MADEIRA Like You’ve Never Seen 🇵🇹 Hidden Spots With The Locals

MADEIRA Like You’ve Never Seen 🇵🇹 Hidden Spots With The Locals

if you’re coming to Madeira and you’re looking 
to get off the beaten path then this video will be perfect for you i’m Paddyy i’ve just arrived 
on this incredible island and my first stop was Funchal the bustling capital now it’s a lively 
city but it’s no surprise that it’s filled with tourists thanks to the constant flow of cruise 
ships and the nearby airport but beyond the buzz of Funchal lies another side of Madeira a side of 
Madeira that I want to get to know a little bit better today and this is Joe he’s my friend who’s 
lived on Madeira for many years and today he’s taking us on a journey of discovery he wants to 
show us some of Madiraa’s bestkept secrets we’ll devour mouthwatering meals in local restaurants 
in local neighborhoods he’ll take us on a peaceful hike along a lavvada where there will not be 
another soul in sight so come with us today as we explore MadiRaa in a little bit more detail 
and stick around till the end because there’s something very special happening indeed but before 
any adventure begins it’s time for some breakfast right Joe’s taking us to a local spot a little 
cafe in the middle of the market nice little spot because you told me I have to try some of the 
local so breakfast doesn’t really exist that much in Portugal it’s normally a pastry and a coffee 
so that’s what we’ve got two traditional pastries for you to try which one should I try for a kijad 
it’s like a madan cheesecake kind of pastry i was going to say like a quesadilla but Oh okay no 
no and inside is like sweet and like a ricotta style cheese it’s a bit like a scone sugar eggs 
with the coffee yeah really good actually let’s dip it in i’ve never seen anyone do that before 
this is how the English This is how the English do it that’s how to do it all right this one 
powder day which literally means bread of God more like bread of diabetes this is going to 
be naughty are you sharing this with me yes good better than the other that’s naughty yeah 
I can see that i did another if you like sweet pastries for breakfast then you’re going to 
love MadiRaa they have so many to choose from and they even had these delicious handmade 
jammy dodges very nice the central market here in Funcha is a hub of activity especially 
on Fridays when all of the local farmers come down from their mountainside villages do you 
want some uh one but it was extremely busy so I asked Joe something useful any any pro tips 
to to navigate this madness yeah on the weekdays don’t buy fruit here on Fridays and Saturdays 
you can see it’s full of local farmers better prices no tourist scams local fresh produce 
as you found out they have so many fruits and vegetables here honestly I didn’t even know 
what half of them were but they all smelled and looked amazing ooh la la i really want to buy 
some of the papaya but it’s so massive they need to chop it up and sell it in little plastic 
bags like they do in Thailand what is that um forgot the English it is a sweet potato yeah very busy but very colorful 
very fragrant very cheap good thing about traveling with a 
local here local transport his own motorbike let’s go you know drive 
slowly i don’t want to die on this [Music] trip now I am no stranger to riding 
scooters i have a few back home and I’ve driven all over the world but I have never been on 
the back of a motorbike here in MadiRaa the twisty roads soon turned into the main highway 
and I was kind of shocked at how fast everybody here drives and I just try to hold on for 
dear life and enjoy the views heart pounding [Music] stuff yeah so we’re in a town called 
Rivera Brava we’re just about to go to the north of the island this town’s like the 
gateway to the north but there’s a very very good little Venezuelan bakery picked up 
some lunch for the hike empanadas looks good this town’s gorgeous it’s right on the water’s 
edge there’s a beautiful church as well just around the corner and then up through that 
incredible gorge is the way we’re driving up now um yeah so just let’s just drive slow 
or was it too fast for you i mean I’ve never I’ve never ever driven faster than 70 km an 
hour we hit 100 yeah yeah no rush no rush [Music] thankfully Joe rode a little 
bit slower but not that much and I don’t really blame him because it felt 
like he needed to keep pace the cars behind were right up our ass and we were 
worried we were going to get completely flattened honestly driving in Madiraa may be 
beautiful but it sure as hell is not for the faint-hearted i tell you what if you want to 
fast track your way to a cardiac arrest come to MadiRaa and go on the back of a scooter 
with a local honestly he’s a really good driver joe’s a great driver but he just drives 
so fast and it’s just because everyone else is driving fast and I live in Thailand and this 
is this is petrifying thankfully Joe pulled up here so I could take a breather and try a local 
delicacy that hopefully might help calm me down it’s definitely time for a stiff 
drink and Joe you’ve taken me to this really famous spot gorgeous in 
the middle of the valley look at it and it’s really rustic place like tables 
are dirty floors dirty this is how they do it here in Madiraa this poncha poncha it’s the 
local [Music] delicacy this is the strong one okay tastes like a daquiri but someone 
forgot to put the sugar syrup in it okay this one oh this one’s strong this one’s strong that’s pure 
booze still got the bottom i like this one i’m going to get smashed after that but the sign of a 
good poncho if it’s not a good one it doesn’t make your face scroll up if your face goes after you 
