FUNCHAL · MADEIRA · JULY
July hands Funchal its driest page of the year and a sea you can walk into without ceremony. The IPMA station in the city, 58 meters up, logs an average high of 77.7°F, an average low of 67.5°F and 0.07 inch of rain for the whole month. The water offshore averages 75.0°F. On July 15 the light runs 14 hours 08 minutes, with sunset at 21:17, which is why dinner in this city starts late in summer.
And the ships are gone. The port authority counted 4,071 cruise passengers in July against 113,839 in February, three calls against forty-four in March. July is the month the old town belongs to people who booked a flight and a few nights, not to a morning wave off four hulls alongside.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · FUNCHAL · JULY
Come in July for a 75.0°F sea, 0.3 wet days and a port with three ship calls instead of forty-four, and build the Monte day around a cable car that stops at 17:45.
AVG HIGH 77.7°F · SEA 75.0°F · 0.3 WET DAYS · 14H 08M OF DAYLIGHT
Go for: swimming without hesitation, evenings that hold light past nine, and the emptiest cruise dock in the port authority’s published year.
Think twice before: counting on the Monte wicker sledges on a Sunday, when the carreiros do not work, or on a mountain plan built from these city readings.
Climate: IPMA station 522 · Sea: Open-Meteo Marine · Port: APRAM · full sources at the end
On this page
- Funchal weather in JulyHighs of 77.7°F and 0.07 inch of rain
- Can you swim in July?A sea at 75.0°F, and how that number is built
- How busy the city getsThree ship calls, and the €2 tourist tax
- Things to do in JulyThe cable car, Monte Palace and the wicker sledges
- A two-day plan for FunchalTwo days set to 14 hours of daylight
- July against June and AugustHow the three months compare, degree by degree
- Is July a good month to book?Who should swim in July and who should shift to June
Every figure here is measured in Funchal itself, at a station 58 meters (190 feet) above the sea, and it describes the city and its coast. Madeira’s high ground is colder and far wetter than these normals suggest, and the far end of the island keeps its own weather.
Funchal weather in July: average highs, lows and rain days
| Measure | July at Funchal station |
|---|---|
| Average high | 77.7°F (25.4°C) |
| Average low | 67.5°F (19.7°C) |
| Monthly precipitation | 0.07 in |
| Days with 1 mm (0.04 in) or more | 0.3 |
| Days with 10 mm (0.39 in) or more | 0.0 |
| Daylight on July 15 | 14h 08m |
| Sea surface, mean of daily maxima | 75.0°F (23.9°C) |
The numbers come from IPMA, Portugal’s national weather service, in its 1991-2020 climatological normals for station 522 in Funchal. That is a real thermometer at 58 meters, not a model grid cell borrowed from a cell of ocean nearby: average high 77.7°F, average low 67.5°F, and 0.07 inch of precipitation for the entire month.
Rain is close to a rumor. An average July records 0.3 days with at least 1 mm (0.04 inch) and 0.0 days with 10 mm or more, so roughly one July in three sees a single day where the gauge registers anything at all, and a downpour does not appear in the record. One caution on the arithmetic: 1 mm is IPMA’s threshold, while American tables usually count days at 0.10 inch, and the two counts are not interchangeable.
Just over ten degrees separate the 77.7°F afternoon from the 67.5°F night, which keeps the packing short. Swimwear, something with sleeves for a 21:17 sunset by the water, and shoes that handle steep pavement. If the trip climbs above the city, treat the layer as non-negotiable and read our packing guide before you zip the bag.
On July 15 the sun rises at 07:09 in Madeira time and sets at 21:17, 14 hours and 08 minutes apart. That leaves usable light well after most restaurant tables fill, and it stretches the evening three and a half hours past the 17:45 shutdown of the Monte cable car. High ground in the morning, sea level for the long end of the day.
Can you swim in Funchal in July? Sea temperature and what it feels like
The sea off Funchal averages 75.0°F in July in the Open-Meteo Marine series for 2015-2024, and the way that figure is built matters. It is the mean of daily maxima, not a mean over 24 hours, so the temperature across a full day sits a shade below it, and a first swim before breakfast will feel cooler than the headline.
