Madeira accommodation and uplifts

Any recommendations for reasonably priced bike friendly accommodation in Madeira? There’s plenty of self catered options on Air Bnb but not sure four dirty bikes would be welcomed.

We’re heading there soon but looking to keep the costs down, so a package from Freeride Madeira isn’t an option.

Plan is to potentially do a mix of Freeride Madeira guiding and cheaper uplifts. Anyone worth looking into for cheaper uplift?

Bump for the weekday crowd

I only have experience of Freeride, but I can confirm they were superb. We’ve done air bnb twice. MTB is a huge industry over there, most landlords will be very accommodating for bikes.

When are you going?

Freeride will give you access to the best trails and will be by far the most efficient use of your time out there, so it is really is worth the money (if you are there on a short holiday).

I’ll be out there in early November for a week and then from mid-December until end of April.

Another supporter of Freeride Madeira here. They are the only group on the island that maintain the trails so it’s nice to support them and they actually know which trails are running well at the moment.

We stayed in an Air BnB in machico which was extremely well priced. 5 bed villa for £29 a night. Hose to wash bikes and a 20min walk to the beach. We specifically chose to be away from the main centre and it worked well. We did a day with Free Ride and they picked us up from the centre of machico and dropped us off there. We then drove around the island picking the best trails based on weather and group ability etc. From machico if you was feeling really fit and adventurous you could ride to some trails from town like ‘whole in one’ the 2019 EWS stage and a few others, but it would be a good 1-2 hours of riding up to get to the start.

You will have a great time though, the trails are incredible.

Bikes should be fine in most accomodation there. Just check before booking.

Agree on Freeride Madeira. Dont waste your holiday riding up or looking for trails. It’s too good to not be riding.

If you are intent on doing your own day locals either do their own uplifts or use the buses out of Funchal

I’m thinking about a winter trip to Madeira possibly in January or February. I’ll probably book uplifts with Freeride.

Any accommodation trips for a solo traveller? Don’t really want to be isolated in the middle of nowhere but don’t want to end up sleeping above a nightclub either.

Suite Hotel Jardins Da Ajuda : a 5 min cycle west from Freeride. just around the corner is a supermarket, shopping centre etc. There are bars and restaurants in the area as well. Its listed on booking.com. There are a few apartments also in the same rough area. Price wise its working out at £319 for me for a week in March 2022

For transfers. https://www.facebook.com/DanielMadeiraTaxis Cheaper than freeride and holiday companies.

Freeride are really good. The guys know their stuff and the service is fantastic.

There are other options though.
https://www.facebook.com/bikulture/
https://www.ebikemadeira.com/en/

Excellent, thanks for all the responses. Freeride have availability and looks like that is pretty unanimous in terms of guiding recommendations.

You’ll have a blast.

If you see an black classic Mercedes with bike carriers on the roof, that will be me, so come say hello (nobody else on the island is yet mad enough to use a classic car as a bike uplift vehicle).

I have a group of local friends now who I ride with, although I started out with Freeride. Without a good guide or local knowledge you will never find the starts of the trails and there are Sooooooo many truly epic trails on the island.

Another advantage is that it is usually good weather ‘somewhere’ on the island so a company like Freeride should be looking at the forecast and know whether to take you west of east.

One word of warning though… Make sure you have full DH casing tyres and proper aggressive treads (if going in winter months). When it’s dry, it’s super dusty, but when it is wet, it is utterly utterly lethal. They call it ‘Madeira Ice’. I’ve lost count of the number of times I have crashed because of it.

I also now ONLY ride with full-face helmet, goggles, knee and shin protection AND a body-suit with arm protection. All those rocks have pretty sharp edges and they don’t tend to ‘give much’.

Last but not least, if you are there in the winter, they run a good series of downhill and enduro races with something happening most Sundays (although this was all halted in Covid). If you have a hire-car, it’s great to go watch, or even enter if you fancy a laugh. Watching young teenagers hammer down insane trails on 20yr old downhill bikes certainly puts us all into perspective as we rock up with our bling bling carbon flying machines (average domestic wage in Madeira is a tiny fraction of what it is in the UK).

Enjoy!

Quick question – just how gnarly are the trails? Is there something for everyone with the option of building up to the harder trails? Or is it pretty much full on all over the island? Tempted, but don’t want to be completely out of my depth for a full week…

Quick question – just how gnarly are the trails? Is there something for everyone with the option of building up to the harder trails? Or is it pretty much full on all over the island? Tempted, but don’t want to be completely out of my depth for a full week…

If you are at least fairly competent and the weather is kind, you’ll be fine. The guides are very good at judging ability. My girlfriend did a week there when she’d been riding less than a year and had a great time. There are definitely plenty of gnarly trails though. Maybe not as rooty as home, but they do love a steep corner. Again fine in the dry, challenging in the wet!

As an alternative, also worth considering Finale Ligure. The Backcountry trails are amazing and many are quite chill. The challenge is more in how fast you’re willing to go. An absolutely amazing place to ride bikes though, I enjoyed it much more than Madeira for a number of reasons. My Madeira trip was very wet though (it snowed on the first day!), which definitely had a big impact.