drink it that means it’s good you know it’s a good one [Music] with the madiraan poncha now flowing 
through my veins my anxiety started to lower and I was able to just relax and take it all in after 
all driving through the heart of MadiRaa really is a spectacular experience we stopped here to admire 
this beautiful church just perched perfectly on this hill such a sight and what a gorgeous 
place it must be to pray and enjoy service and about 20 minutes further down the road 
Joe took us deeper into the mountains and deeper into the lush green forests in search 
of the beginning of a lesserknown trail that he thought I would appreciate as it was far away 
from the crowds of [Music] Funcho hear the birds that’s because we’re in the middle of nowhere 
look at this beautiful churches beautiful roads beautiful mountains madiraa is a gem i can see 
why you live here buddy you were saying there’s a waterfall and a valley there’s a nice valley 
there’s a waterfall we’ve got our pack lunch like school kids but hang on a minute he didn’t 
say anything about stairs 10 minutes climb you better not be lying wait 10 minutes climb to the 
start of the hike good thing about this camera so you might see these little irrigation 
channels that’s the word I was looking for but they’re called lavadish lavadish now I don’t 
know anything about them so can you enlighten us okay so the island has a rain shadow on one side 
of the island it rains the other side is dry so they built thousands of hundreds of kilometers at 
least but maybe into the thousands of kilometers of irrigation system in the most amazing places 
i mean look at it and now they’re used as hiking routes so you have the paths next to them 
that you hike along and if there was loads of tourists coming this way I can see why it 
would get quite annoying but that’s really interesting about the lavadas Joe thank you for 
that i didn’t actually know that’s what they were [Applause] [Music] for hello this is Patty 
from the future i’m currently filming the next adventure can you guess where we are it’s 
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get back to MadiRaa and in the future we’ll come [Music] here magical isn’t it [Applause] [Music] [Music] beautiful we haven’t seen a single 
person on this hike not yet anyway it’s like being inside of a movie set about fairies and 
goblins something magical anyway if you saw a unicorn just bolting down you’d be like “Oh 
yeah that looks pretty much about right [Music] [Applause] thank you so much what a spot for lunch cheers mate [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah Joe this is amazing mate thank you so 
much for uh showing me this little easy hike i mean more of a walk wasn’t it but look 
at this i mean I love the pink flowers the moss on the rocks the beautiful stream this 
crashing waterfall even the moss growing on the rock gives you a nice gripage you 
know what I mean love a bit of gripage hello mate hello Matt after the hike we 
made our way back to Funcha joe wanted to take me up into the local areas 
overlooking the center where he knew a great place to try espardada which 
is one of the local delicacies here joe wants to take me to a hidden gem he wants 
to show you some of the local food here and we’ve come and found a real local place away from 
the main area with all all the tourists and the uh overpriced restaurants this is 
apparently local food very delicious there’s like a nice little piaza and a 
what looks to be a really dodgy looking pub full of characters we’re not actually 
going to eat there but I’m going to try and persuade Joe just have a cheeky 
half in the pub cuz it looks looks fun cheers Joe cheers don’t drink it all at once in the UK if you are a regular in a pub you drink 
five pints of beer every night for 20 years you won’t even get a peanut in MadiRaa you order 
one drink one tiny tiny little beer and they give you for free prawns yeah then not everywhere 
but a lot of places will give you a little snack called dentinho can you imagine giving a plate of 
prawns like this to someone in England they’d be like “What the hell do you want me to do with 
it?” Yeah weren’t they peeled help me oh good right like really salty they do that deliberately 
so you buy more beer that’s my kind of boozer in there they’re all smoking they’re all talking 
they’re all laughing there’s a juke box there’s a cigarette machine there’s a bloke preparing 
some more of that cocktail poncho and it’s just full of hardworking madarans who just want to 
enjoy a very cold very small beer salty prawny goodness it just explodes like like someone’s just 
poured a sache of salt in your mouth in a good way like it’s salty but I can handle it it goes so 
well with a cold beer do some booze of this one we’ll put this one in the description for you you 
can come up here okay so just there’s the boozer and this is where we’re going i mean look we’re 
literally in a residential suburban neighborhood of FCA this is going to be really unique we’ll 
show you inside so this local restaurant is amazing get here early though because you’ll have 
to wait a long time if you don’t and make sure you have some experience cooking meat because 
here you are the chef the meats come heavily salted and seasoned with bay leaves and garlic 
and then it’s over to you to cook it yourself if we mess this up it’s our own fault because 
we are the chefs here any room in the in the in the heat coming off this [Music] We saw these wooden ovens all over MadiRaa and 
this is actually a very typical way to cook food here not only do you get a smoky flavor 
to your meat but it’s just a fun way to dine thankfully Joe is experienced with espadada 
