Madeira Islands: World's Leading Island Destination 2016

Jardim do Mar (Calheta): view from above [2016 © visto de cima ]

Madeira Islands were elected the World's Leading Island Destination 2016 for the second time in two years by World Travel Awards, which are hailed as ‘the Oscars of the travel industry’. Its 23rd annual edition (Grand Final Gala Ceremony) took place in the Republic of Maldives, on the 2nd December 2016.

Madeira Islands had been also elected the World's Leading Island Destination 2015 by World Travel Awards, in the 22nd edition which took place in El Jadida, Morocco, on the 12th December 2015.

In 2016, 2014 and 2013 Madeira Islands were elected the Europe's Leading Island Destination, and also nominated for the World's Leading Island Destination.

When the world seems to go crazy, you can find peace, security, mild weather all year round and beautiful landscapes in these Atlantic islands. Madeira's Nature exhales energy and inspires emotion and adventure. It also has this profound and empowering quietness, working as a self (relaxing and healing) retreat from modern life rush, stress and anxieties. 

Give yourself a chance to experience Madeira Islands and come to visit us in Sofia's Place in Jardim do Mar, one of the most exclusive, dreamy and romantic places around.

Madeira offers unspoilt and breathtaking scenery with impressive high cliffs emerging directly from the ocean. «It’s the most dramatic landscape I have ever seen», says dear friend and surfer William Henry about Madeira, refering to the towering cliffs, rocky shores, waterfalls and seas of azure.

«As a child I often dreamed of a landscape like Madeira, because one much like it is often described in fairy tales and children’s stories», adds the above quoted friend. «Every year I find something new, and yet every year I am awe-struck by the same cliffs, gardens, waterfalls and waves that I witnessed on my first voyage.» (Read more)

Sofia's Place blog posts on the subject:
Madeira Islands elected the Europe's Leading Island Destination 2016
Madeira Islands elected the World's Leading Island Destination 2015
Madeira Islands elected the Europe's Leading Island Destination 2014
Madeira Islands elected the Europe's Leading Island Destination 2013
Madeira Islands nominated for the World's Leading Island Destination 2013

Previous awards direct links:
Madeira Islands elected the Europe's Leading Island Destination 2016
Madeira Islands elected the World's Leading Island Destination 2015
Madeira Islands elected the Europe's Leading Island Destination 2014
Madeira Islands elected the Europe's Leading Island Destination 2013
Madeira Islands nominated for the World's Leading Island Destination 2013

More information on Madeira Islands:
www.visitmadeira.pt

Calheta municipality in Madeira

Jardim do Mar (Calheta - Madeira island*) where Sofia's Place is located

Jardim do Mar (and Sofia's Place) is located in Calheta municipality. It is the home to close to 12 thousand people and it is located between the southern and western end of the island of Madeira. Its area of approximately 116 Km2 makes it the longest of the Autonomous Region of Madeira.

The village of Calheta houses the Arts Centre Casa das Mudas, a project designed in complete harmony with the surrounding landscape, which features a wide cultural offer. Casa das Mudas holds exhibitions of various kinds, plays, musicals, conferences and many other events.

In Calheta you can also visit a working rum distillery that dates back to the 19th century. You can take a self-guided tour to see how the local rums and poncha liqueurs are made, and you can sample the rums in the tasting room for a small fee.

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*Photo rights: FC Turismo da Madeira

Jardim do Mar from air

Jardim do Mar by Hugo Reis

Check our Jardim do Mar slideshow

Whales outside Jardim do Mar

Jardim do Mar 2012

Please, click on picture to enlarge

http://www.lobosonda.com/

Dolphins just outside Jardim do Mar

Jardim do Mar 2012

Please, click on picture to enlarge

(Photo copyright: unknown)

Religious festivites in Jardim do Mar

In the first weekend of October (6th and 7th), 2012, Jardim do Mar helds its anual religious festivities to clebrate Nossa Senhora do Rosário, the patron saint of the village.

