{"id":688,"date":"2026-08-17T12:23:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T11:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/desertas-islands\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T12:23:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T11:23:51","slug":"desertas-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/desertas-islands\/","title":{"rendered":"Out to the Desertas Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>From about \u20ac90, nine hours<\/strong>, by catamaran from Funchal. Only a handful of operators run it regularly.<\/p>\n<h2>What is there<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Monk seals.<\/strong> The Desertas are one of the last Atlantic refuges of the Mediterranean monk seal \u2014 a species that came close to extinction and has slowly recovered here under protection. Sightings are possible but not guaranteed; the animals are shy and access to their coves is restricted.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Seabirds, and a bare, almost lunar landscape.<\/strong> No village, no harbour, no kiosk. There is a warden station on Deserta Grande.<\/p>\n<p><strong>On the way:<\/strong> the crossing runs through deep water, so the odds of dolphins and whales en route are high. For a lot of people that is the actual highlight.<\/p>\n<h2>How the day runs<\/h2>\n<p>Morning departure from the Funchal marina, roughly two and a half hours out, anchoring in a bay, <strong>swim stop and snorkelling<\/strong>, lunch on board (usually included), back in the afternoon. Nine hours all told.<\/p>\n<h2>What to watch for<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>This is a sea passage, not an outing.<\/strong> Five hours on open water; if you get seasick, it is not for you.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Weather dependent.<\/strong> Trips are cancelled in swell \u2014 schedule it early in your stay, not on the last day.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Going ashore<\/strong> is restricted or not possible at all because of the reserve status. If you are expecting an island walk, you are booking the wrong thing.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sun and wind<\/strong> for nine hours. Hat, long sleeves, water.<\/li>\n<li>The 4.4 rating sits below the coastal trips \u2014 not on quality, but because expectations diverge.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Who it suits<\/h2>\n<p>People who have <strong>already done a whale and dolphin trip<\/strong> and want more; anyone with a naturalist streak; anyone who finds a full day on the water restful rather than gruelling.<\/p>\n<p>If you only want to see dolphins, a <a href=\"\/en\/whale-and-dolphin-watching\/\">three-hour trip at \u20ac35<\/a> serves you better.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 <a class=\"wom-aff wom-aff--getyourguide\" href=\"https:\/\/www.getyourguide.com\/en-gb\/madeira-l67\/cruises-boat-tours-tc48\/\" rel=\"sponsored nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">See Desertas trips on GetYourGuide<\/a> <small class=\"wom-aff__flag\">(Affiliate link)<\/small><\/p>\n<p>Next: <a href=\"\/en\/whale-and-dolphin-watching\/\">Whale and dolphin watching<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"\/en\/catamaran-boat-trips\/\">Catamaran and boat trips<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"\/en\/porto-santo-trips\/\">Trips on Porto Santo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three uninhabited, desert-like rock islands about 25 km south-east of Madeira, a nature reserve since 1990. From Funchal&#8217;s seafront they are visible on clear days as a long bare silhouette on the horizon \u2014 which is exactly the appeal: you sail out to the thing you have been looking at from the balcony all week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":67,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coast-ocean"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688","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=688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonmadeira.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}