so I just let him take over the cooking roll [Music] i’m just thankful that I’ve got Joe here who knows what to do look at this there 
there is a lot of hungry men maybe you like it yeah I’ll try it i’ll try 
it if it’s not good enough I’ll put it back on thank you mate [Music] how’s yours bit overdone but it 
will get like less well done as we go good cook thank you chef so salty delicious but very [Music] salty the next day 
Joe and I had to travel across to the other side of the island joe wanted to take me somewhere 
very special and we have a very big challenge ahead of us which I’ll share more about in a 
minute but yeah in the meantime we had about an hour and a half drive ahead of us lucky for 
us Joe’s friend who is a local tour guide here had a day off and he kindly drove us across 
the island it’s unbelievable i think we’re going to get wet in about tus 10 seconds the 
rain is coming yeah this is Darte he is such a character and he even stopped at a handful of 
places to show us some great viewpoints along the way just to make our journey a little bit 
more interesting shall we go see mammos mama let’s go [Music] [Applause] now normally 
he has a big 4×4 Jeep but it was in the garage for maintenance so we were squashed 
in his little car but we still had a great time if you’re coming to Madiraa and you want 
a really fun local guide to take you out then I’ll leave his contact information below he’s 
a really great guy and he’s got all the local knowledge and he knows all the hidden spots that 
most tourists miss or simply don’t know about [Music] you can usually do with with it 
was just a shame that the weather was so bad this afternoon but we still had a great 
time and eventually we were neared towards our destination of Porto Manise one of the most 
magical parts of MadiRaa i can’t wait to show you [Music] [Applause] this is This is amazing we’re getting like 
a a free tour on route that’s our little village that’s where we’re heading this 
entire coastline is ridiculously beautiful cheers big ears cheers oh that’s a new 
one cheers bears cheers to you guys if you’re coming to MadiRaa guys and you need 
a tour guide this is the man how can people uh get in contact with you do you know him do 
you trust him you better do thank you thank you my pleasure how can they find you how you can 
find me at Meda Green and Blue you pick people up from the cruise ships and you take them out 
for a full half day whatever it is as long as As long as they pay whatever they want to go 
and if you want talk to my manager over here right so we’ve just had the most incredible 
afternoon in Porter Manise thank you for bringing me here it’s okay we didn’t film that much because 
it was the FA Cup final and we just watched that in the pub for 2 hours congratulations to Crystal 
Palace come on this place is so beautiful as you can tell right you’ve got the natural swimming 
pools you’ve got the incredible mountains and we just got the most lucky recommendation for dinner 
so this unassuming building right with Villa North on the front that ladies and gentlemen is the home 
of the greatest burger I think I’ve ever had and I don’t say that lightly it had bacon it had egg it 
had crispy bits that I don’t even know what it is it had cheese it had tomato salad it was so good 
it was so good and then the all the staff in there were so friendly they were all from Venezuela 
which you’ll find to be quite common here in MadiRaa they gave us shots of rum we had sambuka 
like Venezuelan sambuka it was incredible wasn’t it it was so good so good and so unassuming 
i I didn’t even know there was a good place to eat here but that’s one of the best burgers 
I’ve eaten too and can we just talk about the backdrop can we just talk about the backdrop for 
a second ridiculous yeah so here are some really interesting facts about Portoise you see those 
little concrete boxes right there’s there’s one up on the hill over there and there’s obviously 
one on that beautiful rock when they were whailing which only finished in the 80s 1981 was the last 
whale that was killed in Madera so they were still whailing here for its oil not for its meat and 
what they used to do they’d have a spotter in that concrete box and if he saw a whale he would fire 
a firework and then the fishing boats would know where to go and they’d go and get the whale and 
they’d bring the whale in and harvest it for its oil and its meat and its minerals but anyway just 
such a a beautiful part of the island and thank you Joe for showing me like the real local side in 
Funcho and in the center and on the north and now here on the far side of the island but there’s a 
second reason why we’ve come to Porter Manise and that is because me and Joe I’m scared are going to 
hike with backpacks across the entire island from this side to the other over the course of the next 
7 days how many kilome i don’t know how many km 150 150 with a maybe a bit more with getting lost 
we are so not ready for this but we are ready for this because we just love adventure we love this 
island you live here i live here but I’ve not seen it like this if anything goes wrong I’m going to 
go Joe you live here come on sort this out yeah blame me we’re going to We’re not hikers like by 
trade we’re not um walkers by nature but we are two mates who enjoy epic journeys exactly so we 
got seven days of that and it’s right here here you can watch it right here there it is it’s It’s 
live right now go watch it go watch me and him struggle for the next week across MadiRaa not only 
will we get to experience MadiRaa properly and see the entire island from one side to the other 
but um we should have some fun doing it yeah

