Madeira in September: Weather, Sea Temperature and the New Trail Booking Fee

MADEIRA · SEPTEMBER · 32.6° N

September leaves Funchal’s thermometer almost exactly where August left it and puts the rain back on the calendar. The official normal for the month is a high of 79.9°F, a low of 68.7°F and 0.91 inches of precipitation. August’s normal is 0.05 inches. That multiplication sounds dramatic until you see how it lands: on average, 3.1 days in the month record at least 0.04 inch of rain, and the other twenty-seven behave like the beach month people thought they had booked.

What the month takes away is smaller than the rain column suggests, and it costs EUR 4.50. Since January 1, 2026, every classified walking trail on the island charges an access fee and requires a slot booked online, which changes how a September walking day is planned rather than whether it happens. The water, at 76.1°F, is within half a degree of its August reading. The full twelve-month picture sits in our Portugal calendar.

On this page

• Madeira weather in SeptemberHighs of 79.9°F, 3.1 rain days
• Sea temperature for swimming76.1°F, and what that figure measures
• Levada walks and the 2026 booking ruleEUR 4.50 per person, booked on SIMplifica
• Crowds, costs and the Funchal city taxEUR 2 a night, capped at 7 nights
• Two days in Funchal and MonteThe hour-by-hour plan, and the wet-day swap
• September vs August and October0.05 in, 0.91 in, 3.59 in
• Is September a good time to visit Madeira?The verdict, by type of traveler

One thing to settle before the numbers arrive: they come from a single thermometer. IPMA’s station 522 sits at 58 m above the south coast, in Funchal, and its normals describe Funchal. Pico do Areeiro and the north coast keep their own weather, colder and much wetter, so a reading taken at sea level can be wrong by a whole jacket on a mountain trail. Our packing guide handles the layer question.

Madeira weather in September: highs of 79.9°F and 3.1 rain days

These figures come from IPMA, the Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera, and specifically from its 1991-2020 normals for station 522, Funchal, at 58 m of altitude. The average daily high is 79.9°F, the average low 68.7°F, and the month’s precipitation 0.91 inches. Naming the source matters more than it sounds: a station normal is a real instrument in a real place with thirty years behind it, while much of what circulates online for small islands is a reanalysis grid cell averaged over miles of open sea and rock.

Rain shows up on 3.1 days in an average September, counting any day that records at least 1 mm (0.04 inch), and 0.8 day reaches 10 mm (0.39 inch) or more. Those are IPMA’s thresholds, not the 0.10-inch threshold most American tables use, so the counts are not interchangeable with the ones your weather app shows at home. In practice the month reads as one soaking afternoon, a couple of damp hours somewhere else, and twenty-seven dry days.

Between the 79.9°F afternoon and the 68.7°F night there are 11.2 degrees, which is a t-shirt at 4pm and one thin layer at 10pm on a Funchal terrace. Nothing more dramatic than that happens at sea level. Above the coast the arithmetic changes, because the high ground runs colder and much wetter than station 522, so a levada day wants a rain shell and a second layer in the pack even when the harbor is glaring.

September 15 delivers 12 hours 24 minutes of daylight, with the sun up at 7:50am and down at 8:14pm in island time. That reaches further than dinner reservations. Trail entry slots are sold in 30-minute windows running from sunrise to sunset, so the length of the day sets how many slots exist to book at all. An early one just after that 7:50am sunrise is a genuine option here, and the walk still ends with hours of light left over.

Can you swim in Madeira in September? Sea temperature at 76.1°F

The sea surface off Madeira averages 76.1°F in September. That number comes from Open-Meteo’s marine model, averaged across 2015-2024, and it is the mean of daily maxima rather than a 24-hour mean, so it reads a shade warmer than the water you meet at eight in the morning. It also belongs to a different class of measurement from the IPMA normals above: a model of the sea surface, not a thermometer on a pole in Funchal.

For a swimmer, 76.1°F is the stretch of the year when the Atlantic stops arguing. Entry costs a two-second flinch and then nothing at all, an hour in the water needs no wetsuit, and children last as long as their parents’ patience does. Air runs about four degrees warmer than water this month, which is why climbing out at 6pm in September, into a 68.7°F evening, feels nothing like climbing out in a cooler one.

