Madeira in April: Weather, Sea Temperature, Crowds and Prices

PORTUGAL · MADEIRA · APRIL

Funchal’s April afternoons average 69.8°F, and the sea off the island reaches 68.0°F on a typical day. That leaves a trip this month somewhere between a light jacket and a quick swim. The port still logs 44 cruise calls in April, the same count as March, and 88,918 passengers step ashore before May falls to 19,434.

Since January 1, 2026, every classified walking trail on the island, each PR-numbered levada and vereda, charges EUR 4.50 per person and needs a booking made online through SIMplifica, the regional government’s portal. Entry comes in 30-minute slots from sunrise to sunset, so April’s 13 hours of light set how many exist in a day. Beaches, towns and where to sleep on the island live in our Madeira guide.

On this page

• Madeira weather in April69.8°F highs and 4.7 rain days at Funchal
• Can you swim in Madeira in April?Sea at 68.0°F, and the free Porto Moniz pools
• How busy is Madeira in April?44 cruise calls, the EUR 2 Funchal tax, levada passes
• Things to do in Madeira in AprilMonte cable car, Monte Palace, Cabo Girão
• Two days in Madeira in AprilA Funchal day and a PR1 day
• Madeira in April or in March and May?How the three months compare on heat, rain and sea
• Is April a good time to visit Madeira?Who should go in April, who should wait for May

Routings from American airports sit in our flights-from-the-US guide, passport rules in entry requirements, and the whole-country calendar in when to visit Portugal. One number to save before you fly: 112 reaches emergency services across Madeira, as everywhere in Portugal and the European Union.

Madeira weather in April: average highs, lows and rain days

Every figure here comes from IPMA, Portugal’s national weather service, and its 1991-2020 normals for station 522 at Funchal: a real thermometer 58 meters up on the south coast, not a model grid cell. An average April afternoon there reaches 69.8°F, the night bottoms out at 58.8°F, and the month collects 1.78 inches of rain. Those readings describe the seafront capital. High ground is colder and far wetter, and the other end of a coast keeps its own weather, so a walker bound for Pico do Areeiro at 1,857 meters should read the Funchal numbers as sea-level readings and pack for cooler, wetter air.

IPMA counts 4.7 days in an average April with at least 1 mm of rain (0.04 inch), roughly one day in six, and 1.2 days with 10 mm (0.39 inch) or more, about one proper soaking a month. A week-long stay should plan for one wet day and probably no more. The thresholds are the Portuguese service’s own. US tables start counting at 0.10 inch, so an American rain-day figure and this one cannot be set side by side. On the wet day, the Monte sledges will not run a three-person ride on damp ground.

Between the 69.8°F afternoon and the 58.8°F night sits an 11-degree swing, enough to send you back to the hotel for a sweater before dinner. Pack light layers plus one warm fleece and a rain shell, and carry both on any levada: the trails climb far above the station, and the PR1 crossing starts at 1,857 meters. Our Portugal packing list covers shoes and the rest.

On April 15 Funchal gets about 13 hours 3 minutes of daylight. The sun rises at 07:36 and sets at 20:38 island time, one hour ahead of UTC in April. For walkers, levada entry slots run in half-hour steps from sunrise to sunset, so a mid-April day offers about 26 of them. The Monte cable car makes its last run at 17:45, nearly three hours before dark, and the Cabo Girão skywalk shuts at 20:00, 38 minutes before sunset.

Swimming in Madeira in April: sea temperature

Open-Meteo’s marine data puts the sea surface off Madeira at 68.0°F in April, averaged over 2015-2024. That figure is a mean of daily maxima, the warmest reading of each day, so it runs a shade above a 24-hour average and above what the water feels like at 8 a.m. Tables that average around the clock will print a slightly lower April number, and both can be right. The same series gives 66.9°F for March and 69.9°F for May.

In the water, 68°F sits within two degrees of the 69.8°F afternoon air, and most swimmers call it brisk: fine for a quick plunge on a sunny afternoon, cold for a long float. Children and anyone who chills fast will be happier in a short wetsuit. The easiest way in is at Porto Moniz on the north coast, where the Cachalote pools, basins in volcanic rock, are free and open at all hours.

We found no wind or swell series for April, so we give no wave heights and no odds of a calm sea. Conditions on an open Atlantic coast change from one day to the next, and the Porto Moniz pools sit on the exposed north side. Check IPMA’s marine forecast the evening before a pool day, and keep the swim for another morning if it calls for heavy seas.

