Things to see in Porto Santo

The westward continuation of Fontinha, starting about 200 m beyond the Hotel Torre Praia. The beach takes its name from the locality: look for the house of the same name and the bar with a terrace, next to which the showers stand. Fine golden sand, clear water and straw umbrellas on the beach. The tourist board notes a lifeguard and a first-aid post. A family atmosphere, used mostly by people who live nearby. A designated bathing water from 1 June to 30 September 2026.

The south-western end of the 9 km beach, where sand mixes with rocks — quieter and more intimate than the centre. Across the water, Ilhéu da Cal (also called Ilhéu de Baixo, 179 m) shows on its slopes the galleries of the old lime quarries; on clear days the outline of Madeira appears on the horizon. On site: car park, changing rooms, toilets and a restaurant known for grilled lapas served with garlic-butter bolo do caco. The area is a designated bathing water from 1 June to 30 September 2026, with no guaranteed lifeguards, so swim with care. It flew the Blue Flag in 2024 but is not on the 2026 list. End point of the ER 111 cycle path (about 5 km from Ribeiro Cochino) and of the SIGA "Centro – Calheta" bus. For the tourist board this is the one photo to bring home from Porto Santo: the sunset.

A bay on the west coast, between Cabeço das Flores and Morenos: a small pebble beach hemmed in by steep cliffs, two rocks standing in the middle of the bay and very clear turquoise water. It is a geosite: its submarine basalts show the island's finest pillow lavas, formed by undersea eruptions before Porto Santo emerged. Access is difficult and for sure-footed walkers only: at the junction for the Miradouro das Flores a road branches off towards Zimbralinho, then a steep path drops to the cove, some 930 m from the last paved road; look for snail fossils in the rock on the way. No services: bring water, wear closed shoes and take care in heavy swell. The beach is in shade in the afternoon. It can also be reached by kayak from Ponta da Calheta, and the snorkelling is renowned in calm seas. A natural area of strongly restricted use under the municipal master plan.

On the north coast, west of Fonte da Areia. At low tide the sea pulls back to reveal a multitude of vivid turquoise natural pools, some with sandy bottoms, in a small cove framed by rocks. Access on foot only: from Fonte da Areia follow the signs to Porto das Salemas, leave the car in the open space, then walk down a dirt track and a steep path with loose stones — closed shoes are essential. On site there are a few straw shelters, picnic tables and barbecue fireplaces. A designated bathing water from 1 June to 30 September 2026, but with no lifeguards: the Maritime Authority advises favouring supervised beaches and never lingering under unstable cliffs.

On the east coast, at Serra de Fora, in the place known as Porto dos Frades. A beach carved out of the rocks by sea and wind, a mix of sand and stones bathed in very clear emerald water — a good snorkelling spot. Very quiet, often deserted. Parking and a few restaurants nearby, but no bathing facilities or lifeguards; the beach is not among the designated bathing waters for 2026. At Porto dos Frades you can still see old salt pans and a lime works with its kiln.

A small beach on the east coast, 3.9 km from Vila Baleira, between Porto dos Frades and Praia do Furado. It is unguarded and does not appear in the national order's list of bathing waters. A cleft in the cliff, the Fenda da Praia do Gastão, opens just above it.

A pebble cove on the east coast, 4.2 km from Vila Baleira, north of Praia do Gastão. No road runs down to it and it is not among the classified bathing waters.

A pebble beach where the Serra de Dentro valley reaches the north-east coast, 4.2 km from Vila Baleira. It is reached by the track down the valley; the sea here is exposed to the northern swell and there is no surveillance.

The highest point of Porto Santo: 517 m. The name comes from the great fires — fachos — lit on the summit to warn the population of approaching enemy ships, which gave a few hours to prepare for pirate attacks. No road reaches the top: you climb on foot along a vereda that starts at Pico do Castelo, an unmarked route with no official figures; the classified PS PR2 trail skirts the peak on its northern or southern side. From the summit, the whole island, the beach and the islets lie below.

The island's second summit at 484 m, just behind Pico do Facho. It closes off to the north-east the ridge running from Pico do Castelo to Pico Branco, and no road reaches it: you look at it from Portela or from the Pico do Castelo trail.

A summit in the north of the island, 439 m, between Pico da Cabrita and Pico Branco. It overlooks the north coast and the Serra de Dentro valley.

The summit of the eastern point, 209 m, facing Ilhéu de Cima. It overlooks the east coast and the channel between the island and the islet.

Very close to the centre, a small lookout over Vila Baleira as far as the old pier, the bay and the beach. An old wooden windmill, no longer in use, is a landmark in the landscape; a nearby restaurant serves regional dishes.