Seventy-five degrees is where most people stop negotiating with the water. It runs 3.4°F above the June average and only 1.6°F below August, so July already swims like the top of the season. Expect a cool second at the shoulders and nothing after that. Children, in our experience, need a deadline rather than encouragement.
On wind and swell we stop short: we could not verify a July wind or wave series for this coast, so we give no figure, and the morning marine forecast is the thing to read before a swim day. What the station does support is that weather at sea level rarely cancels the plan, with 0.07 inch of rain in the month and 0.3 days reaching 1 mm.
How busy is Funchal in July? Cruise calls, prices and the tourist tax
Funchal’s demand runs backwards from most of Europe. APRAM, the regional port authority, logged 113,210 cruise passengers in January, 113,839 in February and 108,699 in March, then 10,816 in June and 4,071 in July, roughly twenty-five February arrivals for every July one. We read those counts off published charts that plot 2025 and 2026 together and we quote the higher, more recent series. We found no hotel occupancy or room-rate data, so we crown no month expensive.
What you can lock in before you fly is short, and worth doing. The cable car sells an e-ticket valid for 60 days after purchase, €22 return or €16 one way. Blandy’s Wine Lodge asks visitors to book its tour ahead and cancels free up to 24 hours out. The Monte wicker sledges cannot be booked at all: tickets are sold on site, same day only, and the office can close early when the line is long.
Funchal charges a Taxa Municipal Turistica of €2 per person per night, capped at seven consecutive nights, so €14 per guest at most. It applies to every paid overnight stay in the municipality whatever channel you booked through, and the count restarts after an interrupted stay. Children of 12 and under go free on production of an ID, as do visitors with a disability of 60 percent or more and residents of the Autonomous Region on proof of tax address.
The one upgrade that changes a July day costs €6. A one-way cable car ticket is €16 and the return €22, and the difference buys you out of the walk down from Monte at the hottest hour. Spend it, or spend €30 for a single seat in a wicker sledge steered by two carreiros in white, which is the descent most people came for anyway.
Things to do in Funchal in July
July is when Monte behaves. The sledges refuse to run three up in rain or on wet ground, and the ticket office shuts early when the weather turns, which makes a month with fewer wet days than June (1.0) or August (0.4) the sensible one to plan them into. They work Monday to Saturday, 09:00 to 18:00, and not on Sundays. The Monte Palace Tropical Garden also keeps its long timetable from April to September, 09:00 to 19:00, an hour later than its winter close.
The cable car up to Monte runs 08:45 to 17:45, €22 return and €16 one way, free to age 6 and half price from 7 to 14. At the top station, the Monte Palace Tropical Garden on Caminho das Babosas covers 70,000 square meters of exotic planting, tile panels and a sculpture museum, €18 for adults. Down at Bom Sucesso, the Botanical Garden Eng. Rui Vieira on Caminho do Meio holds more than 2,000 species, and Blandy’s Wine Lodge on Avenida Arriaga pours three Madeira wines to close a 45-minute tour, €23.
The plants do not change from month to month, the clock does. Monte Palace stays open to 19:00 through September, but the museum inside still shuts at 17:00, so the last two hours up there are garden only. The cable car stops at 17:45, three and a half hours before sunset, which turns the ride up into a morning decision and leaves the descent to a taxi, your legs, or a sledge caught before 18:00.
Free in July, and worth arranging a day around: children up to 14 enter Monte Palace at no charge with an adult, school groups too, and under-sixes ride the cable car free. The Mercado dos Lavradores costs nothing to wander, 07:00 to 19:00 Monday to Friday and 07:00 to 14:00 on Saturday, shut on Sundays and public holidays. The Mercado da Penteada covers the Sunday, 07:00 to 13:00.
Funchal in July: a two-day itinerary
Day one goes uphill early. Reach the Mercado dos Lavradores soon after it opens at 07:00, take the 08:45 cable car, and give Monte Palace the cool half of the morning, museum first since it locks at 17:00. Lunch at altitude, then the sledge before the 18:00 cutoff, Monday to Saturday only. Back at sea level the water sits at 75.0°F all afternoon, and sunset at 21:17 leaves a long evening for dinner near the marina.
