Boat Trips from Funchal: Catamarans, Charters and Coastal Cruises

Why Funchal Marina Is the Starting Point

Almost everything that leaves the water in Madeira leaves from the same stretch of harbour: Funchal marina, a short flat walk below the old town and the lido promenade. Yachts, catamarans, working fishing boats converted for tourism and a handful of RIBs all tie up along the same quays, and on any given afternoon you can watch four or five different trips loading passengers within a hundred metres of each other. That density is useful — it means comparing operators takes minutes, not a taxi ride — but it also means the categories blur together in a marina touts’ pitch. This guide sorts them out.

Deliberately left out here is whale and dolphin watching, which is its own category with its own licensing, its own approach rules and its own guide — see whale and dolphin watching and responsible whale watching if that’s what you’re after. What follows instead is everything else that floats: sunset cruises, snorkelling charters, coastal runs east toward Ponta de São Lourenço, and the longer crossings to Porto Santo and the Desertas, each of which gets its own dedicated page for the detail that matters once you’ve decided to go.

The Main Categories, at a Glance

Trip type	Typical duration	Typical price (per person)	Best for
Sunset cruise	1.5–2.5 hours	€35–65	An evening on the water, city skyline, no swimming
Private snorkelling/paddleboard charter	3–4 hours	€70–130 (or per boat)	Small groups, swimming stops, flexible pace
Coastal cruise east (Ponta de São Lourenço)	6–8 hours	€90–150	Scenery, a full day at sea, fewer crowds than the marina trips
Porto Santo charter	Full day	Priced per boat, often €600+	Groups wanting a private, flexible crossing
Desertas excursion	6–10 hours	€80–160	Wildlife-adjacent scenery, a genuinely different landscape

These figures move with the season and the operator, and none of them include the whale and dolphin trips, which are priced and structured differently again.

Sunset Cruises

The best-known product out of the marina, and the one every hotel concierge defaults to. A catamaran leaves in the late afternoon, motors or sails a short distance along the coast in front of Funchal, and times its return so the sun drops behind the hills as passengers are handed a drink. Some add live music or a gin and tonic service on board, which turns the trip into more of a floating bar than a sightseeing cruise — worth knowing if you’d rather it stayed quiet. You can book this as:

a sunset cruise from Funchal with live music and a gin and tonic on board

These trips rarely involve swimming stops and rarely go further than the coastline directly in front of the city, which is the trade-off for the short, predictable duration. For the fuller version of this write-up — best months, where to sit, what the light actually looks like from the water — see the dedicated sunset catamaran guide.

Private Snorkelling and Paddleboard Charters

A different product entirely: a smaller boat, usually chartered privately or in a small shared group, that heads along the coast toward calmer bays and stops to let passengers swim, snorkel or paddleboard rather than just watch the shore go by. This suits families and small groups who want to set their own pace rather than follow a fixed script, and it’s one of the few marina products that puts you in the water rather than just near it. Bookable as:

a private boat tour from Funchal with snorkelling and paddleboarding stops

Bring your own reef shoes if you have them; the coastline here is mostly volcanic rock rather than sand, and bare feet on entry and exit points can be uncomfortable. Water temperature runs 18 to 24°C depending on the season, warm enough for a wetsuit-free swim in summer but bracing in winter.

Coastal Cruises East: Ponta de São Lourenço

Longer trips run east along the coast toward the volcanic tip of the island at Ponta de São Lourenço, a stretch of coastline that looks almost nothing like the green interior — bare, red-ocre and treeless. Reaching it by boat instead of on foot (the overland walk is covered in the east Madeira day trip guide) turns a hot, exposed hike into a full day at sea with the same landscape seen from a very different angle. One option covers this route directly:

an 8-hour luxury cruise from Funchal along the coast to Ponta de São Lourenço

These are longer days than the sunset or snorkelling trips, generally with lunch on board, and they’re a reasonable option for anyone who wants a full day out on the water without the additional planning that a Porto Santo or Desertas crossing involves.