The local church is beautifully decorated with flowers in honour of Nossa Senhora do Rosário. People take part in a procession (see picture) following the mass in the church, with the streets covered in flowers on Sunday.

The picturesque place comes alive with entertainment and festivities, including music, singing, dancing and stalls serving local food and drinks

This year the festivities started on the 5th as it is a national holiday.

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Events all year round in Madeira 1
Events all year round in Madeira 2

Hiking from Jardim do Mar

Hiking from Jardim do Mar to Prazeres and Paul do Mar.

Portinho

Portinho rocky beach at Jardim do Mar.

Calheta municipality (Southwest of Madeira)

Calheta municipality, in the Southwest of Madeira, is the sunniest area of the island. It is where Sofia's Place is located. Jardim do Mar village is part of Calheta.

Dancing in Jardim do Mar

A typical dance that involves part of the community in a popular feast, happening on the first weekend of October.

Jardim do Mar decorated for Christmas

Jardim do Mar square is beautifully decorated with lights for Christmas 2011 and the coming New Year. Christmas and the New Year's Eve are really intensely lived in Madeira.

Summer time in Jardim do Mar

Portinho, Jardim do Mar, August 1, 2011

If you like going for a swim, do discovery diving, sail, or simply lay on the sun and relax in exotic Jardim do Mar, you CAN do it.

The Western area, where Jardim do Mar and Sofia's Place stand, is the warmest and sunniest in the island, with no wind at all or little wind, in Summer. The East and North parts of Madeira have been cloudy, windy and even rainy this Summer.

Memory:
West is Jardim do Mar: Freedom, Well-Being and Contentment

West is Jardim do Mar (Freedom, Well-Being and Contentment)

Like Van Der Graaf Generator's song "Refugees" (1970) says, "West is where the colours turn from grey to gold,and you can be with the friends. And light flakes the golden clouds above all; West is where I love."

And that's romantic, exclusive and idyllic (even hedonist) Jardim do Mar. Where you can feel free, be in the heart of nature, be with friends (in the community), and love.

Jardim do Mar is West, Well-being and Contentment. It is a secret refuge, a hideaway from all stressful and negative.

Jardim do Mar stands in the West part of Madeira, which is the warmest and sunniest area in the island. When the sun goes down, the rocky mountain turns into gold and orange.

"Smiling very peacefully, we began to notice that we could be free, and we moved together to the West." "Into the West, smiles on our faces, we'll go; oh, yes, and our apologies to those who'll never really know the way. West is refugees' home."

Jardim do Mar slideshow

Homemade Christmas cookies



Baking cookies is a way of getting into the Christmas spirit in Jardim do Mar

Today Sofia's family and friends gathered to bake traditional Christmas cookies in Jardim do Mar.

They come in many different shapes, sizes, textures and flavors and are cooked in an old stone oven in Sofia's mother house. One of our favourite cookies are the sugar cane honey cookies made with local sugar cane syrup.

Nowadays three sugar cane processing factories still exist and one (for us it is the best one) in Calheta (5 minute drive from Jardim do Mar).

In early April their machines are put to work processing the raw sugar cane and produce honey (cane syrup) molasses and rum. You may visit these factories and see their processes at Calheta, Ribeiro Seco in Funchal and Porto da Cruz.



Traditional biscuits made with local sugar cane syrup

 

West side story: Jardim do Mar and Paul do Mar



With a privileged setting facing southwest, Jardim do Mar is an area of Madeira and Calheta municipality where night time arrives later



Can you spot Sofias Place (dark yellow house)? In Jardim do Mar, the sun sets right before your eyes and offers light until the sun goes down behind the horizon

The abrupt way in which the island meets the sea is softened in few locations and Jardim do Mar is the special one

The sun sets last on the small fishing communities of Jardim do Mar and Paul do Mar on Madeira's West coast says Essential Madeira magazine in the October/November 2010 issue.