How busy is Madeira in April? Crowds and prices

Funchal’s port authority, APRAM, counts 88,918 cruise passengers in April, down from 108,699 in March and more than four times May’s 19,434. Ship calls hold at 44, the same as March, so April closes the winter cruise season and May is when the quay empties. APRAM publishes these counts as charts plotting 2025 and 2026 side by side, and we quote the higher, more recent series. We found no hotel occupancy or monthly room-rate data, so we rank no April week as cheap or dear.

Levada slots can only be booked online through SIMplifica, whether you walk alone, in a group or with a tour company. Monte cable car e-tickets stay valid for 60 days after purchase, so they can go in the basket as soon as the flights are set. Blandy’s Wine Lodge advises booking its tours ahead and allows free cancellation up to 24 hours before. The Monte sledges sell same-day tickets on site only. We have no lead-time data for rooms, so we name no number of weeks.

Funchal charges a Taxa Municipal Turística of EUR 2 per person per night, capped at 7 consecutive nights, so EUR 14 per guest at most. It applies to every paid overnight stay in the municipality whatever the booking channel, and the count starts again after an interrupted stay. Children of 12 and under with ID, people with a disability of 60 percent or more and Madeira residents are exempt. We checked Funchal’s rules only, so sleeping in another municipality means checking its own.

If one budget line changes April, it is the levada pass. A single trail costs EUR 4.50, while EUR 9.00 buys a day pass covering two trails or more, EUR 22.50 covers three days and EUR 52.50 covers seven. With 4.7 rain days in the month, a multi-day pass lets you spread walks across the drier days of a stay without buying each trail separately. PR1, the Areeiro crossing, sits outside the day pass at EUR 10.50 for anyone over 12.

Things to do in Madeira in April

From April the Monte Palace Tropical Garden keeps its summer timetable, 09:00 to 19:00, an hour later than its 18:00 closing from October to March. Add 13 hours of light and a sea near 68°F, and one April day can hold a morning levada, an afternoon in the garden and, on a clear day, a dip at Porto Moniz.

The Monte cluster sits above Funchal. The cable car costs EUR 22 return or EUR 16 one way, runs 08:45 to 17:45 daily, carries children up to 6 free and charges half for ages 7 to 14. At its top station, the garden covers 70,000 square meters (about 17 acres) of exotic planting, tile panels and a sculpture museum, for EUR 18 per adult, with children up to 14 free alongside an adult. The wicker sledges down cost EUR 30 for one, EUR 40 for two and EUR 60 for three. West of town, the Cabo Girão glass skywalk charges EUR 3, an amount to confirm on site.

April’s 69.8°F afternoon sits 0.7 degree above March and 1.8 below May, mild enough for the garden’s steep paths at midday. Wet ground is the variable. The three-person sledge never runs in rain or on damp roads, the ticket office can close early when the weather turns, and the sledges rest every Sunday. Inside the garden, the museum closes at 17:00, two hours before the gates, so see it first. Down in Funchal, the Botanical Garden on Caminho do Meio holds more than 2,000 exotic species.

The Cachalote pools at Porto Moniz are free and open around the clock, next to a serviced complex that charges EUR 3. We could not confirm whether April falls under its 09:00-17:00 winter hours or its 09:00-19:00 summer ones. Browsing the Mercado dos Lavradores costs only what you buy: 07:00 to 19:00 on weekdays, 07:00 to 14:00 on Saturdays, closed Sundays, when the Mercado da Penteada opens 07:00 to 13:00. Children enter Cabo Girão free up to 12.

Madeira in April: a two-day itinerary

Day one, a weekday in Funchal: walk into the Mercado dos Lavradores at 07:00, then ride the first cable car at 08:45 to Monte. Give the Monte Palace garden two hours from its 09:00 opening, museum included, and take a sledge down (Monday to Saturday, same-day tickets). After lunch, book Blandy’s EUR 23 Premium Tour at 14:00 or 15:00 on Avenida Arriaga: 45 minutes and three Madeira wines. Late afternoon, drive west to Cabo Girão, open until 20:00, for the cliff in low sun before the 20:38 sunset.

On day two, walk the mountain. Book an early PR1 slot, since entry starts at sunrise around 07:36: the Pico do Areeiro to Pico Ruivo crossing runs 6.1 km (3.8 miles) one way, about 3 hours, rated Moderate, for EUR 10.50. Past the Pedra Rija viewpoint the path runs toward Pico Ruivo only, so arrange your ride from the far end first. PR1 was open on September 8, 2026, and status is published trail by trail. If rain arrives, take the EUR 4.50 Pedra Rija out-and-back or stay in Funchal.