Day two stays flat. The 10:30 English tour at Blandy’s on Avenida Arriaga costs €23 for 45 minutes and three wines, then the Botanical Garden at Bom Sucesso, then a swim in the warmest part of the afternoon. If one of July’s 0.3 wet days lands on your weekend, the three-person sledge is off the table on wet ground, so move Blandy’s to the 14:00, 15:00 or 16:00 departure and finish inside the Monte Palace museum before 17:00.
Funchal in July vs June and August
| Measure | June | July | August |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 74.7°F | 77.7°F | 80.2°F |
| Average low | 64.8°F | 67.5°F | 69.3°F |
| Precipitation | 0.31 in | 0.07 in | 0.05 in |
| Days with 1 mm or more | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Sea surface, daily maxima | 71.6°F | 75.0°F | 76.6°F |
The air steps up by about three degrees a month, 74.7°F in June to 77.7 in July to 80.2 in August, with nights following the same ladder. Rain barely registers in any of the three, though June’s 0.31 inch is more than four times July’s 0.07, and its single wet day is three times July’s 0.3. The sea climbs hardest into July: 71.6°F, then 75.0, then 76.6, all of them marine-model means of daily maxima rather than station readings.
Go four weeks earlier and you give up 3.4°F of sea and gain a gentler afternoon, with June’s cruise traffic still running at 10,816 passengers against July’s 4,071. Wait four weeks and you get 1.6°F more water and an afternoon 2.5°F hotter, with the same three ship calls as July. Our June page has that month in full.
Is July a good time to visit Funchal?
Yes, if the trip is built on swimming, late outdoor dinners and an old town without a cruise crowd. A 75.0°F sea, 0.3 wet days and light until 21:17 make for a straightforward vacation. No, if the trip is built on the mountains: these readings come from 58 meters inside the city, and Madeira’s high ground is colder and much wetter than anything in the table above.
If the answer is no, June is a near miss rather than a different trip, 3.0°F cooler by day, one wet day instead of 0.3, and a sea at 71.6°F that slower swimmers will feel. Take August instead if the water outranks everything, at 76.6°F. For the wider calendar across the country, our Portugal timing guide runs all twelve months.
One thing July holds alone in the published record: 4,071 cruise passengers, the lowest monthly count APRAM lists from January to August, landing in the month with the fewest wet days of the three.
The last word
Book the nights, leave the sledges alone until you are standing in front of the office, and set the alarm for the cable car rather than the beach, because the heat waits at sea level and the wicker stops at 18:00. Keep one more piece of scheduling in your pocket: Blandy’s adds Sunday departures in English, which is precisely the day the Monte carreiros do not work and the Mercado dos Lavradores is locked.
Sources & data for this guide
- July highs, lows, precipitation and wet days · IPMA, 1991-2020 climatological normals, station 522 Funchal at 58.0 m · checked Sep 23, 2026
- June and August normals, same station and same period, so no figure in the comparison is estimated · IPMA · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Sea surface 75.0°F, mean of daily maxima 2015-2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 23, 2026. It is a model series rather than a buoy, and it reads a shade above a 24-hour mean.
- Sunrise 06:09 UTC and sunset 20:17 UTC on July 15, converted to Madeira time · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Cable car fares, e-ticket validity and the 08:45-17:45 timetable · Teleferico do Funchal, official site · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Wicker sledge prices, opening days and the same-day, on-site rule · Carreiros do Monte, official site · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Monte Palace: €18, 70,000 square meters, April to September 09:00-19:00, museum closing 17:00 · Monte Palace Tropical Garden, official site · checked Sep 23, 2026. Several aggregators list €12.50, and the garden’s own site says €18.
- Blandy’s Premium Tour €23, 45 minutes, English departure times · Blandy’s Wine Lodge, official site · checked Sep 23, 2026. Some aggregators still show €18.
- Taxa Municipal Turistica, €2 per person per night capped at seven nights, plus exemptions · Camara Municipal do Funchal, official FAQ · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Cruise passengers and ship calls, January to August · APRAM, Porto do Funchal monthly figures · checked Sep 23, 2026. The source documents are charts plotting 2025 and 2026 together, so we read the higher, more recent series and rely on the seasonal shape.
- Market hours, Mercado dos Lavradores and Mercado da Penteada · Camara Municipal do Funchal, Divisao de Mercados · checked Sep 23, 2026
- We could not verify a July wind or swell series for this coast, so we give no figure, and we found no lodging price data, so we rank no month on cost.