Desertas Islands Day Trip: What You Actually See

What the Desertas Islands Actually Are

From the cliffs above Canical or the deck of a boat leaving Funchal Marina, the Desertas Islands show up on the horizon as three long, bare, rust-coloured shapes with almost no vegetation and no permanent settlement. Ilhéu Chão, Deserta Grande and Bugio sit around 25 km south-east of Madeira, close enough to see clearly on a good day and far enough that reaching them takes a genuine sea crossing rather than a short hop.

They look uninhabited because they are. No village, no jetty for visitors, no path network. What draws boats out there is not scenery for its own sake but the reason the islands were left alone: they are a full nature reserve, and specifically a sanctuary for the Mediterranean monk seal, one of the rarest marine mammals on the planet. A handful of individuals and small breeding groups still use the caves and rocky coves of Deserta Grande and Bugio, protected from disturbance precisely because almost nobody is allowed to set foot there.

That single fact shapes everything else in this guide. This is not a beach excursion or an island-hopping trip. It is a boat trip to the edge of a protected area, built around watching from the water rather than exploring on land.

No Landing Without a Permit — This Is Not Negotiable

The most important thing to get right before booking is also the thing most easily assumed away: you cannot land on the Desertas Islands on a standard tourist trip. The archipelago is managed as an integral nature reserve by the Instituto das Florestas e Conservação da Natureza (IFCN), and access on foot is restricted to licensed researchers, rangers and holders of a specific scientific permit. There is no ticket, tour category or premium package that buys a member of the public a walk on Deserta Grande.

This is worth stating plainly because some boat operators’ marketing photos — a catamaran anchored close to shore, passengers in the water near the rocks — can read as if landing happens. It doesn’t. Every legitimate commercial excursion keeps guests on the boat or in the water immediately around it, never on the islands themselves. If an operator’s listing implies otherwise, that is a red flag worth checking before you pay, not a detail to skim past.

The same protected status explains why boats approach some coves and not others, and why crews are trained to cut engines and keep distance around known monk seal haul-out sites. A good skipper treats this as a wildlife encounter governed by rules, not a photo backdrop to get as close to as possible.

a catamaran crossing to the Desertas Islands from Funchal is the most straightforward way to see the reserve without any ambiguity about what is and isn’t allowed once you’re there.

How the Day Actually Runs

Most Desertas excursions from Funchal are built around a similar shape, even though operators vary the details:

Segment	Typical length	What happens
Departure and briefing	15–20 minutes	Boarding at Funchal Marina, safety briefing, crew introduces the day
Outbound crossing	60–90 minutes	Open-water sailing east, coastline of Canical and Ponta de São Lourenço visible to port
Time around the Desertas	2–3 hours	Slow cruising along the coast, wildlife watching, swim or snorkel stop where conditions allow
Lunch or refreshments	30–60 minutes	Onboard, at anchor or during the swim stop, depending on the package
Return crossing	60–90 minutes	Back to Funchal, with a reasonable chance of dolphins along the way

A full excursion typically runs eight to ten hours door to door once boarding and disembarking are added in. That length surprises people who assume it is a half-day trip; the crossing alone accounts for two to three hours of it. Shorter sailing trips out of Funchal exist and are pleasant in their own right, but many stay within the sheltered bays close to the city rather than reaching the Desertas — worth checking on any listing before assuming it goes that far.

a ten-hour luxury tour that reaches the Desertas Islands is a useful benchmark for what a full-length itinerary should include, since some cheaper options quietly cut the crossing short.

The Crossing Itself

This is the part first-timers underestimate. Unlike the calm, protected water inside Funchal Bay, the route out to the Desertas runs through open Atlantic swell for the better part of ninety minutes each way. On a fine, settled day it is simply a pleasant sail with the volcanic coastline sliding past. On a day with any north-easterly wind or residual swell, it can be a properly bouncy ride, and boats occasionally shorten or cancel the trip rather than push through poor conditions — the same swell-driven cancellations that affect the Porto Santo ferry run on this coast.

Anyone who gets seasick easily should take precautions before boarding, not after leaving the harbour: medication taken in advance, a seat toward the centre of the boat, and eyes on the horizon rather than a phone screen all help. If a rough crossing sounds like the wrong day out, a shorter trip that stays closer to Funchal — see the general roundup of boat trips from Funchal — is the more comfortable choice.

What You Actually See

Set expectations honestly and the day tends to deliver. Set them around guaranteed monk seals or a beach landing, and it won’t.

