These days, there aren’t that many destinations that tend to surprise me.
This isn’t because the destinations aren’t amazing or beautiful or dramatic or whatever-else-you’d-look-for-on-your-travels.
I think it’s in large part due to being able to do a fair bit of research online, see photos (and videos) before going. This means I tend to arrive prepared for what’s in store at the destination.
As we’d just returned from a trip to Portugal recently (one I still have load to tell you about – we started in Lisbon and made our way down to Sagres), I kinda took it for granted that our recent trip to the island of Madeira would be fairly similar to the coastline scenes on that journey down to Sagres.
I also expected lots of chilled beach time, a few days of thoroughly indulging in my Portuguese peri-peri chicken obsession, constant sunshine and spotting a fair few British holiday makers here and there…
Turns out, I was in for quite the surprise.
For starters, there’s so much dramatic scenery in Madeira that you’ll find yourself hard-pressed to sit on a beach instead of going off exploring.
The holiday makers here scatter off into all the different corners of this island in search of its amazing sights so it couldn’t be further from your typical British holiday.
It’ll be scorching down by the shore (where you’re most likely to be based) and when you drive up into the mountains, absolutely freezing. It’s like 4 seasons in a day – except you get to choose the seasons!
Like this is a place where the mountains literally rise from the seas and touch the clouds.
*The Peri-Peri chicken here was still pretty special though – that was one that didn’t surprise but still managed to thrill and delight time and time again! 😉
This dramatic landscape also means that it’s great for thing like whale watching and spotting dolphins as the waters around the island are some favourite spots for resident and migratory whales and dolphins.
There’s just so much to see here and this amazing island totally took me by surprise! I’ll have the proper blog posts coming up very soon too (I’m still sorting through all my photos) but here are some photos from the amazing island of Madeira!
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