The lava pools
Black-bed, crystal-water swimming.
Bex Walton from London, England โ CC BY 2.0 ยท Bex Walton from London, England โ CC BY 2.0 ยท Michael Gaylard from Horsham, UK โ CC BY 2.0 ยท Michael Gaylard from Horsham, UK โ CC BY 2.0
Honest Atlantic: 18-23 in summer โ refreshment, not bitter cold, the walls breaking the waves to a calm surface. Winter belongs to the brave and the short-dippers โ and the scene alone repays the trip dry.
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Porto Moniz is Madeira's legendary swim: natural pools the black lava shaped at the far northwest โ 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 โ entirely familial) and the wild Cachalote pools east of them, free-access for roughness lovers with tide caution โ 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 Sรฃo Vicente drops waterfalls literally onto the asphalt (the Bridal Veil), tunnels and green cliff โ 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 โ the return's pair.
Porto Moniz, 9270 (day trip)