Monte Palace Tropical Garden or the Botanical Garden? A Head-to-Head Guide

Two Gardens, One Afternoon: Which One Earns It

Funchal has more good gardens than most cities its size, and two of them get asked about more than the rest combined: Monte Palace Tropical Garden above the eastern hillside, and the Botanical Garden of Funchal on the slopes above the harbour. Visitors who see one often assume the other is more of the same and skip it. That assumption is wrong in both directions. These two gardens were built for different reasons, at different times, by different people, and walking through one tells you almost nothing about what to expect from the other.

This page does not repeat the general case for visiting Madeira’s gardens — that ground is covered in the island’s gardens guide. What follows is narrower and more useful if you are standing in Funchal with a spare afternoon and one ticket to buy: what each place actually is, how you get there, what it costs in time and money, and which one to pick if you genuinely cannot do both.

Monte Palace Tropical Garden: A Private Collection Turned Public

Monte Palace began as the private grounds of a hillside estate and only opened to the public in the 1990s, after businessman José Berardo bought the property and set about filling it with what he collected. That history shows in every corner. The garden reads less like a botanical institution and more like a wealthy eccentric’s back garden, on a scale of about seven hectares: koi-filled lakes crossed by stepping stones, panels of Portuguese azulejo tiles depicting historic Lisbon street scenes, a scattering of Chinese and Japanese stone lions and pagodas, and a genuinely large collection of African tribal art and minerals displayed in small pavilions among the planting.

The plants are real and often excellent — mature cycads, a dense fern collection, swamp cypress reflected in still water — but they share billing with the ornamentation rather than being the whole point. Paths wind steeply in places, opening onto a viewpoint or a tiled staircase without much warning, so first-time visitors tend to describe it as a place to wander rather than a route to follow. Two to three hours is typical if you read the information panels and stop for the lakes; under ninety minutes if you move briskly.

Most visitors arrive as part of a wider Monte outing that also takes in the Monte cable car ride up from the Old Town and, for some, the wicker toboggan ride back down. That bundling is deliberate on the operators’ part, and it is also the strongest practical argument for choosing Monte Palace over the Botanical Garden when time is short: the transport is part of the experience rather than a logistics problem to solve separately.

A guided tuk-tuk run up through the Old Town to Monte’s tropical garden covers the transfer and the entry in one booking, which removes the queue at the cable car’s lower station entirely.

The Botanical Garden of Funchal: A Working Collection, Not a Show

The Botanical Garden sits on the opposite side of the city, on the site of a former quinta bought by the Reid family — of Reid’s Palace fame — and later acquired by the regional government, which turned it into a proper scientific and educational collection in the 1960s. Where Monte Palace performs, the Botanical Garden classifies. Beds are arranged by geographic origin and plant family, with formal terraces of clipped, colour-blocked succulents near the entrance giving way to a much larger collection of native Madeiran and Macaronesian flora, palms, and an aviary that houses parrots and other birds rather than any of the island’s own species.

The formal terraces are the postcard image most people have seen — tight geometric beds in reds, greens and purples, laid out almost like a carpet, with the bay of Funchal spread out below. That view, taken from the upper terrace looking down over the rooftops to the sea, is arguably the single best reason to come: it is a more open, more elevated outlook than anything at Monte Palace offers. Beyond the formal section, the garden opens into looser plantings, a small cactus and succulent house, and quieter paths that get very little of the crowd the terraces attract. Ninety minutes covers the highlights comfortably; two hours if you also want the aviary and the succulent house.

Access is the garden’s weak point. There is no cable car equivalent, and the site sits on a hill steep enough that walking up from central Funchal is a serious uphill slog most visitors would not choose. A local bus runs from the centre, and taxis are cheap and quick, but either way this is a place you go to on purpose rather than one you fold into a walk you were already taking.

Getting There: Where the Real Difference Shows

This is where the two gardens diverge most sharply in practice, and it is the single biggest factor in deciding between them on a short trip.

Monte Palace is reached, almost always, via Monte itself: either the cable car from the Old Town, a taxi, or a tour that combines the ride with the garden and often with Nossa Senhora do Monte and the toboggan. The garden’s own entrance sits a short, mostly level walk from the upper cable car station, which is one reason it works so well as a half-day out even for visitors without a car.

A private tuk-tuk tour that threads through the Old Town’s painted doors before climbing to Monte solves the transport question entirely, and a few operators run it as a single ticket — the private tuk-tuk route from the Old Town up to Monte Palace Garden is one example.

