FUNCHAL · MADEIRA · MAY
The cruise ships stop coming in May. Funchal spends its winter as a port city, with the regional port authority counting 113,839 passengers ashore in February and 88,918 in April, then 19,434 in May. The quay empties, the coach traffic thins, and the seafront belongs for a few months to people who are sleeping here rather than passing through for the day.
IPMA’s station in the city, 58 meters above the water, puts the May average high at 71.6°F with 1.07 inches of rain spread across the month. That is walking weather with an Atlantic edge, and the hills above town are drier underfoot than they were in April. The water, though, is still 69.9°F at its daily warmest, which decides who should come now and who should wait.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · FUNCHAL IN MAY
May gives Funchal long dry days and a quay emptied of winter cruise traffic, and it gives you a sea that reaches only 69.9°F at the warmest hour.
AVG HIGH 71.6°F · 3.3 RAIN DAYS · SEA 69.9°F · CRUISE SEASON OVER
Go for: garden and hill walking at 71.6°F, a market queue that is mostly local again, light until 21:00, and a cable car running every day at EUR 22 return.
Think twice before: counting on the Monte wicker sledges. They cannot be booked, they are shut on Sundays, and no three-person ride runs on wet ground.
Climate: IPMA station 522, 1991-2020 · Sea: Open-Meteo Marine, 2015-2024 · Cruise counts: APRAM · full sources at the end
On this page
- Funchal weather in May71.6°F days, 61.2°F nights, 3.3 rain days
- Can you swim in Funchal in May?69.9°F, and what that gives you in the water
- How busy Funchal is in May19,434 cruise passengers, down from 88,918 in April
- Things to do in Funchal in MayMonte Palace, the Botanical Garden, Blandy’s and two markets
- A two-day plan for FunchalTwo days built around the 08:45 cable car and a 21:00 sunset
- May, April or June?How the three months compare on air, rain and water
- Is May a good time to visit Funchal?Yes for walkers, no for swimmers
Everything here is dated to May: the normals below, the sea temperature, the port counts and the opening hours that shift with the season. The island’s wider practicalities, hiring a car, choosing a base, what a week costs, sit in our Madeira guide, our car rental notes and the trip cost breakdown, and the twelve-month view for the country is in best time to visit Portugal.
Funchal weather in May: average highs, lows and rain days
| Measure | May in Funchal |
|---|---|
| Average high | 71.6°F (22°C) |
| Average low | 61.2°F (16.2°C) |
| Precipitation | 1.07 in across the month |
| Days with 0.04 in or more | 3.3 |
| Days with 0.39 in or more | 0.8 |
| Sea surface | 69.9°F, mean of daily maxima |
| Daylight, May 15 | 13 hr 54 min |
Every figure here comes from IPMA, the Portuguese weather service, and specifically from its Funchal station, number 522, at 58.0 meters above sea level. That distinction matters: it is a real thermometer in the city, not a grid cell from a model, and its 1991-2020 normals for May give a 71.6°F average high and a 61.2°F average low. It matters too that these numbers describe Funchal alone. High ground on Madeira is colder and far wetter, and the other end of a coast keeps its own weather, so do not pack for a mountain trail on a reading taken beside the harbor.
Rain reaches the gauge on 3.3 days in an average May, counting days with at least 0.04 inch, and 0.8 of a day collects 0.39 inch or more. Call it one damp day a week, plus a genuine soaking in four Mays out of five. Compare carefully, because those are IPMA’s own thresholds and American tables usually start counting at 0.10 inch, so the two sets of day counts are not interchangeable. In practice the shower arrives over the hills behind town, moves through, and leaves the seafront walkable inside an hour.
Ten degrees separate the average afternoon from the average night, 71.6°F against 61.2°F, which is mild by continental standards and still enough to change what you carry. Shirt weather on Avenida Arriaga at four becomes a light-layer walk back up a Funchal hill at ten, and anything above the city runs cooler again. A packable rain shell covers the 3.3 wet days, and one long-sleeve layer covers the evenings. Our packing guide has the full list. Leave the heavy coat at home.
On May 15 the sun is up for 13 hours 54 minutes, rising at 07:07 and setting at 21:00 Madeira time. That is the month’s practical gift: finish a walk at six in the evening and you still have three hours of usable light for the promenade and a table outdoors. It also sets a trap, since the cable car closes at 17:45 and shuts long before the day does.
Can you swim in Funchal in May? Sea temperature and what it feels like
The sea off Funchal averages 69.9°F in May, from Open-Meteo’s marine series over 2015-2024. One caveat changes how that reads: it is the mean of daily maxima, so it describes the top of the day and sits a shade warmer than a 24-hour average would. Treat 69.9°F as four in the afternoon, not eight in the morning.