Wind and swell are where we stop quoting. Our sources carry a sea surface temperature and nothing on wave height or wind speed for September, so no number goes here, and none should. The practical version is geographic rather than statistical: Funchal faces south, the exposed beaches meet a different ocean on a windy day, and the day’s own marine forecast beats any monthly average ever printed.

How busy is Madeira in September? Costs, booking rules and the EUR 2 city tax

Cards on the table: we hold no hotel rate data for Madeira, so we will not tell you that September runs 18 percent cheaper than August. What it can tell you is that the two months are climatic near-twins, 79.9°F against 80.2°F in the air and 76.1°F against 76.6°F in the water, which is why the island’s summer demand does not fall off a cliff on September 1. The costs we can price are fixed, published, and quicker to accumulate than most visitors expect.

The booking that counts as a rule rather than a good habit is the trail slot. Access to every PR-numbered levada and vereda has to be reserved online through SIMplifica, the regional government’s digital services portal, and it applies to solo walkers, to groups and to anyone going out with a tourism company alike. Status is published trail by trail: on September 8, 2026, PR 6 Levada das 25 Fontes and PR 1.2 Vereda do Pico Ruivo were open, while PR 1.3 Vereda da Encumeada and PR 4 Levada do Barreiro were restricted.

Funchal charges a Taxa Municipal Turística of EUR 2 per person per night on every paid overnight stay in the municipality, whatever the booking channel, capped at 7 consecutive nights. The ceiling is therefore EUR 14 per guest, and it starts again after an interrupted stay, so a week in Funchal, three nights elsewhere and a return leg gets billed twice. Children of 12 and under are exempt on production of an ID, as are visitors with a disability of 60 percent or more and residents of the region.

There is one place where paying more changes the month rather than upgrading it. Walking with a tourism company that holds a protocol with the IFCN drops the access fee from EUR 4.50 to EUR 3 per person, and it moves the SIMplifica booking and the daily status check off your side of the table. On a month with 3.1 wet days and two classified trails already restricted, that transfer of admin is the purchase, not the discount.

Things to do in Madeira in September: cable car, Monte gardens, levadas

September is the last month of the Monte Palace Tropical Garden’s summer timetable. From April to September the garden stays open until 19:00, and on October 1 it shuts at 18:00, which removes the golden hour from 70,000 square meters of hillside planting. Put that beside 76.1°F water and 3.1 rain days and the month funds a full beach afternoon and a late garden on the same day, a pairing that October’s timetable and its 3.59 inches of rain quietly withdraw.

Prices and hours, as published. The Funchal to Monte cable car costs EUR 22 return and EUR 16 one way, runs 08:45 to 17:45 every day of the year except December 25, carries children up to 6 free and 7 to 14 at half price, and its e-ticket stays valid for 60 days after purchase. Monte Palace Tropical Garden, at Caminho das Babosas by the top station, is EUR 18 for adults, open 09:00 to 19:00 through September, and its sculpture museum stops admitting at 17:00.

Free got shorter this year. Until December 2025 a levada walk cost nothing, and it now costs EUR 4.50, with the exemption covering residents of the Autonomous Region rather than visitors. What stays free: entry to Monte Palace for anyone 14 or under accompanied by an adult, school groups, and the cable car for children up to 6. The Botanical Garden Eng. Rui Vieira, on Caminho do Meio at Bom Sucesso, holds over 2,000 exotic species, though we do not hold its current admission price, so check before counting on it.

Madeira in September: a two-day plan for Funchal and Monte

Day one, Funchal and Monte. Buy the cable car one way at EUR 16 and go up soon after the 08:45 opening, while the air is still short of its 79.9°F. Monte Palace opens at 09:00, which allows two unhurried hours plus the museum before its 17:00 cutoff. The wicker sledges run Monday to Saturday, 09:00 to 18:00, at EUR 30 for one rider, EUR 40 for two and EUR 60 for three, sold on site for the same day only. Save the sea at 76.1°F for the hot end of the afternoon.

