RIU Madeira

"Just returned from 5 nights at the Riu Madeira. A lovely hotel with each member of the staffing team a credit to the hotel. We had a sea view room which was comfortable and roomy & a great shower. Two beds pushed together wasn’t ideal for us but wasn’t an issue for a few days really. The buffet was lovely with plenty of tasty, healthy & veggie options along with a rather good rose wine :-) If we were to give one criticism it would be the poor choice of cocktails on offer, each was in our opinion sickly sweet and unfortunately the bar staff were unable to offer classics like a Margarita, Cosmopolitan etc which was a bit of a shame. That said, we had a lovely few days even though the weather wasn’t too good, and would certainly consider returning in the future :-)"

"Highly recommend. Great food . Staff are amazing. Every where was spotlessly clean . Would definitely use this hotel again."

"Having previously stayed at a Riu hotel we decided to book this one for our holiday in Maderia, and we were very impressed. Nothing was too much trouble for the staff, who were all very helpful and friendly. The room was spacious and clean and in good order and being Brits we appreciated having a kettle and drinks in the room! (There was also a fridge) We just had a standard room but it still had a view over the pools to the sea. It was nice to have a complimentary bottle of bubbly (in ice bucket) left in the room on my wife’s birthday too! The food was excellent, there was such a wide variety at all meals. My wife is vegetarian and always found something to suit. Top marks for the porridge at breakfast from me, thick and creamy as it should be! For us the location of the hotel is ideal. There’s a flat promenade just outside overlooking the sea, so we had a daily walk along here. We also ventured West, and found a few supermarkets, Indian, Italian and Sushi restaurants and an excellent bakery/cafe. Maderia is notably hilly/mountainous of course but it’s manageable here (we’re in our late 60s) and as far as we could tell all areas of the hotel were accessible by lift, including the pool area. One of the 2 outdoor pools are heated and swimming was fine in this one in January, but there’s also a heated indoor pool. There’s a gym too, if you’re so inclined! Funchal is about 30 mins away, there is a free hotel bus making 3 return trips daily, though you have to book at reception. There are also a few local buses that stop near the hotel. It’s also worth mentioning that the hotel is only about a 30 minute ride from the airport, which itself is less busy than for example, Canary Islands airports. This made the whole travelling experience a lot less tiring for us! Anyway…we so enjoyed our stay here that we have booked another week for later in the year!"