Funchal in March: Weather, Sea Temperature and Cruise-Ship Crowds

FUNCHAL · MADEIRA · MARCH

A March afternoon in Funchal averages 69.1°F, and the night behind it settles at 57.7°F. Those 11.4 degrees decide what you carry: a layer on the balcony at breakfast, shirtsleeves on the seafront by eleven, the layer back on when the sun leaves the water at 7:16 p.m. Measurable rain arrives on 5.8 days of an average March, and 2.2 of those days bring at least 0.39 inch.

March also brings ships. The port authority counted 44 cruise calls and 108,699 cruise passengers in March against 3 calls and 4,071 passengers in July, so the crowded hours here belong to winter rather than to August. The sea, meanwhile, sits at 66.9°F, cooler than February’s 67.2°F and more than a degree under April’s 68.0°F.

On this page

• Funchal weather in March69.1°F days, 2.45 inches of rain
• Can you swim in March?The sea at 66.9°F
• How busy Funchal is in March44 cruise calls, 108,699 passengers
• Things to do in MarchMonte, Blandy’s and the two markets
• A two-day planDay one up to Monte, day two in the old town
• March, February or April?How the three months compare
• Is March worth it?Who it suits, and who should wait for April

Every figure here comes from Funchal’s own instruments where one exists. The air normals are IPMA’s 1991-2020 series from station 522, a real thermometer 58.0 meters above the sea inside the city. They do not describe Madeira’s interior, where high ground runs colder and far wetter, so a levada walk deserves its own forecast rather than a coastal reading. For the rest of the island, start with our Madeira guide.

Funchal weather in March: average highs, lows and rain days

IPMA, the Portuguese national weather service, publishes March at station 522 as 69.1°F by day, 57.7°F at night and 2.45 inches of precipitation, averaged over 1991 to 2020. The station stands at 58.0 meters in Funchal itself, so these are measurements rather than a model’s estimate for a grid cell, and that distinction matters when a reanalysis and a thermometer disagree by a couple of degrees on the overnight minimum.

Rain reaches the gauge on 5.8 days of an average March, roughly one day in five, and 2.2 of those deliver 0.39 inch or more. Watch the thresholds: IPMA counts a rain day from 0.04 inch, while American tables usually start at 0.10 inch, so the two counts do not swap. What it leaves you is about 25 days with nothing measurable falling and two that can cancel an outdoor plan outright.

Pack for 11.4 degrees of daily swing. Two light layers work better than one warm one, a rain shell covers the 2.2 heavy days, and closed shoes matter on streets that climb the way Funchal’s do. Heading uphill toward a levada, add a layer again, because the station figures are coastal and the interior runs colder and wetter. Our packing guide handles the rest of the suitcase.

On March 15 the sun rises at 7:15 a.m. and sets at 7:16 p.m. local time, giving 12 hours and 01 minutes of daylight. Last light falls about 90 minutes after the cable car stops at 5:45 p.m. and more than an hour after the Monte Palace garden closes at 6 p.m. on its winter timetable, which leaves an easy seafront hour before dinner.

Can you swim in Funchal in March? Sea temperature and what it feels like

Sea surface off Funchal averages 66.9°F in March. That number is the mean of daily maxima over 2015 to 2024 from the Open-Meteo Marine API, not an IPMA reading, so treat it as the warm end of each day rather than a 24-hour average. A dawn swim is a shade cooler than the figure suggests, and an afternoon one lands right on it.

For most American swimmers, 66.9°F means a brisk dip rather than an afternoon in the water, and a shorty wetsuit changes the calculation entirely. Madeirans swim through it without comment. The three-month pattern says more than the single figure: February averages 67.2°F and April 68.0°F, which means March holds the coolest water of the trio, by 0.3 of a degree on one side and 1.1 on the other.

We found no wave-height or wind series for March off Funchal, so we publish no swell figures and make no claim about which stretch of coast shelters best on a blowy day. The same boundary applies as with the air: our numbers describe Funchal’s own strip of shoreline, and the far end of the island keeps its own weather.