Expect the first thirty seconds to be a decision, then twenty good minutes, then a real interest in a towel. Children last less than that, and nobody floats around reading. The seafront’s walled sea-water pools and the darker beaches east of the city both work better now than in April, when the same series gives 68.0°F, and both still trail June’s 71.6°F.
We could not verify wind or swell normals for May, so we give no figures for either. What the record does show is the driest stretch of spring arriving: 1.07 inches in May against 1.78 in April. Madeira sits in the open Atlantic and a south-coast swell is possible in any month, and when one turns up the pools behind a sea wall are the fallback.
How busy is Funchal in May? Cruise passengers, prices and the tourist tax
May sits on the far side of Funchal’s real peak, and that peak is winter. APRAM, the regional port authority, counted 113,210 cruise passengers in January, 113,839 in February and 88,918 in April, then 19,434 in May. Ship calls follow the same curve: 41 alongside in January, 44 in February, 44 in March, 44 in April, three in July. A winter morning can put four ships on the quay at once. APRAM publishes these as charts with 2025 and 2026 plotted side by side, so we give the higher, more recent series, and the seasonal shape is identical in both years.
With the ships gone, the market aisles and the cable car cabins belong to people staying the week. We found no monthly hotel rate or occupancy series for Funchal, so we crown no month cheap and no month expensive. What we can name is what runs out: Blandy’s Wine Lodge advises booking its tours in advance and cancels free up to 24 hours before, while the Monte sledges cannot be reserved at all, at any notice.
Funchal charges a Taxa Municipal Turistica 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 it starts again after an interrupted stay, which catches travelers who split a trip with a few nights elsewhere on the island. 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.
Put your extra money into altitude. 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 Christmas Day, and lifts you clear of the harbor to the gardens. Children up to six ride free and 7 to 14 pay half, and an e-ticket stays valid for 60 days, so you can buy it before you fly. A one-way ticket and a slow walk down is the cheap version, and EUR 16 covers it.
Things to do in Funchal in May: Monte Palace, the Botanical Garden and the markets
April records 4.7 days of measurable rain and May 3.3, and that day and a half of difference is what decides a garden morning or a sledge ride. Add 13 hours 54 minutes of daylight on the 15th and May becomes the month when a hill walk before lunch and an outdoor table at nine at night fit into the same day.
Monte Palace Tropical Garden sits on Caminho das Babosas, right at the cable car’s upper station: 70,000 square meters, about 17 acres, of exotic planting, tile panels and a sculpture museum, EUR 18 for adults and free for children up to 14 with an adult, school groups included. From April to September it stays open until 19:00, an hour later than in winter, but the museum inside closes at 17:00 all year and 17:00 is also last entry. Over on Caminho do Meio at Bom Sucesso, the Botanical Garden Eng. Rui Vieira holds more than 2,000 exotic species.
Planting barely notices the difference between April and June, and neither does the temperature of a cellar on Avenida Arriaga, where Blandy’s Premium Tour runs EUR 23 for 45 minutes and a tasting of three Madeira wines. What the month changes is the ground at Monte. Two carreiros in white run the wicker sledges 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, with no three-person ride in rain or on wet ground. A drier month means fewer canceled runs.
Walking through the two municipal markets costs nothing. Mercado dos Lavradores opens 07:00 to 19:00 Monday to Friday and 07:00 to 14:00 on Saturday, and it closes on Sundays and public holidays, so a Saturday afternoon plan meets a locked door. If your Sunday wants a market, Mercado da Penteada runs 07:00 to 13:00 on Sundays and holidays, and stays open to 20:00 Monday to Thursday and 21:00 on Friday.
Funchal in May: a two-day itinerary
Day one follows the light. Lavradores at 07:30 while the flower stalls are still being built, breakfast nearby, then the cable car at 08:45 as it opens, which puts you inside Monte Palace with the morning to yourself. Give the garden two hours and keep 17:00 in mind for the museum. Buy the EUR 22 return if you want the option of riding back down; the EUR 16 one way is the ticket for a sledge or a walk. Late afternoon at 71.6°F is the seafront’s best hour, and with sunset at 21:00 dinner outdoors needs no hurrying.
Day two starts uphill at the Botanical Garden and its 2,000-plus species, then drops into town for Blandy’s at 14:00 or 15:00, booked ahead, 45 minutes and three wines. If the sky turns, and 3.3 days in an average May say it can, the swap is simple: the market hall, the wine lodge and the sculpture museum at Monte all have roofs, and wet ground cancels only the sledges. Save Sunday for Penteada’s morning market and the promenade, because Lavradores is closed and the carreiros are not working.
