FUNCHAL · MADEIRA · SEPTEMBER
On the thermometer, September in Funchal reads almost like August. The average high slips from 80.2°F to 79.9°F, the average low from 69.3°F to 68.7°F, and the sea gives back half a degree, from 76.6°F to 76.1°F. What moves is the rainfall: 0.91 inches against August’s 0.05, spread over 3.1 days that record measurable rain.
The other change is light. On September 15 the island gets 12 hours 24 minutes of it, with sunset at 20:14 local time, so a swim at six and dinner in town still fit in the same evening. Flights from the US come through Lisbon or Porto for most itineraries, and our flights guide covers the connection.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · FUNCHAL · SEPTEMBER
September holds August’s warmth with a quarter of October’s rain, keeps the sea at 76.1°F, and is the last month the Monte garden stays open until 19:00.
AVERAGE HIGH 79.9°F · SEA 76.1°F · 3.1 RAIN DAYS · CITY TAX EUR 2 PER NIGHT
Go for: swimming at 76.1°F, dry ground for the Monte wicker sledges (EUR 30 to EUR 60), and a 70,000 square meter garden open to 19:00 through September 30.
Think twice before: building a day around those sledges. They take no bookings, shut on Sundays, and run no three-person ride on wet ground.
Climate: IPMA station 522 · Sea: Open-Meteo Marine · Cruise calls: APRAM · full sources at the end
On this page
- Funchal weather in September79.9°F days, 0.91 inches of rain
- Can you swim in September?A sea at 76.1°F
- How busy the city getsCruise calls and the EUR 2 city tax
- Things to do in SeptemberMonte, Blandy’s and the two markets
- A two-day plan for FunchalTwo days, hour by hour
- September against August and OctoberHow the three months compare
- Is September worth it?Our verdict, and who should shift
Every figure here belongs to the city of Funchal and to the month of September. Anything that holds all year (where to sleep, how to reach the levadas, what a week on the island costs) sits on the Madeira guide, and the twelve-month view for the country is in when to visit Portugal. If you are weighing four weeks earlier, we wrote Funchal in August too.
Funchal weather in September: average highs, lows and rain days
| Measure | September in Funchal |
|---|---|
| Average high | 79.9°F |
| Average low | 68.7°F |
| Monthly rainfall | 0.91 in |
| Days with 0.04 in (1 mm) or more | 3.1 |
| Days with 0.39 in (10 mm) or more | 0.8 |
| Sea surface, mean of daily maxima | 76.1°F |
| Daylight on September 15 | 12 h 24 min |
These normals come from IPMA, the Portuguese national weather service, and from a real instrument rather than a model grid cell: station 522, in Funchal itself, 58.0 meters (190 feet) above sea level, averaged over 1991 to 2020. September runs a high of 79.9°F, a low of 68.7°F and 0.91 inches of rain. One caveat travels with them. They describe the coast and nothing above it, and Madeira’s high ground is colder and far wetter, so a mountain trail will not match a reading taken beside the harbor.
Measurable rain falls on 3.1 days in an average September, roughly one day in ten, and 0.8 day brings 0.39 inch or more. Put another way, about four Septembers in five include one proper soaking, and the rest of the month’s 0.91 inches arrives in amounts you can walk through. Note the threshold before you compare: IPMA counts a wet day from 0.04 inch, not the 0.10 inch used by most American tables, so the two counts are not interchangeable.
The gap between day and night is 11.2°F, which is small enough that nobody needs a coat and wide enough that a bare-armed evening on a terrace turns chilly around ten. Pack one light layer per person, plus a second if Monte is on the list: the hillside above the city is higher ground, and higher ground on this island runs colder than the station by the water.
On September 15 the sun rises at 07:50 and sets at 20:14 in Madeira time (06:50 and 19:14 UTC), giving 12 hours 24 minutes of daylight. The cable car stops running at 17:45, so the last two and a half hours of light are street hours: the waterfront, the old town lanes, dinner outdoors without a jacket.
Can you swim in Funchal in September? Sea temperature and what it feels like
Yes, and comfortably. The sea surface off Funchal averages 76.1°F in September in the Open-Meteo Marine record for 2015 to 2024. Read that figure for what it is: a mean of daily maxima, so a shade warmer than a 24-hour average, and warmer than water at seven in the morning.
In practice the entry is painless because the air is barely ahead of the water. An average high of 79.9°F sits 3.8°F above the sea, so there is no shock going in and no shiver coming out. Nothing dramatic happens across the shoulder either: the whole August-to-October spread is a single degree, 76.6°F down to 75.6°F. Wetsuits are a preference in September, not a requirement.