@ready ask to do “easy” enduro when you book and be honest with the guides at the beginning of each day. That worked fine for me (UK trail centre red comfortable at the time, progressed a bit since thankfully), and they recommended I sat out about three descents over five days. TBH my thighs were glad of the rest, as I’d never spent so much time standing on pedals before then. Some of the guides are great coaches and will help with skills progression where they can.

TAKE A HEAD-TORCH! You might not need one every day, but you’ll thank me on the day you do.

they run a good series of downhill and enduro races with something happening most Sundays

This is interesting – is there any information online? I’m there for the next two weekends

Love that madeira has become an MTB mecha. Went about 6 years ago just for a random break, borrowed a bike off a guy we were staying with and used one of the buses to get above town. Could see there was so much just hidden out of view.
Not sure who all the operators are, but its one of those just spot on places, people are great, coffee is good, those tiny bannanas are amazing and the cake is always waiting at the bottom.

Definitely take a small head torch. 🙂

For local enduro and DH races look here https://www.acmadeira.pt/#

Plenty going on from now forwards. The Avalanche race in December is utterly hilarious as well as completely crazy.

As for questions asked about varying ability, there is plenty here for everyone. Not all trails are utterly crazy and those that are will usually have chicken lines. With Freeride Madeira, the guides will stop before each short section and talk you through what you are about to go down and give you the options. We do the same when riding privately as it’s just the safest way to do it.

You also need to be totally honest about your skill level when booking the rides with Freeride. This will then allow them to put you in the right groups. They have an extremely broad range of abilities come to the island to ride and take it from me, it is no fun if you are in a group riding at much higher level than you. You are out of your comfort zone and just trying to get down in one piece.

Oh,and make sure you have a long dropper post. The only time you will be in the saddle will be during any ride-ins or transfers across to the trails. The rest of the time you want your saddle to be well away from you.

In terms of set-up, in an ideal world you would be tubeless (the rocks are super slippery so you need low pressures), with DH casings and maybe even inserts. As much travel as you can muster (ideally I would like 170/180 front and 160 back as it is a great skill compensator!) and definitely 4-pot brakes. Take some spare brake pads with you as you will need them. For this winter I will bumping my Canyon Strive CF (which lives out at my Madeira permanently) to 180mm on the front and 165mm on the back, along with Code calipers and 200mm disc front and back. I will also be fitting a longer dropper (I’m quite tall). In terms of tyres, I run Assagei/DHFII in the winter and Assagei/MinionSS in the summer.

Oh, and a cheap set of Decathlon waterproof trousers and jacket for when it rains. No need to spend lots as you’re generally only going downhill so it doesn’t needs to be super flexible Goretex stuff. The locals buy the cheapest stuff possible.

It’s generally pretty warm so I am usually riding in shorts year-round (even when it snows at the top, you can be on the beach at the bottom). It can be cold at the very top (1600m+) with drizzle and cloud, so you will sometimes need to put on a rain top to stop yourself from freezing (it can take a few minutes of standing around before everyone is ready to start). Once you start down, you can normally ditch this as the weather is usually better when you drop below the cloud line. Your full-face helmet and goggles make a big difference in keeping your head warm at the top!

I finished my book in the airport so resorted to jotting down some notes for in flight entertainment. Hopefully useful for anyone else looking at visiting and answers some of the questions I had.

We booked 5 days riding with Freeride guided by positive reviews here and that they are the only ones investing in the trails. As mentioned above, it would be really difficult to do any amount of riding without a guide. We did meet some people who were there for 2 weeks so mixed in some days of driving to their favourite trails and pedalling with the guiding.

Madeira is a stunning island and well worth a visit. Food and drink is decent and generally well priced and we found the locals to be really friendly. I’d recommend renting a vehicle if you plan on having more than one day off from riding, it’s insanely hilly and public transport isn’t the easiest. Google maps doesn’t even have cycling as an option! I had a few non riding days and felt a little trapped in Funchal with no transport.

Accomodation – we stayed in an air BnB in old town area of Funchal. Contrary to what was mentioned above, MTB is a drop in the ocean in terms of tourism there. Our host had only had bikes once before, and we seen hardly any other people on bikes. Even with Freeride, most seemed to be renting bikes and adding a day or two of riding into their holiday. Freeride have a bike wash, so no need to worry about bringing a dirty bike back.
When looking for accommodation keep in mind Freeride meet at 8.50 and are up the hill from Funchal, so consider how early you’ll be wanting to get up once you start getting tired mid-week or get carried away on the post ride Poncha! We were 15 mins (and one good climb) away. I don’t think I’d want to be much further unless I stayed out of town and drove. Funchal is chilled and pleasant, and personally I think it’s better than the area surrounding Freeride which seemed to be more modern and geared towards the large hotels. Other operators run from different areas.

Faff – lots of faff. Multiple bus trips with lots of riders. There is lots of loading, unloading, waiting for regrouping, photos, mechanicals, people adjusting settings on rental bikes etc etc. We even passed another group who had gone a good way down a track before someone realised they’d left their helmet in the bus! I found this to be really annoying at the times when you just want to get going.