The western tip of the island. Ahead lie Ilhéu de Ferro and Pico de Ana Ferreira; in good visibility you can make out the north coast of Madeira. The landscape is dominated by the dark tones of basalt rocks and coastal cliffs, a reminder of Porto Santo's volcanic origin. On the way, the Morenos area — very typical vegetation, tables, straw shelters and barbecues — invites a break; the Morenos geosite shows volcanic dykes ranging from volcanic, undersea lavas and dune sandstones bearing the root casts of vegetation some thirty thousand years old.

A viewpoint on the northern ridge, 3.9 km from Vila Baleira, between Pico da Cabrita and Pico Juliana. It looks out over the north coast, the steepest on the island, and over the offshore islets.

A north-western viewpoint, 4 km from Vila Baleira, above the dune sandstone cliffs of Fonte da Areia and facing Ilhéu da Fonte da Areia.

A viewpoint on the east coast, 3.7 km from Vila Baleira, above the Gastão and Furado coves, with Ilhéu de Cima offshore.

Facing Ponta da Canavieira at the western tip, a rocky triangle with high cliffs and a flat top (115 m). On its eastern side, Ponta da Chaminé hides a blowhole cave that sprays seawater in heavy swell; to the north, the Furna que Berra "roars" beneath the waves. Remarkable endemic fauna: the tarantulas Hogna biscoitoi and Hogna schmitzi, the snail Leptaxis nivosa, and nesting seabirds. A former lighthouse, now out of use, crowns the islet. Natura 2000 PTPOR0001 and Marine Protected Areas Network: access only with IFCN authorisation.

The northernmost of Porto Santo's six islets, 8.7 km north-north-east of Vila Baleira, off the north coast. It belongs to the network of marine protected areas created in 2008 and to the site of community importance PTPOR0001 'Ilhéus do Porto Santo'; landing is regulated by the IFCN. Like the other islets it was joined to the main island and was only separated by erosion in the Holocene, less than 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.

A small islet of 4.8 hectares off the north-east coast, 6.4 km from Vila Baleira. It belongs to the same protected set as the other islets: the Porto Santo network of marine protected areas and the Natura 2000 site PTPOR0001. It serves as a nesting site for the archipelago's seabirds.

The smallest of the six islets, 3.1 hectares, off the north-west coast and in view of the Fonte da Areia viewpoint. Like the others it lies within the Porto Santo network of marine protected areas and the Natura 2000 site PTPOR0001.

The highest point on the western side of the island (283 m), famous for its "piano": a set of almost perfect light-grey prismatic columns that in fact look more like organ pipes. They are lava, a volcanic rock split into prisms by the contraction stresses of magma cooling slowly inside a volcanic conduit; the former quarry that exposed them is geosite, listed as a property of regional value and geological heritage in the municipal master plan. The best vantage point is the Miradouro da Pedreira, close to the golf course and 144 m from the paved road; a footpath starts from the slopes where the São Pedro chapel stands, a 17th-century building altered in the 18th century whose pebble-paved churchyard depicts a caravel. Legend has it that the Ana Ferreira cave sheltered an illegitimate daughter of King João II.

On the north coast, Porto Santo's historic spring: its water, once held sacred, was said to be the purest on the island, and an 18th-century fountain still stands nearby. In the 19th century, together with Tanque and Fontinha, it was one of the island's only three springs. All around, pale sandstone cliffs carved by the wind: dune sandstones, biogenic carbonate sandstones piled up over the last two million years, the oldest about 31,000 years old. Four units separated by palaeosols, calcareous crusts ("laginhas de cal"), root casts and fossil land snails tell of former vegetated landscapes under prevailing northerly winds. Geosite, scientific heritage and a natural area of strongly restricted use, 25 m from the road with easy access. From the viewpoint: Ilhéu da Fonte da Areia and the north coast; this is also where the walk down to the Porto das Salemas pools begins.

In the north-east of the island, a landscape of gullies in shades of green: "salão" or "massapez", clays formed by the alteration of undersea volcanic rocks and crossed by a network of dark basaltic dykes, with contact aureoles and desiccation cracks. These deposits, unique in Portugal for their origin and chemistry, roofed the casas de salão before roof tiles: cool in summer, watertight in winter. Geosite, beside the road, easy access. Close by, Pico da Cabrita (220 m) shows undersea volcanic rocks — volcanic glass shattered on contact with the sea, the "black stones" once quarried as pozzolan — perched at 200 m by the uplift of the island.

