Hotels near Risco (from above), Calheta

A beautiful beachfront hotel that is perfect for romantic getaways and a cheaper alternative, yet still luxury, to standard 5 star hotels. Location wise the hotel isn’t great as it’s very remote from the strip/city centre and taxi prices are not particularly cheap in Madeira. The rooms are spacious and stunning, well worth it with a great selection for the breakfast buffet and plenty of restaurants/options for dinner. A lovely love band/musician plays every night which is also great. Overall a wonderful stay with much friendly staff, however if you are looking to do much sightseeing in Madeira, this hotel is not the best option unless a significant amount is left for travel.

Nice hotel that lived up to expectations. Excellent location in Calheta, right on a golden sand beach, with direct access from the hotel. It is ideal to have a car as it is 30 minutes from Funchal. It's worth paying extra to have a room with a sea view The quality and quantity of the food complies with the all-inclusive package, as do the drinks. Daily and varied entertainment. Good spa with heated pool, Turkish bath, sauna and cold showers. Very pleasant outdoor pool area, with plenty of sun loungers and well designed. Free ping pong, paid billiards (€3/hour). Very good price/quality ratio.

the hotel area is very neat. The pool is clean. The staff at the reception are polite and friendly. The rooms are neat, small. We got a garden room, but it didn't feel like a garden. It was just a lawn and a view of a green fence. The bathroom is tidy, towels are changed upon request. The hotel is very quiet, beautiful views of the sea and mountains can be seen from the windows. There was no microwave or kettle in the room. The breakfast is delicious, a small but filling selection. VERY SMALL SELECTION OF FOOD IN THE HOTEL RESTAURANT. JUST PASTA AND SALAD. So those who want to have dinner will have to travel closer to the sea to cafes.

Painted different colours on the outside, this is one long hotel on the inside. We were upgraded to a room with a balcony which was fabulous. Very large room, handy fridge. Huge TV. It’s very relaxing to sit and watch the world go by here. We never even made it to the official roof terrace or other hotel amenities. We did pop out for an easy stroll to see the old bridge. (I wished I’d dressed for the possibility that water might drip while walking through the tunnel to get there). Then more lounging on the balcony, watching the sunset. They had the largest selection of breakfast choices that we saw in Madeira. I especially liked the made-to-order fluffy pancakes, which I had with baked apple from the buffet and squirty Nutella. Mmmm! The cook was also made omelettes on request. Coffee is from an automatic machine but it grinds the beans for each cup. As self service machines go, it was the fanciest we saw on our trip. We noticed many people eating in the touristy joints overlooking the sea. Why pay “saw you coming” prices for questionable quality when you could just stay at this hotel and enjoy the view from the balcony without hassle? We had the best dinner of our stay in the town, at Sol Doce. The underground parking is a sharp angle to get into. The receptionist recommended turning around at the end of the road, and approaching from that direction. I think this is good advice, based on what we saw from the balcony. Cars come around the corner very quickly. Lots of cars turn around in front of the tunnel.

Hotel au milieu de la montagne, jolies vues, très bons repas, personnel très gentil Un peu vieux en terme de deco, nous avons eu froid dans la pièce commune et en dormant (manque de couverture), lit très inconfortable…

Our experience of the hotel was enhanced by our meal in the restaurant, which I have reviewed separately. My favourite thing about the room was the enclosed balcony. It was like having a private yoga studio in the sky. (Fellow yogis note, the floor was slippery.) I also enjoyed the spectacular view from the Sauna, which at the time was free because it was not working optimally. (So do ask!) It was good enough for me, but it took over an hour to heat up. The Pool looked too small and shallow to actually swim in, but mostly it was unusable as it was colder than the sea. I don’t know if this was usual. Breakfast was fairly similar to ones we had at other Madeira hotels, but this place had the tastiest selection of fresh bread rolls and very good garlicky mushrooms. The room was clean. We liked the 3-section recycling bin in the room. Others mentioned lack of plugs for phones. Erm... we knew about that but were surprised to find that there were not enough plugs for the room items. The Kettle and TV had to share a wall outlet. They really should consider supplying an extension lead, which could be given out and collected at check-in, just as they (bizarrely) do with the TV remote control. We did start off on a rather bad note. At check in, we were downright ignored. One receptionist was settling a dispute with another guest, but both members of staff deliberately avoided any sort of eye contact with us. I don't normally notice this sort of thing, but it was rude and infuriating and lasted some time. A simple nod would have sufficed. I’ll put this down to a bad day for the first member of staff, who later was helpful. After a long wait for no discernible reason, the other receptionist demanded payment before we had even seen the room, for which we had paid in advance. We've stayed at many places who use multiple booking sites. Sometimes you pay on arrival, sometimes beforehand, and we understand that the hotel needs to know. However, there are ways of asking that don't come across as offensive and like one is trying to get away with something. Not everyone is out to steal the remote control. Make sure you bring proof of payment if you’ve paid in advance, as we had. The hotel is lucky that they have out of this world views.

We spent two weeks in the paradise of Madeira, surrounded by the care of Quinta do Furao team members. Excellent breakfasts and even more wonderful dinners pleasantly tickled our taste buds, and the wonderful Rita and her colleagues provided us with the perfect experience. Hotel Quinta do Furao is an exceptionally nice place to spend a holiday - it's quiet, peaceful and the hotel's surroundings and views are breathtaking (especially the mornings and beautiful sunrises). Almost everything on this wonderful island was wonderful, so we were able to spend a very special 20th wedding anniversary there. Almost, because as a result of various circumstances, this wonderful place on the planet was engulfed by forest fires high in the mountains. However, this made us experience even more care from the Quinta do Furao team. Every day we were informed of the situation with the fires, which trails on our beloved pearl of the Atlantic were safe and which still needed to be postponed. If I had to express my rating for Quinta do Furao in a numerical way it would be a 6 on a five-point scale :).