The coastline itself. The approach along the eastern tip of Madeira and then the Desertas shows a genuinely dramatic, treeless, wind-carved landscape — closer in feel to a volcanic outcrop in the middle of the Atlantic than to anywhere else on the archipelago. It is one of the better photography opportunities on the water, precisely because nothing here has been built.

Seabirds. Cory’s shearwaters and other seabirds nest on the cliffs in large numbers, and the noise and movement around the colonies is often the first wildlife of the day, well before any marine mammal appears.

Possibly monk seals. Sightings are never promised, and honest operators say so upfront. Boats slow down and keep distance around the rocky coves where seals are known to haul out, and on a good day passengers see one or more animals resting or moving in the water. On other days, none appear. This is a wild population in a protected reserve, not an aquarium.

Possibly dolphins and whales. The crossing itself passes through open water that regularly produces sightings of Atlantic spotted dolphins, common bottlenose dolphins, and occasionally larger cetaceans, in the same waters covered by Madeira’s dedicated whale and dolphin watching guide. It is a bonus rather than the reason to book this particular trip, and the same caveat applies here as anywhere: nature doesn’t perform on schedule, as one operator’s own account of a whale-watching trip that saw nothing makes clear.

A swim stop, conditions allowing. Many itineraries include time to swim or snorkel in open water near the islands, with the boat anchored or drifting. This is genuinely open Atlantic water — clear and often teeming with fish, but with more current and depth than a sheltered cove. It is cancelled first if the sea is uncooperative.

a full-day Desertas Island tour typically bundles the swim stop, lunch and wildlife watching into one itinerary, which suits most first-time visitors better than piecing the day together from separate bookings.

Choosing Between Operators

Not every “Desertas” listing delivers the same day. A few things worth checking before booking:

• Does the boat actually reach the Desertas, or does it stay in Funchal’s bays? Some shorter sailing trips are marketed loosely; the itinerary description should state a crossing time of roughly ninety minutes each way.
• Is lunch included, and is it onboard or ashore? Since landing is off the table, “ashore” should mean nowhere near the Desertas themselves — worth clarifying if a listing is vague.
• What size is the boat? Larger catamarans are steadier in swell and better for anyone nervous about seasickness; smaller sailing boats can feel the motion more but offer a quieter, more intimate day.
• Does the price include equipment for the swim stop? Snorkelling gear is commonly provided; wetsuits sometimes cost extra outside peak summer months when the water is cooler.

a boat trip with lunch, drinks and hotel transfer included removes most of the logistics questions in one booking, which is worth the small premium for a first visit if coordinating pickup and food separately feels like extra hassle.

Practical Notes Before Booking

Book with slack in your schedule. Because the crossing depends on sea conditions, Desertas trips are cancelled or rescheduled more often than a short bay cruise. Avoid booking on the last full day of a trip if a fallback plan matters to you.

Pack for open water, not for a beach day. A hat that won’t blow off, sun cream reapplied after any swim, a light layer for the crossing (wind over open water is cooler than it looks from the marina), and motion-sickness medication if there’s any doubt.

This pairs naturally with, but is distinct from, general whale watching. If monk seals and the Desertas reserve specifically are the draw, this is the right trip. If the goal is simply the best chance of cetaceans, a dedicated outing under the responsible whale watching guidelines may suit better, since those boats range more freely rather than committing a fixed block of the day to the crossing.

Respect the reserve’s rules even from the water. No feeding wildlife, no chasing animals for a closer shot, and no expectation that a private charter can arrange an exception to the no-landing rule — it can’t. The same protections that make the Garajau Marine Reserve closer to Funchal a good diving site apply, at a stricter level, to the Desertas.

Combine it with the rest of the east. Visitors basing a longer stay around marine wildlife and the wilder end of the island often pair this with a look at the old whaling harbour and its museum in Canical, a fitting counterpoint given Madeira hunted whales commercially until 1981 and now protects the same waters instead. It also slots naturally into a broader adventure-focused week in Madeira alongside hiking and canyoning days.

The One Thing to Get Right

If there is a single expectation to set correctly before booking a Desertas Islands day trip, it is this: you are going to see a protected reserve from a respectful distance, not to visit an island. The islands stay uninhabited and largely untouched because access is deliberately restricted, and that restriction is the whole reason the monk seal colony has survived here at all. Go in expecting a long, open-water day built around watching rather than landing, and the trip delivers exactly what it promises.