We could not verify monthly wind or wave statistics for Funchal, so we publish no figures for either, and the sea temperature above is an area average rather than a reading taken at one swimming spot. Check the marine forecast on the morning you plan to get in, and take the local warning flags over any monthly number.
How busy is Funchal in September? Cruise calls, the city tax and what you can book
Funchal’s quayside year runs backwards from the Mediterranean’s. The port authority, APRAM, counted 113,839 cruise passengers in February, 113,210 in January and 108,699 in March, against 10,816 in June and 4,071 in July. Ship calls follow the same shape: 44 in February, 44 in April, 3 in July and 3 in August. Two limits apply to those numbers. APRAM’s published series stops in August, so no September count exists in it, and the charts plot 2025 and 2026 together, so we quote the higher, more recent line.
We found no occupancy or room-rate series for Funchal, so we set no lead time in weeks and we call no month cheap or expensive. What can genuinely be locked in advance is a short list. Blandy’s Wine Lodge asks you to reserve its tours and cancels free up to 24 hours ahead. The Monte sledges accept no reservation at all: tickets are sold on site, same day only, and the office can close early when the line is long or the weather turns.
One cost is fixed and municipal. Funchal levies 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. That is EUR 14 per guest at most, EUR 28 for a couple staying a week. Break the stay and the clock restarts. 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 the Autonomous Region of Madeira on proof of tax address.
The one outlay that buys something specific to this month is Monte: EUR 22 for the cable car return plus EUR 18 for the Monte Palace Tropical Garden, EUR 40 a head. September is the last month the garden closes at 19:00 rather than 18:00, and the cable car stops at 17:45, so the money buys an hour up there after most visitors have ridden down.
Things to do in Funchal in September: Monte, Blandy’s and the two markets
September gives you dry ground and a late-closing garden, and those two things do not travel into the next month. Rain falls on 3.1 days now against 7.0 in October, and the total goes from 0.91 inches to 3.59. Since the wicker sledges refuse to run three-up on wet ground, the odds of finding them working are simply better in September than at any point in the fall.
The Monte pair sits at the top of the cable car, which costs EUR 22 return or EUR 16 one way and runs 08:45 to 17:45 every day but Christmas. At Caminho das Babosas, the Monte Palace Tropical Garden covers 70,000 square meters (about 17 acres) of exotic planting, tile panels and a sculpture museum: EUR 18 for adults, 09:00 to 19:00 from April to September, with the museum closing at 17:00. The carros de cesto cost EUR 30 for one rider, EUR 40 for two and EUR 60 for three, steered by two carreiros in white, Monday to Saturday 09:00 to 18:00.
Down in town, Blandy’s Wine Lodge on Avenida Arriaga runs a 45-minute Premium Tour at EUR 23 ending in a tasting of three Madeira wines, with English departures Monday to Friday at 10:30, 14:00, 15:00 and 16:00. The Botanical Garden Eng. Rui Vieira, on Caminho do Meio at Bom Sucesso, holds more than 2,000 exotic species.
What the month changes is the clock, not the plants. From October 1 the garden shuts an hour earlier, at 18:00, while the museum inside keeps its 17:00 close all year. The Mercado dos Lavradores opens 07:00 to 19:00 Monday to Friday and 07:00 to 14:00 on Saturday, so with sunset at 20:14 there is still light for the seafront after the stalls come down. Saturday afternoon catches people out: the market is locked by two.
Free in September, as in any month: children up to 14 enter the Monte Palace garden at no charge with an adult, and school groups pay nothing. On the cable car, children up to 6 ride free and 7 to 14 pay half, so a family of four with young children pays EUR 44 rather than EUR 88. Sunday has its own answer. Lavradores is closed, and the Mercado da Penteada opens 07:00 to 13:00 on Sundays and public holidays.
Funchal in September: a two-day itinerary
Day one, Monday to Saturday. Start at the Mercado dos Lavradores when it opens at 07:00, while the morning is still under 70°F. Take the 08:45 cable car up for EUR 22 return, and be inside the Monte Palace garden by nine: the museum wants you before 17:00, the grounds hold you until 19:00. Walk down to the sledge office in time to ride before 18:00, then let the last of the 12 hours 24 minutes of daylight run out on the waterfront, with sunset at 20:14.
Day two. Book the 10:30 English tour at Blandy’s on Avenida Arriaga, EUR 23 for 45 minutes and three wines, then spend the afternoon in the 76.1°F sea. If one of September’s 3.1 wet days lands on you, swap the order: the sledges do not run three-up on wet ground and the office can close early, so take the 14:00, 15:00 or 16:00 slot at the lodge instead, and give the rain hours to the sculpture museum inside the garden. On a Sunday, both the sledges and Lavradores are shut, and the Mercado da Penteada takes over from 07:00 to 13:00.
