabbit problem. Altho I did read that hundreds
    > of years ago, Christopher Columbus and his wife would go rabbit hunting
    > at night. So I guess the rabbit problem still exists to this day. I would
    > have thought that it would have been in everyone's interest (especially
    > the farmers) to have eradicated the problem. I wonder if the newly
    > introduced flora will flourish with the rabbits around.

They got rid of the surplus of rabbits, but not before they had already
eaten up all the vegetation on the island.

    > I also didn't know about the island having no rainfall for several years.
    > I had assumed that in summer there was the odd water shortage. I wonder
    > if the houses on the island have piped in water supply, as well as
    > electric.

I don't know if the rainfall has increased since my visit, but the cab
driver I had was complaining that it hadn't rained for the last couple of
winters.

    > I'm going over to Madeira and Porto Santo in the middle of this month. I
    > really like the look of both islands, from the brochures/images. I only
    > wish that Madeira had some sandy beaches. A mixture of the best aspects
    > of both islands would be ideal!

If you want to do some organized tours of Madeira, be sure to use a company
that uses small vans or 4X4 vehicles and not the big buses. The levada walks
are nice if you are not afraid of heights.

    > By the way, I was talking to a person on Porto Santo yesterday and he
    > tells me that they have just opened a new 18 hole golf course on the
    > island. It opened on October 1st. This might really pull in more
    > interest to the island. Altho I do wonder how they will keep the golf
    > course looking green...with the lack of rain.
90% of the water used on Porto Santo is desalinised--hence the golf course.

Lana

"szozu" <hoppbunny at hotmail com> wrote

    > They got rid of the surplus of rabbits, but not before they had
    > already eaten up all the vegetation on the island.

I hope it can grow again. If the island was a little more lush looking
in the interior, it looks like it would be close to a perfect paradise.




    >> I also didn't know about the island having no rainfall for several
    >> years. I had assumed that in summer there was the odd water shortage.
    >> I wonder if the houses on the island have piped in water supply, as
    >> well as electric.
    >
    > I don't know if the rainfall has increased since my visit, but the cab
    > driver I had was complaining that it hadn't rained for the last couple
    > of winters.

I did a search today and the various weather pages at yahoo and excite,
all show occasional showers this week...maybe even a thunderstorm on one
day, for the island.

I guess that neighbouring Madeira gets a lot of rain (at least for 6
months of the year) because of the high mountains.....whereas Porto Santo
is much flatter and thus I guess misses out.



    >> I'm going over to Madeira and Porto Santo in the middle of this
    >> month. I really like the look of both islands, from the
    >> brochures/images. I only wish that Madeira had some sandy beaches. A
    >> mixture of the best aspects of both islands would be ideal!
    >
    > If you want to do some organized tours of Madeira, be sure to use a
    > company that uses small vans or 4X4 vehicles and not the big buses.
    > The levada walks are nice if you are not afraid of heights.


thanks, I will keep that tip in mind. Information is power, as they say.

The sheer drops (from the pictures I've seen of of Madeira) are a bit
scary.

There is one image that stays with me, of hikers walking across a narrow
ridge of a grass covered mountain....and on both sides is a steep drop
down like a hillside......once you started rolling, I can't imagine you
would stop for thousands of feet.

I did try this afternoon to book flights over to Porto Santo (from the
UK). But is near impossible. It takes 4 flights....one from my regional
airport to London...one to Lisbon...one to Funchal on Madeira....and a
fourth flight to Porto Santo island. It would be quicker swimming it!

The easiest way it seems is to fly to Funchal and make my own way across
to the island (ferry or internal short flight). But even getting a
flight to Funchal at short notice is difficult it seems....the travel
company rep checked his computer and said that Madeira has so few flights
(I believe they want to restrict any mass tourism)

I don't know how I am going to get there cheaply.