Let’s explore more of MADEIRA together – Head to www.squarespace.com/paddydoyle to get 10% off your first website or domain with Squarespace.

Join me as I explore the hidden side of Madeira 🇵🇹 — far beyond the usual tourist routes. In this video, I team up with @TheJoeyP who shows me some of the island’s best-kept secrets, from quiet villages to stunning landscapes that most visitors never get to see.

If you’re planning a trip to Madeira and want to experience it like a local, this is the video for you.
We hike along one of the island’s lesser-known levadas — a scenic trail with breathtaking views and zero crowds.

Along the way, we stop to enjoy authentic Madeiran food in small, family-run restaurants where locals actually eat. No tourist traps, no overpriced menus — just real food, made with love, and often served with a glass of poncha.

Whether you’re a first-time visitor or a returning traveler, this video will give you a fresh perspective on what Madeira has to offer. From nature to culture to food, I’ll show you the quieter, more authentic side of the island — the one most tourists completely miss. Hit subscribe if you love real travel stories and hidden gems!

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Chapters:
00:00 – 01:03 – Introduction
01:04 – Local Breakfast
2:29 – Local Market
3:42 – Ride Across to Ribeira Brava
5:36 – Local Tipple
8:07 – Secret Levada Hike
13:03 – Local Restaurant in Funchal
18:26 – Local Tour Guide
20:20 – Porto Moniz
23:11 – Big Project