Geosite, on the south-western flank of Ilhéu de Cima. A submarine flow left a giant pillow lava here whose cut face shows radial column-shaped cracking: as it solidified under water the lava contracted and fractured in rays from the centre. Around it lie fossil coral reefs, concentrations of calcareous algae (fossil calcareous algae) and fossilised sea urchins of the genus Clypeaster. Visiting the islets requires prior authorisation from the IFCN.

Geosite, at the north-western tip of Ilhéu de Cima, 81 m above the sea. The outcrop concentrates fossil calcareous algae — structures built by calcareous red algae — dated to 15–14 million years, from the phase when the island had not yet emerged. They lie between a submarine volcanic complex (18.8 to 13.5 million years) and a subaerial one (14 to 10.2 million years), which makes this point a marker for dating the island's emergence.

The island's western point, at once a shaded picnic area and geosite. The cliff exposes a network of volcanic dykes ranging from volcanic, witnesses to several phases of magma rise, some with column-shaped cracking. Above them, orange-yellow recent dune sandstones carry palaeosols and rhizoconcretions: calcified roots proving that vegetation grew here about 30,000 years ago. Fossils of land snails are also found, including endemic species now extinct. The tarmac road passes 6 m away.

A cavity on the northern flank of Pico de Ana Ferreira, inside the old quarry that exposed the lava columns known as the Piano. It is reached from the quarry track; the ground is uneven.

The town park of Vila Baleira, set back from the beach on Rua Goulart Medeiros. It is the shaded space closest to the centre.

A forest park at the Salões sítio, on the road up to Pico do Castelo, about 1 km from town. It is part of the afforestation begun on the heights in the 1920s.

The northernmost point of Porto Santo, 5.6 km from Vila Baleira, between Enseada dos Barbeiros and Ponta do Ninho do Guincho. An exposed coast facing the northern swell, with no made-up access.

A bay on the north-east coast, at the foot of the Terra Chã plateau and of the Pico Branco special area of conservation. It is seen from the PS PR1 trail; there is no made-up way down.

An old landing on the north coast, 4.4 km from Vila Baleira, between Fonte da Areia and Camacha. The 'portos' along this coast served as fishing shelters when the sea allowed.

A bust of Christopher Columbus by the Madeiran sculptor Ricardo Veloza (1989), in the Avenida Infante D. Henrique garden in the heart of Vila Baleira. Columbus married Filipa Moniz, daughter of the first captain-donatary Bartolomeu Perestrelo, in 1479 or 1480, in Lisbon; he is said to have stayed in the archipelago between 1480 and 1482 and returned to Porto Santo in 1498 on his third voyage to America. Nearby, António Aragão's Padrão dos Descobrimentos, a tower of basalt sections inaugurated on 28 August 1960 and nicknamed "Pau de Sabão", marks the start of the promenade.

A lone chapel on the slope of Pico do Castelo, reached by a staircase from the place called Casinhas, near the Portela viewpoint. Founded in 1533, destroyed in 1812 and long in ruins, it was rebuilt by the islanders with materials brought from Serra de Fora; it holds a 16th-century Virgin from a Flemish workshop and often served as a refuge during pirate raids. Its feast, from 14 to 16 August, is one of the island's best attended: mass on 15 August, then an arraial with music, food and drink. It is also the passable end of the PS PR3 trail.

On the slopes of Pico de Ana Ferreira, at Campo de Baixo. Built in the 17th century and altered in the 18th, it blends Baroque and Mannerism: a gilded wooden altarpiece, a painted chancel vault, three 18th-century statues (St Peter, St Francis Xavier, St Anthony) and a stone holy-water font decorated with island shells. On the pebble-paved forecourt a caravel recalls the patron of sailors. On 29 June the São Pedro procession walks here from Ribeiro Salgado beach, followed by the auction of fish offered by the fishermen. A footpath leaves its slopes for the columns of Pico de Ana Ferreira.

At Campo de Baixo, beside the regional road. Founded in the 17th century and rebuilt in the first quarter of the 19th, this Mannerist chapel with a bell tower, a single nave and a narrower chancel holds 16th-century Flemish paintings of the Last Supper. In late July and early August the Espírito Santo feast blesses bread with the Holy Spirit flag before sharing it out among the people.

An ex-libris of Porto Santo's heritage: a low, modest-looking house whose roof is covered with "salão", the sandy clay of the Serra de Dentro hills. In summer the dry weather cracks the salão and air circulates; in winter the clay soaks up the rain, swells and becomes watertight. Inside, a living room, a bedroom and a kitchen with an oven and a stone chimney; reed partitions filled with straw, fern or small stones and coated with lime, and an earthen floor.