How busy is Funchal in March? Crowds, cruise ships and what a stay costs

Funchal’s high season is winter, and the gap is not subtle. APRAM, the regional port authority, logged 108,699 cruise passengers and 44 ship calls in March against 4,071 passengers and 3 calls in July. Those counts are read from published charts that plot 2025 and 2026 side by side, and we give the higher, more recent series. The seasonal shape is identical in both years, and that shape is the part to plan around.

We could not verify hotel occupancy or monthly room rates for Funchal, so no month here gets crowned cheap or expensive. What we can pin down is what needs reserving. Blandy’s Wine Lodge advises booking its tours ahead and cancels free up to 24 hours before. The cable car sells e-tickets valid for 60 days, so buying before your flight costs you nothing in flexibility. The Monte sledges take no reservations at all: tickets are sold on site, same day only.

Funchal charges a Taxa Municipal Turística of EUR 2 per person per night, capped at seven 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 restarts after an interrupted stay. Children of 12 and under are exempt on production of an ID, as are people with a disability of 60 percent or more and residents of Madeira who can show a local tax address.

The spend that changes a wet March is the cable car’s return fare. EUR 22 round trip against EUR 16 one way looks like a saving worth making, until the sledges are shut and the walk down is the alternative. Children up to 6 ride free and 7 to 14 pay half, so a family can hedge the downhill leg cheaply. The cabin runs 8:45 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., every day of the year except Christmas.

Things to do in Funchal in March: Monte, Blandy’s and the Mercado dos Lavradores

March runs on the winter timetable, and that changes the end of a day rather than the start. Monte Palace Tropical Garden closes at 6 p.m. from October through March and at 7 p.m. from April, while its museum shuts at 5 p.m. all year with last entry at the same hour. March also sits inside the cruise season: a morning can put four ships alongside, where a July morning often puts none.

Monte Palace covers 70,000 square meters at Caminho das Babosas, right at the cable car’s top station, and charges EUR 18 for adults with children up to 14 free alongside one. Down in the city, Blandy’s Wine Lodge on Avenida Arriaga runs its Premium Tour at EUR 23: 45 minutes ending in a tasting of three Madeira wines, with English departures Monday to Friday at 10:30 a.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., plus extra Sunday slots.

What March does to that list comes down to wet ground. The wicker sledges cost EUR 30 for one rider, EUR 40 for two and EUR 60 for three with two carreiros in white, and they run Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. They cannot be booked, the office may close early when the queue or the weather turns, and no three-person ride leaves in rain. With 5.8 rain days in the month, keep the sledge as a maybe and the cable car as the fallback.

Free in March: both municipal markets. Mercado dos Lavradores opens 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, closed Sundays and public holidays, and that Saturday lock catches people out. Mercado da Penteada answers the Sunday, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., and runs to 8 p.m. Monday to Thursday. The Botanical Garden Eng. Rui Vieira at Bom Sucesso holds more than 2,000 exotic species, though we could not verify its current admission price, so we quote none.

Funchal in March: a two-day itinerary

Day one goes up. Be at the Mercado dos Lavradores when it opens at 7 a.m., take the cable car from 8:45 a.m., and give Monte Palace the late morning while the 70,000 square meters are still cool. Come down by sledge if the street is dry, by cable car if it is not. The 4 p.m. English tour at Blandy’s puts you back on Avenida Arriaga around 4:45 p.m., with more than two hours of daylight left.

Day two stays low: the old town, the seafront, a long lunch, which is also the version that survives rain. Sunday rearranges everything, since Lavradores is shut and the sledges do not run, while Mercado da Penteada opens 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. If the sky turns on a weekday, the indoor hours are already priced at EUR 23 for 45 minutes and three wines at Blandy’s, and EUR 18 at Monte Palace, whose sculpture museum closes at 5 p.m.

