In reality, I should save money and not blow it on traveling. Especially in a bear market when crypto cant fund my traveling because I don't want to sell a thing with that bad price + I should collect money to invest in crypto instead in these times. Unfortunately, as it happens, I can't say no to traveling. I love to explore and go abroad.
My girlfriend insists that we go somewhere warm this time where are beaches and palms, classic girl. So this means that we don't go back to Iceland for the third time now 😂. So, I chose a new island that is warm, has palms, was volcanic and has beaches kind of . We are going to Madeira!
Photo source Madeira is an autonomous island of Portugal. Situated in the Atlantic ocean nearer to Africa than Europe. We are going there from September 4 until September 17. The island has a tropical climate so this means that it also has rain in the mix but summer is the dry season and September is also relatively dry still. Madeira is a very small island reaching about 60km in length and about 30km wide. It is formed by volcanoes in the far past and is very mountainous, you know that I love mountains and hiking them. I have already booked a car and 2 Airbnb-s on this island. It's still best to explore a country with a car, we need this freedom. One Airbnb rental is close to the capital named Funchal and the other is on the southwest side. Since the island is so small, no place is farther than 60km at any point. The weather is largely unpredictable like in Iceland but overall the south coast sees much more sunshine than the north coast is. Temperatures are warm, averaging around +25 in the summers and +19 in winter. Ocean temperature is pretty much the warmest in September, around +24 degrees C so no problem with swimming. This trip was almost subject to cancellation when my girlfriend found out that there really aren't any Good large sandy beaches on this island because on the next travel she really wanted this. Madeira mostly has dramatic cliffs on the coast and only select places have beaches and two small sandy ones are actually fake beaches with sand brought from Africa. Since I had already become fond of the idea of going there, I had to come up with some plan. So we are actually going to visit one more island that belongs to the autonomous area of Madeira. The Porto Santo island. If you thought that Madeira is small then Porto Santo is tiny, being about 10km wide and 5km tall. So the new plan was to stay in Madeira for 10 days, then take a ferry and go to Porto Santo for 3 days as well. This island has an absolutely gorgeous natural sandy beach with turquoise waters. I hoped that this trip does not get as expensive as Iceland trips have been because Madeira is generally much cheaper but if you really want to enjoy yourself then it still gets expensive. One Airbnb that I rented in Madeira, was 180eur per day and for 6 nights. Basically, I have my own 2-floor villa on a cliff face facing to the ocean and it also has an infinity pool so my girlfriend can take those awesome Instagram shots. If you ask me then 180Eur per night is not bad at all for this kind of accommodation. If the same one was in Florida then it would go around 1000eur per night. Oh and there are also two bedrooms, so if we get in an argument during the stay then two master bedrooms come in handy 🤣🤣. Yeah, I cant wait for this trip to come in September. We are also going to the Czech Republic in august but this trip has a different purpose, we are going to a Let it Roll music festival. Interesting times ahead!
Took this screenshot from Google maps so it gives you an idea of where it is located and how mountainous it is.
There is an endless amount of amazing trails to hike so it makes the choice quite hard, there is no way on earth that I can see them all in one visit. Mountains there reach over 1800 meters of height and they are all hikeable. We also need to be adaptable and make the choice on the spot where and when to hike because if Iceland has taught me anything then I won't take a chance again on a day with rainy and bad weather. Of course, not the whole trip is not going to be a hike, also want to explore the local culture and need time to chillax too.
This island is very close to Madeira but has a totally different nature. When Madeira is very green and lush with vegetation, Porto Santo has a mostly deserted landscape and not very much vegetation. The plan is to rent a quad bike to discover this island, that should be cool.
We also Paid for this accommodation + flight tickets and rental car so we eat noodles for the remainder of this month.
Wow sounds wonderful!
Yeaa, it does!