Funchal in May vs April and June
| Measure | April | May | June |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 69.8°F | 71.6°F | 74.7°F |
| Average low | 58.8°F | 61.2°F | 64.8°F |
| Precipitation | 1.78 in | 1.07 in | 0.31 in |
| Days with 0.04 in or more | 4.7 | 3.3 | 1.0 |
| Sea surface, daily maxima | 68.0°F | 69.9°F | 71.6°F |
| Cruise passengers | 88,918 | 19,434 | 10,816 |
Across those three months the air climbs about five degrees while the rain falls away much faster: 1.78 inches in April, 1.07 in May, 0.31 in June, with wet days going 4.7, then 3.3, then a single one. The water moves slowest of all, 68.0°F to 69.9°F to 71.6°F, all three from the same marine series of daily maxima rather than from the IPMA station. June is the warmer, drier, surer month on air, rain and sea alike, and quieter on the quay too, at 10,816 cruise passengers against April’s 88,918.
Push four weeks to June and you gain 3.1°F of daytime warmth, 1.7°F of water and about two and a third fewer wet days. What you give up is small: the green that May’s extra 0.76 inch of rain keeps on the hills, and the spring feel of the island’s upper slopes. Pull back to April instead and the trade reverses hard, with 4.7 wet days, water at 68.0°F, and a harbor taking 88,918 cruise passengers across the month.
Is May a good time to visit Funchal?
Yes for most travelers, with one group excepted. If you came to walk, to sit in gardens, to ride up to Monte and to have a city that is neither rained on nor overrun, May delivers: 71.6°F afternoons, 3.3 wet days, light until 21:00, and 19,434 cruise passengers where February had 113,839. If you came mainly to swim, 69.9°F at the warmest hour of the day is not that holiday.
Swimmers should wait for June, which brings the water to 71.6°F and the rain down to 0.31 inch while keeping the quays quiet. Book June or later if the sea is the point, and use our Madeira guide to build the rest of the island around it. If the hills and the gardens are the point, May is the better week to spend.
May is the only month that stacks all three: hills still green from 1.07 inches of rain, a wet season already behind you, and a cruise quay emptied from April’s 88,918 passengers to 19,434.
The last word
In May the question stops being whether to come and becomes what you do with the three hours of light after six. Keep one dry morning free for the sledges, since they sell only on the day and only Monday to Saturday, and plan Sunday around the closures instead: Lavradores is locked, the carreiros are off, and Blandy’s adds Sunday departures to its weekday English slots at 10:30, 14:00, 15:00 and 16:00. With 3.3 wet days in an average May, the odds of losing any given morning to rain run about one in nine, and the market hall, the wine lodge and the sculpture museum at Monte all have roofs.
Sources & data for this guide
- May normals (71.6°F high, 61.2°F low, 1.07 in, 3.3 and 0.8 rain days) · IPMA, climatological normals 1991-2020, station 522 Funchal, altitude 58.0 m · checked Sep 23, 2026
- April and June normals used in the comparison · same IPMA station and same 1991-2020 period, not estimates · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Sea surface 69.9°F (April 68.0°F, June 71.6°F), mean of daily maxima 2015-2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Daylight 13 hr 54 min, sunrise 06:07 UTC and sunset 20:00 UTC on May 15, converted to Atlantic/Madeira · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Cruise passengers and ship calls by month · APRAM, Porto do Funchal, January to August 2025/2026 · checked Sep 23, 2026 · the source is a chart plotting both years, so we quote the higher, more recent series and rely on the seasonal shape
- Cable car fares and 08:45-17:45 hours · Teleferico do Funchal, official site · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Wicker sledge prices and the no-booking, no-wet-ground rules · Carreiros do Monte, official site · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Monte Palace Tropical Garden, EUR 18 adult and April to September hours · official site · checked Sep 23, 2026 · several aggregators quote EUR 12.50, which the garden’s own site contradicts
- Blandy’s Premium Tour, EUR 23 for 45 minutes and three wines, English departure times · Blandy’s Wine Lodge, official site · checked Sep 23, 2026 · aggregators quoting EUR 18 are out of date
- Taxa Municipal Turistica, EUR 2 per person per night and exemptions · Camara Municipal do Funchal, official FAQ · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Market hours, Lavradores and Penteada · Camara Municipal do Funchal, Divisao de Mercados · checked Sep 23, 2026
- We found no monthly hotel rate or occupancy series for Funchal and no May wind or swell normals, so we give no figures for either and rank no month by price. Hours and fares change · check operators when you book.