Madeira Island Shopping

1 more image

With more than 200 stores (Portugal mainland and Madeira) and around 8000 employees, Pingo Doce is the largest supermarket chain in Portugal. In each store there is the commitment to supply perishables and everyday household products, with the warranty of low prices and good service.

What to buy: Everything you could imagine is available from this store,ideal for your groceries etc,fresh fruit and vegetables,to drinks.

What to pay: Usual supermarket prices

2 more images

The Mercado dos Lavradores is really worthseeing. At the entrance you see immediately tropical flowers everywhere and fruits, vegetables (also very strange ones: a mix between banana and ananas, a lot of types of maracuja etc) and seafood everywhere. It's amazing to see people cutting, preparing and selling fishes, enormous codfish, thunafisch, espada fishes and many others. Don't forget your camera!

Not so known but however nice is the covered market in Canico: especially food and fish. No tourists at all.

What to buy: Flowers are beautiful and very cheap (a bunch with more than 10 "STERLIZIE" costed at Canico market only 2 €....the whole bunch!!!!) and Madeirans are used to pack them in a very intelligent way. I bought also bulbs, now growing on my balcony.

Madeira's third highest mountain has a parking lot, a bar and souvenir shops on top. When we returned to the Pico do Arieiro after our strenious hike, we were unpleasantly surprised by the large amount of tourists who just came there for a quick photo of the view and left again with the coach.

Just to blow off some steam we sat down in the sun and did some walking around at the parking lot. After that we had a cool drink at the lobby of the hotel Pousada Pico do Arieiro. We also had a look at the gift shop right there for our pin on our walking stick. We found out that this particular shop was the most expensive one on the entire island! So, don't buy anything right there.

What to pay: Way too much!

The major grocery chains on Madeira are Modelo, Sa, and one other store whose name i've fogotten (pingo dolce or something lit in a green banner). Although there are smaller shops all over the place, if you're staying in a self-catering apartment, these stores have a wider selection. There are 3-4 major grocery stores in Ribiera Brava, so if you're staying on the southwestern part of the island, I would recommend buying groceries here.

What to buy: madeiran specialties: honey cake, biscuits, wine

What to pay: 2.50 EUR for a six pack of beer
1-3 EUR for a bottle of wine
3 EUR for chicken breasts
1 EUR for pasta

2 more images

What to buy: The Bolo de Mel or Honey Cake is a typical Madeira cake.

Ingredients: Wheat flour, sugar, sugar cane honey, pork fat, butter, mixed spices, nuts, almonds, raisins, and Madeira Wine (glad to know there's Madeira Wine here).

For better taste the secret is to use your hands to slice it. If you use a knife, the cake will taste different. So, my suggestion is stick with your fingers and do not worry about the knife. :-)

Another interesting characteristic is that the Bolo de Mel could be stored for several months !!! .... - Well... that depends. I must confess the one I was given last week (pictured here for this Tip) lasted just a couple hours in my hands. :-)

Because we were cossetted up in the hills of Madeira in our wonderfully luxurious spa hotel, we left our shopping to the day before we flew home. It was a Saturday and this proved to be a big big mistake as we didn't realise that the shops close Saturday afternoons.

However, from the small handful that we discovered open, I discovered Madeiran lace. It's absolutely stunning and very well priced indeed. I just brought home some lace doileys and table runners for the house, but there were so many stunning items to choose from!

Madeira is renowned for its wine, its walks, and the flora and fauna. Somebody needs to let us know about the lace:-)

right at the heart of the beautiful city of Funchal , of course, goin' there is a great experience even if yu 'r not to keen of shoping.
i garantie a couple of hours of pure joy.
just go there and let it flow....

.
is a peculiar and special place, where yu can find all sort of things.food: meat, fish, fruit and vegetables.
and of course a flowerish island, flowers.
a place where smells and colours mixed. a real must do activity once yu are at funchal.