Groups – we rode with loads of different people from all over the world and I met some people I plan to ride with again. Generally it was a really enjoyable experience and one which added to the holiday. There was one day where we were limited by the ability of a guy who was well out of his depth and we spent a couple of days sharing a bus with an unbearable loudmouth “Brit on tour” type and his two rude kids. Overall the good outweighed the bad!
I was quite conscious of group riding etiquette and not adding to the faff; there was a road gap a mate and I wanted to hit, but we decided it wasn’t fair on the rest of the group to have to wait for us to look at the landing, practice run in etc. There’s not many jumps and most of the others were ok to ride first time so not a big deal, but certainly left a tinge of walking away from a feature I’d have liked to tick off.

Staff – all the Freeride staff were great. We had four different guides and they were all passionate and friendly as well as being brilliant riders. The drivers, mechanic and shop staff were also an asset.

Uplift – expect much slower uplifts compared to ski lifts, as well as driving an hour at either end of the day. I felt like I spent most of my trip sat in the bus. Compared to the alps, you’re paying for the variety of riding rather than the volume so if smashing non stops laps all day is for you, I’d look elsewhere.

Trails – the terrain is rough and trails are long and often fast, but they’re never particularly steep or gnarly. The variety is really cool and it’s a unique experience riding such different terrain back to back.
Potentially contentious comment, but I was disappointed by the condition of the trails. Nearly all jumps were in poor condition, lots of berms decimated or full of braking bumps, and too often chutes ended with skid marks into the undergrowth where a catch berm used to be.

Other – I brought both full face and trail helmet, but after day 1 didn’t think the full face was necessary. Guides seem to be half and half, so I’d say go with whatever you’re comfortable with. Goggles or good riding glasses are a must.
The torch is only needed on one day, so worth checking rather than carrying it all the time. Some used their phone but I’d go for torch or head lamp rather than risk dropping my phone in a levada.
The hot days got hot and dusty, the wet days got wet and muddy. It occasionally got cold higher up but was always warm by half way down the trail. Pack accordingly and look for accommodation with a washing machine.

Overall definitely a trip I would recommend, but not one I’d necessarily repeat. I am however looking for something similar… Anyone got any tips for La Palma?

“We even passed another group who had gone a good way down a track before someone realised they’d left their helmet in the bus! ”

That was our group… The Chap and his kid had come from the Surrey Hills, he was well out of his depth and walked a lot of it but had put on his form they were Intermediate level. What can ya do…

I came back from a weeks trip yesterday, with 4 days riding with Freeride Madeira.

Girlfriend and I had a great time, each day the group varied but genuinely everyone in our groups were great, also pleasantly surprised to see plenty of women riding, which made my girlfriend feel more at ease and not have to deal with dickhead mtb men. I think every day was at least 50/50 men to women, with one day slightly more women – Good to see!

Our guide was great, and generally agree with all of the comments above. There was a fair bit of faffing, but being in the intermediarte group to cater for my gf I was happy enough to cruise and make sure everyone got down safely.

Cannot emphasise enough just how slippery it is in parts!

We stayed in the Hotel Duas Torres, which is an option of where they put you if you book with freeride madeira. It has a bike store, a bike wash (hose) and a decent area to build the bikes in. We booked direct to save a bit of money, it had a kitchenette and was about £50 per night. Has a pool, bar etc etc and is on the quieter side of Funchal, I would recommend it if you want a fairly easy life, 2 min walk to the shops and 5 min ride to the freeride shop.

That was our group… The Chap and his kid had come from the Surrey Hills, he was well out of his depth and walked a lot of it but had put on his form they were Intermediate level. What can ya do…

Nightmare! Did they send him back up to the bus on his own or did you have to wait for him?

The one guy that struggled with our group was with his son, his son was a handy rider but dad walked lots. I’m guessing son picked their ability level!

Our legend of a guide (Francisco) had to call the bus to turn back, then nailed it back up the fire road to grab the helmet for him. We all waited. Luckily the weather was pretty good that day or I think I would have just cracked on!

Had someone slip and fall into the Levada on the way to the tunnel track too, luckily she was ok! There was a guy in our hotel who broke his collarbone the day before we started on the first little bunnyhop gap thing at the start of (I think) Redline.

All in all glad we didn’t have to wait for too long, theres the possibility on a lot of it that someone nails themselves and everyone has to then wait quite some time. Saw a couple of 4×4 sprinter ambulances though, so guess they can get pretty close on the fire roads.

Ah, we were there that day but with a different group. It was super dusty and he hit the gap without seeing it. I think he rolled along the levada to get to a place accessible for the ambulance. It was early in his trip too, poor bugger

For La Palma, there a company called Flowtrails La Palma I’ve had an eye on, it looks like very good value for a week trip and the riding looks pretty good. Best wait for the volcanic activity to quieten down though.

I appreciate all the information on this thread,.. currently planning on a trip early-March next year and trying to decide where.

Both Madeira and Malaga I can fly direct from Glasgow, so I was either going back with Ciclo Montana or Freeride Madeira..