The Botanical Garden has no cable car and no equivalent set-piece journey. Horários do Funchal buses reach it from the centre, but the walk from the nearest stop still has some climbing in it, and services are not frequent enough to plan a tight schedule around. A taxi is the fastest, least complicated option and is not expensive for the distance. If a rental car is already part of your trip, there is a small car park at the entrance, which makes the garden a genuinely easy stop — arguably easier than Monte Palace for drivers, since it skips the cable car queue altogether.

For visitors trying to see both without wasting a day on logistics, a combined tour that covers Monte Palace, the Botanical Garden and Quinta do Palheiro in one outing removes most of the friction — worth checking against the combined Botanical, Monte Palace and Palheiro gardens tour if a full garden day appeals more than choosing one.

Price and Time Needed, Side by Side

	Monte Palace Tropical Garden	Botanical Garden of Funchal
Typical visit length	1.5–3 hours	1.5–2 hours
How most people arrive	Monte cable car, taxi, or tour	Bus, taxi, or rental car
Standalone admission	Moderate, garden entry only	Lower than Monte Palace
Best combined with	Monte village, cable car, toboggan	Little else nearby; a dedicated trip
Best feature	Lakes, tiles, art collection	Formal terraces and the bay view
Crowd pattern	Busy with cruise-day tour groups	Quieter, fewer group tours

Neither garden requires advance booking on an ordinary day, but the Monte cable car does get long queues at its lower station in the late morning during cruise-ship calls, and booking a tour or a timed ticket ahead avoids that wait entirely.

So Which One Should You Choose?

If you are choosing one and only one, and time or budget is the constraint, the honest answer depends on what you actually want from the hour. Choose Monte Palace if the cable car ride is part of the appeal, if you like the idea of tiles, lakes and a genuinely odd art collection alongside the planting, or if you are already building a half-day around Monte village. Choose the Botanical Garden if you want the better view over Funchal, a calmer and less group-tour-heavy pace, or a more straightforwardly plant-focused collection without the ornamentation.

Neither is the “better” garden in general terms — they are not competing for the same visitor. A traveller who loved the formal terraces and the bay view at the Botanical Garden and expects Monte Palace to be a bigger version of the same thing will be surprised, and the reverse is just as true. Treat the choice as a question of mood and logistics, not quality.

If You Have Time for Both

Doing both in one day is realistic if you start early. Monte Palace pairs naturally with a Monte morning — cable car up, garden, church, toboggan or taxi back down — which leaves an afternoon free for the Botanical Garden by taxi or bus. Visitors short on a full day sometimes take the Monte Palace Garden and Old Town tuk-tuk tour in the morning, using the guided visit to Funchal’s Monte Palace Tropical Gardens to keep the first half of the day simple, then take a taxi to the Botanical Garden in the early afternoon before the light starts to flatten on the terraces.

If your trip only has one slot for a garden and you are also weighing Quinta do Palheiro or a stop at Blandy’s Wine Lodge in the Old Town, it is worth reading the general gardens guide before committing, since it ranks all of the island’s gardens against each other rather than just these two. For a first visit to the city more broadly, see Funchal in one day or the one-day Madeira itinerary for where a garden visit fits against the CR7 Museum, the market and the Old Town.

Monte Palace vs the Botanical Garden: Your Questions Answered

Are Monte Palace Tropical Garden and the Botanical Garden the same place?

No. They sit on opposite sides of Funchal, were built for different purposes, and share almost nothing beyond both being large gardens open to visitors.

Which garden is better for someone with limited time?

Monte Palace, mainly because the visit is usually combined with the Monte cable car ride, so the transport itself becomes part of the sightseeing rather than a separate errand.

Can I walk from Funchal Old Town to either garden?

You can walk to the Monte cable car’s lower station in the Old Town and ride up, but the garden entrance itself is a short walk from the upper station. The Botanical Garden is further out and steeper; a bus or taxi is the realistic option.

Is the Botanical Garden included in a Monte Palace ticket, or vice versa?

No, they are separate attractions with separate admission. Some combined day tours bundle a visit to both, along with Quinta do Palheiro, but a standard Monte Palace or cable car ticket does not cover the Botanical Garden.

Which garden has better views over Funchal?

The Botanical Garden, set on a terraced hillside facing the bay, generally has the more open panorama. Monte Palace has glimpses through the trees but is more about the garden itself than the outlook.

Are both gardens suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs?

Neither is fully flat. Monte Palace has paved paths but some slopes and steps around the lakes; the Botanical Garden is terraced with stepped paths between levels, which makes it the more demanding of the two for limited mobility.

Do I need to book tickets in advance for either garden?

It is not usually necessary outside peak cruise-ship days, but booking a combined tour or the Monte cable car ticket ahead avoids the ticket queue at the lower station, which is the slower part of a Monte Palace visit.