{"id":105,"date":"2026-08-10T01:44:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T00:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/car-hire-and-getting-there\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T01:44:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T00:44:00","slug":"car-hire-and-getting-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/car-hire-and-getting-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Car hire and getting there"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Arrival<\/h2>\n<p>The airport is at Santa Cruz in the east, around 20 minutes&#8217; drive from Funchal. The expressway along the south coast is fully built out and runs through a long sequence of tunnels and bridges \u2014 Funchal to C\u00e2mara de Lobos takes 20 minutes, Funchal to Machico about half an hour.<\/p>\n<p>If you stay on the south coast only, you do not need a car. The moment the north, the highlands or a levada joins the plan, that changes.<\/p>\n<h2>Why the choice of car matters<\/h2>\n<p>Away from the expressways Madeira is steep. Eighteen per cent ramps are not unusual on the approaches to trailhead car parks, and they start from a standstill, not with a run-up. The smallest manual car with little torque is the wrong tool there.<\/p>\n<p>Not because of power \u2014 because of pulling away on a slope, often with oncoming traffic on a single lane. If you are not practised with a clutch on a hill, book an automatic. On this island that is not a comfort choice.<\/p>\n<h2>Parking<\/h2>\n<p>In Funchal you park where the car parks are. On-street spaces in the old town are scarce and charged. If you book a hotel without its own space, add the parking cost, otherwise the final bill will not be the one you calculated.<\/p>\n<p>At trailheads the opposite applies: free, but small. Arrive at ten and you have arrived late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The coastal roads are new and fast. The routes into the highlands are not. What that means for the car you book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":85,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-practical-info"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}