Day two, the levada. Reserve a SIMplifica slot near sunrise, pay the EUR 4.50, and take PR 6 Levada das 25 Fontes or PR 6.1 Levada do Risco, both open on September 8, 2026, then be back on the coast by mid-afternoon. Should the sky produce one of the 3.1 wet days, or the 0.8 day that dumps 0.39 inch or more, swap the order. No three-person sledge runs on wet ground, and none run on Sunday, so a garden, a museum and a long lunch absorb a soaked morning better than a mountain does.

Madeira in September vs August and October

Across the three months the temperature barely moves and the rain does all the talking. Air falls 2.8 degrees between August and October, the sea 1.0 degree, and both curves are gentle enough that a swimmer would struggle to feel either. Precipitation runs 0.05 inch, then 0.91, then 3.59, roughly a seventyfold spread in eight weeks, with wet days going 0.4, 3.1, 7.0. On every line except that rain column, September sits beside August.

Shift four weeks earlier and you gain a nearly dry month, 0.4 wet days and half a degree of extra water, while giving up nothing we can price, since the city tax and every ticket here cost the same in both months (August in detail). Shift four weeks later and you trade 2.5 degrees of afternoon warmth and take on 2.7 additional inches of rain, in exchange for cooler walking air and a garden that closes at 18:00 (October in detail).

Is September a good time to visit Madeira?

Yes, for anyone building the trip around water and walking. The sea holds 76.1°F, within half a degree of its yearly best, afternoons average 79.9°F, and rain occupies roughly three days out of thirty. No, if the plan cannot survive one washed-out morning: 0.8 day a month reaches 0.39 inch, trail status can flip overnight, and the sledges refuse three riders on wet ground. Bargain hunters should read the tax line once more before deciding, because it applies whatever the room cost.

If that reads like a no, August is the month to shift toward, not October. It carries 0.05 inch of rain across 0.4 wet days and the warmest water of the year at 76.6°F, and we hold no rate data to tell you what that comfort costs at the front desk. October’s 3.59 inches and 7.0 wet days make a different holiday altogether, one that suits walkers who want cool air and cloud sitting on the peaks.

One thing September owns outright: it is the last month that pairs water above 76°F with a garden still admitting visitors at 19:00, and both of those end on the same October 1.

The last word

Book the trail slot before the restaurant. SIMplifica is the only door to a levada now, the fee is EUR 4.50, and a window just after the 7:50am sunrise is the one worth holding while the coast is still cool. Keep the sledges loose in the schedule instead: the Monte ticket office sells same day only, and it can close early when the queue grows or the weather turns, which on a month carrying 3.1 wet days is not a coin worth flipping at half past five.

Sources & data for this guide

• September normals (high 79.9°F, low 68.7°F, 0.91 in, 3.1 days at 1 mm, 0.8 day at 10 mm) · IPMA, 1991–2020 climate normals, station 522 Funchal, altitude 58.0 m · checked Sep 13, 2026
• August and October normals used in the comparison table · same IPMA station and same 1991–2020 period, not estimates · checked Sep 13, 2026
• Sea surface 76.1°F, mean of daily maxima 2015–2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 13, 2026
• Daylight 12h 24m on September 15, sunrise and sunset converted to island time · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 13, 2026
• Trail access fee (EUR 4.50 / EUR 3), mandatory SIMplifica booking, 30-minute slots and trail status list · Visit Madeira, official regional tourist board, Hiking / Access Conditions · checked Sep 13, 2026
• Cable car fares and 08:45–17:45 hours · Teleférico do Funchal, official site · checked Sep 13, 2026
• Wicker sledge prices, Monday to Saturday 09:00–18:00, no advance booking, no three-person ride on wet ground · Carreiros do Monte, official site · checked Sep 13, 2026
• Monte Palace Tropical Garden, EUR 18 adults, April–September 09:00–19:00, museum last entry 17:00 · official garden site · checked Sep 13, 2026. Several ticket aggregators advertise EUR 12.50 for this garden; the garden’s own site says EUR 18, and we follow the garden
• Taxa Municipal Turística, EUR 2 per person per night capped at 7 nights, exemptions · Câmara Municipal do Funchal, official FAQ · checked Sep 13, 2026
• We hold no hotel rate data and no verified September event dates for Madeira, so this page quotes neither. Hours, fares and trail status change · check operators before you go