Madeira in April vs March and May

Measured at the same Funchal station, spring warms in small steps: highs go from 69.1°F in March to 69.8°F in April and 71.6°F in May, lows from 57.7°F to 58.8°F and 61.2°F. Rain drops faster than the thermometer climbs, from 2.45 inches to 1.78 and then 1.07, with rain days of at least 1 mm falling from 5.8 to 4.7 and 3.3. The sea gains 1.1 degrees from March to April and 1.9 more by May.

Moving four weeks later to Madeira in May buys 1.4 fewer rain days, water near 70°F and a port that drops from 88,918 cruise passengers to 19,434, with the garden on the same 19:00 closing. Moving four weeks earlier to Madeira in March costs an hour of garden time, adds 0.67 inch of rain and brings 108,699 cruise passengers through Funchal. Neither shift changes the levada fees, the EUR 2 tax or the sledges’ Sunday closure.

Is April a good time to visit Madeira?

Yes for walkers, garden lovers and anyone happy with 69.8°F afternoons and one wet day a week: the levada slots stretch across 13 hours of light, the Monte Palace stays open to 19:00 and Funchal nights hold near 59°F. No for a trip built around long swims in 68°F water, or for travelers who want a quiet quay while 44 ship calls still land in April.

If the answer is no, pick May. Nights average 61.2°F against April’s 58.8°F, the sea reaches 69.9°F by daily maxima, and rain days drop to 3.3, the lowest of the three months.

April is the month the Monte Palace garden first stays open until 19:00 while Funchal still counts 44 cruise calls, long garden evenings arriving before the ships leave.

The last word

Book the walking slots before the rooms: PR1 at EUR 10.50, or a EUR 9.00 day pass for two gentler levadas, then fit the Funchal days around them, with the market at 07:00 and the garden until 19:00. Landing is the last piece. The Aerobus leaves the airport from 08:30 to 22:00 and runs through central Funchal to Praia Formosa in 50 minutes. We could not find its fare printed, so call the operator on 291 201 151, and skip stop 9, Terminal SAM, which the official timetable marks disabled.

Sources & data for this guide

• April, March and May normals, rain days by 1 mm and 10 mm thresholds · IPMA 1991-2020 climatological normals, station 522 Funchal, 58.0 m · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Sea surface temperature, mean of daily maxima 2015-2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Daylight, sunrise and sunset on April 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, converted from UTC to island time · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Levada fees, passes, SIMplifica booking, trail status on Sep 8, 2026 · Visit Madeira (official), Hiking and PR1 pages · checked Sep 8-10, 2026
• Cable car fares and hours · Teleférico do Funchal (official) · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Sledge prices and conditions · Carreiros do Monte (official) · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Monte Palace fares and hours · official site (several aggregators print EUR 12.50, the garden says EUR 18) · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Blandy’s Premium Tour · official site (aggregators print EUR 18, the lodge says EUR 23) · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Funchal tourist tax · Câmara Municipal do Funchal FAQ · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Cabo Girão fee and hours · concordant secondary sources only, we could not reach an institutional page · confirm on site
• Porto Moniz pools · Visit Madeira and concordant guides · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Cruise passengers and calls · APRAM monthly charts, 2025 and 2026 plotted together, read from the legend · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Markets · Câmara Municipal do Funchal, Divisão de Mercados · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Aerobus route and hours · SIGA Madeira official timetable (no fare printed) · checked Sep 24, 2026
• We found no hotel-rate, occupancy, wind or swell series for April, so we rank no price and give no wave height.

To plan your stay

• Things to Do in Madeira: Trail Fees, Cable Car Prices and Opening Hours
• Where to Stay in Madeira: Funchal, Monte, the North Coast and the Levada Trailheads
• Madeira Airport to Funchal: Aerobus Stops, Timetable, Taxi Cases and When to Leave
• Things to Know Before Going to Madeira: Trail Bookings, Mountain Driving and Late Dinners

Nearby places

• Lagos, Algarve: The Walled Town, the Beaches and Getting Around Without a Car
• Ponta da Piedade: Cliff Walkways, Grotto Boats and the Best Time of Day
• Sagres, Portugal: Wind, the Beaches on Both Sides and Cabo de São Vicente