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Madeira and Porto Santo Islands

14 Nights/15 Days

Destination:

• Porto Santo and Madeira, Portugal
• Funchal Airport (FNC) or Porto Santo Airport (PXO)

Length of stay:

• Fifteen days/ fourteen nights

Itinerary

Day 1 – Madeira, Funchal

After a flight over the Atlantic Ocean, you will arrive at Madeira at Cristiano Ronaldo Airport (FNC) or Porto Santo Airport (PXO). If your flight takes you to Funchal, your driver will be waiting to take you to Funchal Harbour. There you will get on the Ferry and sail to Porto Santo Island.

You will arrive at Porto Santo island two hours and a half later, where you'll stay and dive for the next six days.

The Island of Porto Santo is a haven of gold and blue, 11km long and 6km wide, and has been long dubbed the Golden Island for its extensive, stunning nine km-long beach of fine and silky sand, bathed by turquoise waters.

Health and wellness go hand in hand on this magnificent beach as, in addition to its crystalline waters, its sands have rare therapeutic properties. The sand is soft, delicate and smooth and consists mainly of calcium carbonate in calcite, with unique thermal qualities.

Day 2 to 6 – Porto Santo

For the next five days, you will have the immense pleasure of diving into the beautiful and crystalline waters offshore Porto Santo. For those who love diving, the Porto Santo sea hides charms you will not want to miss.

One of the most looked-for dive spots in Porto Santo is "Madeirense".

A container ship that has been part of the history of Madeira's maritime transport and a war vessel awaits you a few meters deep, becoming actual artificial reefs where you can get in and out of its cabins, surrounded by thousands of fish. It is said that it's a unique spot to dive.

Having all sorts of natural dive spots to visit, Porto Santo is also home to the Corveta Pereira d'Eça. Porto Santo will be a 100/100 diving location for those who like shipwrecks. But there are other types of dives you will love.

Another is called "Âncoras" (translated to English, Anchors) due to abandoned local fisher boat anchors.

The anchor buoy is at 6mts depth. It is an ideal dive site for Discover Scuba Divers, beginners, check dives and snorkelling. Like most Porto Santo dive sites, this site is inside the golden breams protected marine reserve with abundant fish life all along the southern edge of the Ilheu de Cima, which drops right into the sea with no beaches.

As our most frequented dive site, the fish are very used to divers and usually accompany us throughout the dive. Expect to see golden breams, parrotfish, sea bream, spider crabs, the occasional moray or octopus, and triggerfish—a very relaxing dive.

Day 7 – Madeira, Funchal

You already know the routine. The driver will pick you up at your hotel and drive you to the harbour. Let's set sail to Madeira Island, where you'll check in for the rest of your trip and the best dives in Madeira. Once again, the driver will do what he has to do: take you to your hotel in Santa Cruz.

Day 8 and 9 – Funchal

The first two days of diving will continue to surprise you. Diving the Madeira waters from Santa Cruz is the right compromise for someone discovering this paradise.

Here you will be able to dive into one of the most privileged places in the world to practice this sport. The temperate and crystalline waters of Madeira make it possible to dive into its natural reserves and to observe numerous species such as cnidarians like anemones, black corals, fish like groupers, moray eels, stingrays, and – if you're lucky – even sea lions, the monk seals, the rarest in the world.

Garajau, a National Park, one of many Natural Reserves in Madeira, is a fantastic and guaranteed great dive. Warm and crystalline waters welcome you to this stunning diving location. There are several diving spots in the Reserve. In this one, the main highlight is the large shoals of fish of different species diving close for your amusement.

The bottom is sand and rolled stones.

In some places, we find giant rock formations that form "chimneys", and it is possible to pass through them.

Another diving spot you must try – especially if you remain the shipwrecks' lover diving in Porto Santo – is the Corveta Afonso Cerqueira.

The Corvette Afonso Cerqueira, after Corvette General Pereira D'Eça, is the second ship to go deep into the seas of the Madeira Archipelago.

The objective was the creation of a road map of artificial reefs with environmental tourism potentialities.

Day 10 – Madeira

Today is your first topside program. What's incredible about this trip is that you have plenty of diving time, but you will also spend some hours visiting the island. Maybe your attitude towards these trips is "I don't want to visit; I want to dive"? Well, you will think differently after this one.

Day 11 to 13 – Funchal

Three more days diving, six other fantastic dive spots to visit. Maybe this will be one of them.

You can go for some distinct immersions at the Roca Mar dive spot; depending on where you start the dive, you'll fall to different depths. However, the maximum is 24 meters.

It is located in the coastal area of Caniço de Baixo, 10 meters from the adjacent bathing area to the Hotel Roca Mar.

Usually, we start at 6 meters deep, and we find a tunnel that crosses the pier to access the bathing area from one side to the other.

Day 14 – Madeira

They say everything good comes to an end. We prefer to think that it arrives at an interval. You can always resume diving here or anywhere, right? So, today, it is the surface interval. And we have prepared another tour for you to go to the other side of the island.

Enjoy!

Day 15 – Madeira

Time to say goodbye. We hope you had a fantastic time and come back soon.

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COST: pricing on request

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Dive Discovery
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