The lava pools
Black-bed, crystal-water swimming.
Bex Walton from London, England — CC BY 2.0 · Bex Walton from London, England — CC BY 2.0 · Michael Gaylard from Horsham, UK — CC BY 2.0 · Michael Gaylard from Horsham, UK — CC BY 2.0
Porto Moniz is Madeira's legendary swim: natural pools the black lava shaped at the far northwest — the ocean filling and renewing them by wave, so you swim a tamed Atlantic between volcanic walls, the foam bursting behind the rims as constant theatre. Two complexes: the serviced pools (natural swimming baths with facilities, lifeguards and a token fee — entirely familial) and the wild Cachalote pools east of them, free-access for roughness lovers with tide caution — the village around them fish restaurants, an old hotel and a small whale museum. The journey is half the day itself: the north road through São Vicente drops waterfalls literally onto the asphalt (the Bridal Veil), tunnels and green cliff — the island's finest drive. Pair it with the misty Fanal forest (ancient laurel trees as ghosts in fog) returning over the plateau: the standard complete northwest day.
Black-bed, crystal-water swimming.
Ancient laurels as fog ghosts — the return's pair.
Porto Moniz, 9270 (day trip)
Honest Atlantic: 18-23 in summer — refreshment, not bitter cold, the walls breaking the waves to a calm surface. Winter belongs to the brave and the short-dippers — and the scene alone repays the trip dry.