    >> By the way, I was talking to a person on Porto Santo yesterday and he
    >> tells me that they have just opened a new 18 hole golf course on the
    >> island. It opened on October 1st. This might really pull in more
    >> interest to the island. Altho I do wonder how they will keep the
    >> golf course looking green...with the lack of rain.
    > 90% of the water used on Porto Santo is desalinised--hence the golf
    > course.

ahhhh....and I notice they are building two more golf courses on the
island. With limited tourist numbers allowed onto Madeira and Porto
Santo, this type of golf resort could become rather upmarket.

On the topic of water, I wonder if it is expensive (ie annual water bill
for villa).

BTW I knew it was time to leave Blair and the UK behind when they started
charging for water....the one darn thing that we have PLENTY of.

"roger" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > "szozu" <hoppbunny at hotmail com> wrote
\>
    > I guess that neighbouring Madeira gets a lot of rain (at least for 6
    > months of the year) because of the high mountains.....whereas Porto Santo
    > is much flatter and thus I guess misses out.
Madeira gets loads of rain. It can be raining in one area and sunny in
another.


    > The sheer drops (from the pictures I've seen of of Madeira) are a bit
    > scary.
    > There is one image that stays with me, of hikers walking across a narrow
    > ridge of a grass covered mountain....and on both sides is a steep drop
    > down like a hillside......once you started rolling, I can't imagine you
    > would stop for thousands of feet.

It's very helpful to have a walking stick for balance. Lots of hiking groups
provide them for people who haven't brought there own. Some of the levadas
are not in good repair in places and they can be slippery in parts, so
hiking shoes are a good idea as well.
    > I did try this afternoon to book flights over to Porto Santo (from the
    > UK). But is near impossible. It takes 4 flights....one from my regional
    > airport to London...one to Lisbon...one to Funchal on Madeira....and a
    > fourth flight to Porto Santo island. It would be quicker swimming it!
    > The easiest way it seems is to fly to Funchal and make my own way across
    > to the island (ferry or internal short flight). But even getting a
    > flight to Funchal at short notice is difficult it seems....the travel
    > company rep checked his computer and said that Madeira has so few flights
    > (I believe they want to restrict any mass tourism)
    > I don't know how I am going to get there cheaply.

TAP, the Portuguese airline, have flights all day long to Funchal, so I
can't imagine that it would be difficult. Check out their website. If you're
talking the ferry afterwards, it's about 2 1/2 hours, whereas the flight is
15 minutes but expensive.

Lana

"szozu" <hoppbunny at hotmail com> wrote in

    >> There is one image that stays with me, of hikers walking across a
    >> narrow ridge of a grass covered mountain....and on both sides is a
    >> steep drop down like a hillside......once you started rolling, I
    >> can't imagine you would stop for thousands of feet.
    >
    > It's very helpful to have a walking stick for balance. Lots of hiking
    > groups provide them for people who haven't brought there own. Some of
    > the levadas are not in good repair in places and they can be slippery
    > in parts, so hiking shoes are a good idea as well.


thanks for that tip.


    >> I don't know how I am going to get there cheaply.
    >
    > TAP, the Portuguese airline, have flights all day long to Funchal, so
    > I can't imagine that it would be difficult. Check out their website.
    > If you're talking the ferry afterwards, it's about 2 1/2 hours,
    > whereas the flight is 15 minutes but expensive.


Lana,

many thanks. I called a travel specialist today and got a direct flight
from london to funchal for mid October.

I am going to stay for 2 weeks.

I am unsure as to how to organise my itinerary. But given that I can't
see myself settling on the beachless Madeira, I will possibly spend the
first 2 or 3 days on Madeira (looking at villas and lots for purchase)
before spending my final 10 days or so, on Porto Santo.

I adore the look of that island.

Okay, it could be a little more lush.....but on every other score, it is
paradise.

I only hope that the locals don't inflate their prices (re lots and small
farm acreages) once they see a foreigner coming.