"A day trip to Porto Santo " a Porto Santo Island Travel Page by bianchis

Located 46 km north-east of Madeira, with a 9-km stretch of golden, sandy beach.
Vila Baleira, is a small village in comparison to Funchal. Apart from its major attraction, the beach, the island is vocanic and all you see is cactus and grey in grey.

The Portuguese navigators first landed on Porto Santo in 1418 and it was the first land they discovered before Madeira. it was a year later that they set sail for Madeira.

The island is very dry and to stop the erosion thousands of trees have been planted-The result can be seen around Pico do Facho and do Gandala or in Morenos.

You can travel by ferry from Madeira it takes about 2 1/2 hours. It is an interesting journey and you have a really nice view of the coastal outline of the island from the ship.

The best part was leaving Funchal early in the morning by ferry and experiencing the coastline of Madeira and arriving in Porto Santo.
Because of lack of vegetation it seemed like a desert island.

The sand on the beach is supposed to have healing qualities. Unlike normal beach sand which usually is made of silica the sand consists of the sediment from coral, mussels and sea urchins.