Anyone familiart with Madeira

hey all,

i was wondering if any of you out there have any good recommendations on diving ops and and nice hotels in Madeira? I may be going there during the second half of september and i am looking for some ideas?

thanks in advance

/paul

Paul, I stayed at Choopana Hills and Reid's Palace with my group. Wonderful service and views. A few fellow guests complained about partial service and stuffiness (they were from the UK and Australia) but I found none of that. Just a typical austere higher end euro hotel. We found it to be very nice but moved to Choupana for the spa for 4 days (Ok and I wanted to see Lefort's work on the resort after he did the Datai in Malaysia) . My trip of 12 days was a wash but the hotels was nice for a euro destination. For the price, Choopana is no Aman or Como but the spa was good and trés Balinese style if you know what I mean.

I rented my tanks from Tubarão Madeira which is a tech diver center too. They deal in English as well. I didn't do any of the sites around the area (I was there for something else) so I can't say if they are good or not.

This info is almost 2 years old.

Hi Paul,

This diving center is running by underwater photographers.

They know the best places in Madeira and can provide to you a package for Hotel and Dive.

Contact Pedro Vasconcelos at Madeira Oceanos.

http://www.madeiraoceanos.com/

Best regards,

Tigershark

thanks for the info guys!!! if we end up going there i'll keep you posted on any new developments ....

drew, where have NOT been ?

/paul

drew, where have NOT been ?

To work?!

Paul, I stayed at Choopana Hills and Reid's Palace with my group. Wonderful service and views. A few fellow guests complained about partial service and stuffiness (they were from the UK and Australia) but I found none of that. Just a typical austere higher end euro hotel. We found it to be very nice but moved to Choupana for the spa for 4 days (Ok and I wanted to see Lefort's work on the resort after he did the Datai in Malaysia) . My trip of 12 days was a wash but the hotels was nice for a euro destination. For the price, Choopana is no Aman or Como but the spa was good and trés Balinese style if you know what I mean.

I rented my tanks from Tubarão Madeira which is a tech diver center too. They deal in English as well. I didn't do any of the sites around the area (I was there for something else) so I can't say if they are good or not.

This info is almost 2 years old.

I've stayed at Choupana Hills 3 times now..staff are great, nice ambience and away from the grey-haired grannies in cardigans (sorry if there any grey-haired diver-grannies subbed to this topic). Only problem is that resort is relatively high up which gives (a) a great drive up to the hotel..haha get outof first if you dare and rent something with an engine bigger than 1400cc to make sure.... and (B) the cloud base can descend pretty low, meaning that the resort is fogged in when other parts of the island are bathed in blue sky and sun. Temp diff between Choupana and Funchal, just below was over 8 deg C one day when I was there. They'll also recommend some great "off-the-beaten-track" restaurants if u ask.