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28 March 2019, 12:39
Madeira and Porto Santo Island Hopping
Two small islands with big personalities, glorious gardens, beaches and an ice-age forest
- Great-value 14 nights from £1,499
- All-inclusive holiday with 12-hour free bar
- Choice of departure dates and regional flights
- 5 Included excursions and visits
- No single supplement on selected departures*
Explore two little islands with big personalities, including stunning gardens and dramatic scenery, on Saga Holidays’ new island hopping adventure.
The 14-night, all-inclusive Madeira and Porto Santo Island Hopping holiday contrasts Madeira’s subtropical flora and mountains clad in UNESCO-listed forests, with the desert-like landscapes, rock formations and the immense sandy beach of its smaller, less-celebrated neighbour Porto Santo.
Accommodation in Madeira features four nights in the Saga-rated four-star Hotel Monte Mar Palace, in Ponta Delgada, and five nights at the five-star Hotel Enotel Lido, on Funchal's promenade. On Porto Santo the four-star Vila Baleira Resort is on a splendid nine-kilometre-long sandy beach and the hotel also offers discounted golf rates and bike hire.
Each hotel has a free bar, open from 11am to 11pm each day, serving local alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.
From Ponta Delgada, excursions include driving along the coast, where rivers cascade over imposing cliffs into the Atlantic, to the charming villages of Boaventura and Arco de Sao Jorge, surrounded by arc-shaped mountains. The tour also takes in the Quinta do Arco Rose Garden, the largest collection of roses in Portugal, which features modern, rare and ancient species.
An optional excursion to the west coast includes volcanic coastal pools and a magnificent plateau more than 1,300m above sea level where clouds can sometimes be seen below.
Another guided trip follows Madeira’s celebrated levada trails, irrigation channels across the mountains, through breath-taking scenery and the UNESCO-listed Laurisilva forest, which survived the last ice age and is the largest of its kind in the world.
Porto Santo, just 12 kilometres long by six kilometres across, is sparsely populated with one side defined by volcanic folds and the other by sprawling beaches. An island tour takes in slender rock columns known locally as ‘the Piano’, a 16th-century fort built to defend against pirates and a wine tasting.
The final leg of the holiday returns to Madeira for an awe-inspiring cable car ride in Funchal, to Monte and the famed botanical gardens, and Loiro Park, home to more than 2,500 plant specimens and a Museum of Natural History. Other optional trips include diving, a chance to look for dolphins and turtles, and a wine lodge tour.
For details call free on 0800 092 0803 or visit saga.co.uk/madeira
14 nights from £1,499 per person, all inclusive, with a choice of departures from Bristol, Leeds Bradford, London Gatwick, Manchester or Nottingham from May 6, 2019 through to March 9, 2020.
Price includes return flights, airport taxes, hotel accommodation, all meals, free bar from 11am to 11pm, porterage, Saga tour manager, optional travel insurance and additional cancellation rights, or a discount if passenger has own insurance.
*No single supplement on selected departures, subject to availability
Editors:
Saga is a specialist in the provision of products and services for life after 50. The Saga brand is one of the most recognised and trusted brands in the UK and is known for its high level of customer service and its high quality, award winning products and services including cruises and holidays, insurance, personal finance and publishing. Visit saga.co.uk
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Madeira and Porto Santo Tour-DST Madeira EXT 28897
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