Funchal in March vs February and April

Across the three months the air barely moves. February averages 67.8°F by day, March 69.1°F, April 69.8°F, which is 1.3 degrees gained on February and 0.7 still owed to April. Rain does move: 2.85 inches, then 2.45, then 1.78. The water runs the other way, dipping to 66.9°F in March from February’s 67.2°F before climbing to 68.0°F in April, all three taken as daily maxima from the marine series rather than the IPMA station.

Shift four weeks later and you buy 0.67 inch less rain, 1.1 degrees of sea, an extra hour at Monte Palace each evening from April, and roughly 19,800 fewer cruise passengers stepping ashore over the month. Shift four weeks earlier and February hands back 0.3 of a degree of water while taking 0.40 inch more rain and adding 5,140 cruise passengers. Rain days follow the same line: 5.5, then 5.8, then 4.7.

Is March a good time to visit Funchal?

Yes, for anyone who came to walk, eat and look at plants. A 69.1°F afternoon with 12 hours and 01 minutes of daylight suits streets that climb, and a garden does not care which month you booked. No, for a trip built on swimming, because 66.9°F is a dip rather than a beach holiday, and no for anyone hoping to have the old town to themselves before lunch with 44 ships calling.

If that lands as a no, take April instead. It arrives 0.7 degrees warmer by day, 0.67 inch drier, 1.1 degrees warmer in the water, and with 88,918 cruise passengers against March’s 108,699. Evenings stretch too, since Monte Palace moves to its 7 p.m. close from April. Our 12-month verdict for Portugal puts that choice in national context.

One thing March holds that its neighbors do not: of the months APRAM publishes from January to August, it is the last above 100,000 cruise passengers and the last one on the garden’s 6 p.m. winter close, so the city is still keeping winter hours while the afternoons already reach 69.1°F.

The last word

Settle the sledge question first, because it is the one piece of a Funchal day that cannot be booked, does not run on Sunday, and never goes out three-up on a wet street. Everything else holds still. Buy the cable car e-ticket before you fly, since it stays valid for 60 days from purchase, take the EUR 22 return rather than the EUR 16 single on any of the month’s 5.8 likely wet days, and get to the Lavradores stalls well before that 2 p.m. Saturday lock.

Sources & data for this guide

• March normals, rain days and IPMA thresholds · IPMA 1991-2020 normals, station 522 Funchal, altitude 58.0 m · checked Sep 23, 2026
• February and April normals · same IPMA station and same 1991-2020 period · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Sea surface 66.9°F, 67.2°F and 68.0°F, means of daily maxima 2015-2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Daylight, sunrise and sunset on March 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, converted to Atlantic/Madeira · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Cable car fares, child rates, 60-day e-ticket and 8:45 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. hours · Teleférico do Funchal official site · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Sledge prices, same-day ticketing and wet-ground rule · Carreiros do Monte official site · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Monte Palace admission EUR 18 and its two timetables · Monte Palace Tropical Garden official site · checked Sep 23, 2026 · several aggregators list EUR 12.50, the garden’s own site does not
• Blandy’s Premium Tour EUR 23, 45 minutes, English departures · Blandy’s Wine Lodge official site · checked Sep 23, 2026 · aggregator listings at EUR 18 are out of date
• Taxa Municipal Turística, cap and exemptions · Câmara Municipal do Funchal FAQ · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Cruise passengers and ship calls, January to August · APRAM monthly charts plotting 2025 and 2026 together, higher and more recent series used · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Market hours, Lavradores and Penteada · Câmara Municipal do Funchal, Divisão de Mercados · checked Sep 23, 2026
• We found no occupancy or room-rate series for Funchal, no wave or wind series for March, and no verified admission price for the Botanical Garden, so we quote none of the three.

To plan your stay

• Best Time to Visit Funchal: Month-by-Month Weather, Sea Temperature and the Quiet Season
• Funchal in February: Weather, Sea Temperature and the Cruise-Ship Peak
• Funchal in April: Weather, Sea Temperature, Cruise Crowds and What Things Cost
• Funchal in January: Weather Normals, Sea Temperature and the Cruise-Ship Peak

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