Crossings to Porto Santo

Porto Santo sits around 43km northeast of Madeira and has its own scheduled ferry — see the Porto Santo ferry guide for timings, since it runs once or twice daily depending on season and is cancelled fairly often by swell in winter. Separate from that scheduled service, private boat charters from Funchal marina also make the crossing, useful for a group that wants to set its own departure time or combine the crossing with fishing or swimming stops along the way rather than a fixed ferry timetable:

a private boat charter from Funchal to Porto Santo Island

This guide won’t repeat what’s already covered properly elsewhere: for what to actually do once there, read Porto Santo day trip and Porto Santo versus Madeira, which weighs up whether a day trip or an overnight stay makes more sense for your itinerary.

Excursions to the Desertas Islands

The Desertas Islands lie about 25km southeast of Funchal and are a strict nature reserve, home to the Mediterranean monk seal — landing isn’t permitted without authorisation, so every trip out there is a boat-based excursion that approaches without putting passengers ashore. Both a standard and a more comfortable long-format option run from the marina:

a wooden boat excursion from Funchal out to the Desertas Islands

a 10-hour luxury tour from Funchal to the Desertas Islands

Both are long days — expect six to ten hours depending on the boat and route — and both are worth planning around calm-sea days if your schedule allows any flexibility, since this is one of the crossings most likely to be shortened or cancelled by swell. The full detail on what the excursion actually involves, wildlife odds included, sits in the dedicated Desertas Islands day trip guide rather than here.

What This Page Deliberately Doesn’t Cover

It’s worth being explicit about the one mix-up that trips people up when comparing marina operators: general boat trips and whale and dolphin watching are not interchangeable, even when a tout on the quay implies otherwise. A sunset cruise or a snorkelling charter is built around scenery and swimming, follows no wildlife-approach protocol, and makes no promise of sightings.

Whale and dolphin watching, by contrast, uses boats and skippers licensed for the purpose, follows an approach code around the animals, and runs year-round from Funchal, Calheta and Caniçal. If cetaceans are the actual goal, book from the whale and dolphin watching guide and its companion piece on responsible whale watching — not from a general boat trip that happens to go past open water.

Booking Logistics and Practical Notes

Almost every operator sells directly from a booth on the marina walkway, which makes last-minute, weather-dependent booking easy in high season — but it also means prices are negotiable in person in a way they aren’t online, and quality varies more than the identical-looking booths suggest. Booking ahead online fixes the price, guarantees a spot on popular sunset departures, and gives you a confirmed meeting point rather than a scramble to find the right gangway among a dozen similar boats.

A few things worth knowing before you book:

• Departure point. Almost all trips leave directly from Funchal marina, an easy walk from the old town, Santa Catarina Park and most central hotels — a taxi is rarely necessary.
• What to bring. A light jacket even in summer; it’s noticeably cooler and windier on open water than on the seafront. Sun protection is non-negotiable — there’s no shade on most open-deck boats. For swimming trips, a change of clothes and reef shoes are worth packing; see what to pack for Madeira for the fuller list.
• Seasickness. The south coast is sheltered and generally calm, but the open Atlantic swell reaches even here, particularly in winter and on the longer Porto Santo and Desertas crossings. If you’re prone to it, take tablets before boarding — there’s little shelter once at sea and no quick way back to shore.
• Cancellations. Rough weather cancels boat trips more often than it cancels land-based tours, and the Porto Santo and Desertas routes are usually the first to be pulled. Booking earlier in a trip rather than on the last available day gives you room to rebook if the sea is up.
• Season. April to October brings the calmest seas and the most reliable sunsets; winter trips run but with more disruption. For a fuller seasonal picture beyond boat trips specifically, see best time to visit Madeira.

Combining a Boat Trip with the Rest of Funchal

Because the marina sits so close to the centre, a boat trip slots easily either side of a day exploring on foot. A sunset cruise pairs naturally with an afternoon in the old town or a browse through the Mercado dos Lavradores beforehand, while a full-day excursion to the Desertas or Ponta de São Lourenço is generally its own day, given the hours involved.

For a broader view of how boat trips fit into a longer stay, the one week in Madeira and Porto Santo itinerary sets out a realistic sequence, and things to do: boat trips lists every marina-based option, cetacean trips included, in one place if you want to compare the full field rather than the non-whale subset covered here.

None of this needs booking months in advance except in the very top of high season around New Year, when the whole marina fills up alongside the fireworks crowds — otherwise a day or two’s notice is normally enough, and for the shorter sunset and snorkelling trips, same-day booking is often possible if the weather cooperates.