Funchal in September vs August and October
| Measure | August | September | October |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 80.2°F | 79.9°F | 77.4°F |
| Average low | 69.3°F | 68.7°F | 66.6°F |
| Rainfall | 0.05 in | 0.91 in | 3.59 in |
| Days with 0.04 in (1 mm) or more | 0.4 | 3.1 | 7.0 |
| Sea surface, daily maxima | 76.6°F | 76.1°F | 75.6°F |
Air temperature barely separates August from September: 0.3°F on the high, 0.6°F on the low. October takes a real step down, 2.5°F off the daytime figure and 2.1°F off the night. Rain does the sorting instead. September’s 0.91 inches is about a quarter of October’s 3.59, and its 3.1 wet days are well under half of October’s 7.0. The sea, meanwhile, moves by a single degree across all three months. All air figures are IPMA station normals; the sea figures come from the Open-Meteo Marine record for 2015 to 2024.
Shift four weeks earlier and you buy near-total dryness, 0.4 wet days in the whole of August, plus half a degree more sea, at the price of the busiest school-holiday weeks. Shift four weeks later and October hands back 2.5°F of daytime air, more than doubles the wet days, and puts the wicker sledges at the mercy of wet ground, while the garden starts closing at 18:00 from the first of the month.
Is September a good time to visit Funchal?
For swimmers, walkers and anyone who wants warm evenings without a raincoat, yes without hesitation: 79.9°F days, a 76.1°F sea, 3.1 wet days. It suits families less well if the trip hangs on the sledges, because no reservation exists and a Sunday arrival finds them closed. It suits nobody hoping for the big-ship spectacle either, since the quayside counts collapse from 44 calls in February to 3 in July and August.
If that verdict lands wrong, August is the alternative worth the extra heat: 0.05 inches of rain across the month and 0.4 wet days, the driest reading in this trio, with the sea half a degree warmer. If the ships are the attraction, the calendar points to February, with 113,839 passengers and 44 calls in the port authority’s count.
No other month combines the three: sea still at 76.1°F, rain still under an inch, and a 70,000 square meter garden open until 19:00 for the last time before spring.
The last word
Decide one thing before you fly and the rest of a September trip arranges itself: which day goes to Monte. It needs dry ground for the sledges, a start before nine for the garden, and Monday to Saturday for both. Buy the cable car online while you are still at home if you like a fixed cost. The e-ticket stays valid for 60 days after purchase, so EUR 22 spent in New York in August still rides in Funchal in September, and the August page has the numbers if you decide to come a month sooner.
Sources & data for this guide
- September normals (79.9°F / 68.7°F, 0.91 in) and rain-day counts · IPMA, 1991-2020 normals, station 522 Funchal, altitude 58.0 m · checked Sep 23, 2026
- August and October normals used in the comparison · IPMA, same station and same 1991-2020 period · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Sea surface temperatures (76.6 / 76.1 / 75.6°F), mean of daily maxima 2015-2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Sunrise 06:50 UTC, sunset 19:14 UTC on September 15, converted to Madeira time · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Cable car fares (EUR 22 / EUR 16), child rules and 08:45-17:45 hours · Teleférico do Funchal, official site · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Wicker sledge prices (EUR 30 / 40 / 60), Monday-to-Saturday hours and the wet-ground rule · Carreiros do Monte, official price page · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Monte Palace Tropical Garden admission (EUR 18), 70,000 square meters and the April-to-September 19:00 close · garden’s official Visit page · checked Sep 23, 2026 · several aggregators list EUR 12.50, and the garden’s own page does not
- Blandy’s Premium Tour, EUR 23 for 45 minutes and three wines, English departure times · Blandy’s Wine Lodge, official Tours page · checked Sep 23, 2026 · several aggregators list EUR 18, and the lodge’s own page does not
- Taxa Municipal Turística, EUR 2 per person per night capped at 7 nights, with exemptions · Câmara Municipal do Funchal, official FAQ · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Cruise passengers and ship calls, January to August · APRAM, Porto do Funchal monthly charts, 2025/2026 · checked Sep 23, 2026 · the charts plot two years side by side and we quote the higher, more recent series; they carry no September figure
- Market hours, Mercado dos Lavradores and Mercado da Penteada · Divisão de Mercados, mercados.funchal.pt · checked Sep 23, 2026
- We found no occupancy or room-rate series for Funchal, so we crown no month cheap or expensive, and we could not verify monthly wind or wave statistics, so none appear above. Hours and prices change: confirm with each operator when you book.