Festivities in Jardim do Mar (slideshow)

Religious festivities in Jardim do Mar 2010

Religious festivities in Jardim do Mar soon

In the first weekend of October (2nd and 3rd), 2010, Jardim do Mar will held its anual religious festivities in the hounour of Nossa Senhora do Rosário.

Hanging around in Jardim do Mar

Joe's Bar is the socializing point in Jardim do Mar

There are restaurants and places to hang around in the village.

Famous and cosmopolitan Joe’s Bar is where locals and foreigners hang out, about 100 meters away from Sofia's Place. Close enough to get there in 30 seconds, but far enough of the house to assure quietness. Joe is Sofia’s cousin.

Their dear friend and painter Tony Kitchell owns a gallery next to Joe’s Bar. In this old house (beautifully kept) Sofia used to play in her childhood. It belonged to one of her grandmother’s sister.

If you want to go further down, you will get to the square with trees, a fountain and park benches, next to the local church, where you can relax, sunbathe and watch people passing by in their doings. It is the central and meeting point of Jardim do Mar with beautiful and typical Portuguese stone all around.

You have several ways to walk down towards the ocean and the beach. You can take the old path next to the church and visit Pontinha (West), that used to be the fishermen neighbourhood. From there you can wacth the promenade and the sea.

In the square you can also head East and visit Portinho, five minutes walking down. You can either take the new road next to the village's car park or take the stone path by Teresa's little bar and grocery by the square. In the new road you have Tar Mar restaurant. In Portinho you have a nice bar and small restaurant, in an old and typical house by de promenade and ocean. It belongs to local called Angelino, a cousin of Sofia's grandmother. Community in Jardim do Mar is for real.

There is a pebble beach and peer if you feel like a swim between cups of tea or beers. Then you can go for a stroll in the promenade, a 750 metres wallk breathing the fresh air from the sea and watching the waves. In Pontinha you have the famous surf break. Because of it, Jardim do Mar was named by surfers as the European Hawai.

Reaching the other side at the far West end of the promenade and the village, you are in Vigia. The place in named Vigia (watch) because it used to be a watch point to check any pirates' attacks.

Then you can either return to Pontinha (and go up to the church and square) or back all the way to Portinho or go up the old path from Vigia in the direction of Joe's bar, heading East.

Besides resting and relaxing, watching the birds or contemplating the landscape around, visiting locals of cultural and historic interest in Jardim do Mar and Calheta, walking and socializing, doing scenery drives and getting to know the local gastronomy, you can do a lot more if you wish. You find quietness but never feel bored in inspiring and intense Jardim do Mar. You can socialize and do exciting outdoor activities.

You may go swimming, sunbathing, do whale and dolphin watching from the marina in Calheta, do “levada” walks up in the mountains, do yoga, go sailing, cycling in the promenade, do mountain biking, pier fishing, big game fishing from the marina in Calheta or Funchal, scuba diving or snorkeling, surfing, wind-surfing, water skiing and paragliding.

Some activities depend on weather and time of the year and on your interest for more radical or in a more direct contact with nature.

You can also visit the lighthouse in Ponta do Pargo (a new Golf court is being built nearby) and the naturally occurring aquamarine pools at Porto Moniz.

Sofia's Place surroundings

View over the bay (West)

Sofia's Place stands on the top and center part of the tranquil and romantic village of cobbled footpaths at the foot of breathtaking cliffs. It is located on the sunny southwest part of Madeira, facing shore.

A car park at the edge of the village leaves the square and the urban area largely free of cars. People walk easily home and have no traffic noise.

There is also a seafront pedestrian walk zone (promenade) lined with palm trees, also free of traffic. There you can also watch the waves, surfing, read or ride your bike.

In the Eastern point of the village there is Portinho with a little harbor and a clean pebble beach, for swimming and snorkeling, a shower and beach bar.

In the Western point you can find two more beaches: Vigia and further away the exotic and more exclusive harbor called Enseada. At the far end you can see the next village on the picture above: Paul do Mar.