The island's main stage, in the centre of Vila Baleira (Rua Dr. Nuno Silvestre Teixeira): a 260-seat auditorium for congresses, concerts, exhibitions and cinema, meeting and workshop rooms, bars and multi-purpose spaces, with projection, sound and simultaneous-translation systems. A 100-space car park. Open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5.30pm.

An unexpected oasis west of the airport, at Linhares: on more than 5,000 m², Carlos Alfonso has created a mini-zoo and botanical garden where palms, roses, candelabra aloes and hibiscus shelter parrots, macaws, pigeons, ducks and swans. Lush green against the surrounding aridity. Hours and admission on site.

Vila Baleira's green space: an avenue of palms running down to the old pier, dragon trees, bougainvillea. It holds the bust of Christopher Columbus, the statue of Prince Henry and that of the Barqueiro, which honours the people of Porto Santo who put to sea to break the island's isolation. A small playground occupies one corner. The walk continues to the end of the Cais Velho, facing the bay.

A monument on the Alameda do Infante, near the old pier, where the Promenade begins. A tower of square basalt sections whose faces carry reliefs devoted to the figures and episodes of Portuguese maritime expansion, Prince Henry foremost among them. The work is signed by the sculptor António Aragão and was unveiled on 28 August 1960. Islanders call it the Pau de Sabão, the bar of soap, because of its shape.

More than 300 metres of seafront walkway along the dune belt, with benches in the shade of the palms. It starts at the Padrão dos Descobrimentos and can be walked, cycled, skated or roller-skated.

Vila Baleira's historic pier, begun on 19 March 1929: 102 m long and 8 m wide, resting on equally spaced pillars. Before it, passengers and goods were carried ashore from the boats on men's backs. Now a monument and a place of leisure, it is the beach's favourite diving board and the start of the seafront promenade, near the Padrão dos Descobrimentos inaugurated on 28 August 1960. Rehabilitated in the second half of 2017 for €76,000. Fontinha beach, 720 m long, begins at its foot.

The three Portela windmills, emblems of the island, were restored and inaugurated on 14 October 2023 on their original site, to the singing of the Grupo de Folclore do Porto Santo. The island's first windmill is thought to date from 1794; together with the basalt-paved lanes, fountains, wells and waterwheels, the mills form the vernacular architecture of an island that had to make the most of the wind and of every drop of water. From Portela the view takes in the whole south coast: Vila Baleira, the beach, the Porto de Abrigo and Ilhéu de Cima.

The small fort that guarded the town's anchorage, built in the Pombaline period to protect Vila Baleira from the corsairs who had sacked it several times. It served as the Casa dos Governadores, as barracks for British troops in 1801 and 1807, as a prison, and from 1921 as a Guarda Fiscal post. Eight iron cannon, from a British galleon, are kept there.

A small chapel in the historic centre, a few steps from the Largo do Pelourinho and the parish church. It belongs to the old built ensemble of Vila Baleira, together with the sixteenth-century former town hall and the dragon trees on the square.

A chapel on the northern edge of the town, next to the Santa Catarina cemetery that shares its dedication, on the way out of Vila Baleira towards the harbour.

A lime kiln preserved behind the beach, a witness to the industry that supported the island for centuries: limestone was quarried in the galleries of Ilhéu da Cal — which is where the islet's name comes from — and burnt here. The activity, recorded from 1600, lasted until the 1970s.

An ethnographic museum at Camacha, opened in 2006, devoted to rural life on Porto Santo: farming tools, household objects and the skills of an island that lived off the land and the sea before tourism.

The main sítio of the north of the island, 3.2 km from Vila Baleira, on the road down to Fonte da Areia and the north coast. It is the usual starting point for Fonte da Areia and the north-west, and one of the island's webcams is installed here. The Museu Etnográfico Cardina, devoted to rural life on Porto Santo, is in this sítio.

A sítio in the east of the island, 2.6 km from Vila Baleira, between Pico do Castelo and the east coast. This is where the salt pans were built in 1890, meant to lift the island out of its nineteenth-century poverty and disappointing in yield. The island's best-known mountain restaurant is in this area.

The sítio at the south-western tip, 5.5 km from Vila Baleira, at the end of the 9 km of beach and of the cycle path. Ponta da Calheta closes the beach facing Ilhéu da Cal; this is the spot on the island where people go to watch the sun set. Served by SIGA buses since July 2024.

A sítio of Porto Santo: 179 inhabitants at the 2011 census, 42 m above sea level on average, 600 m from the coast. The first sítio on the way out of town to the north, on the road to Pico do Castelo. The Parque Florestal dos Salões lines the road here.

A sítio of Porto Santo: 440 inhabitants at the 2011 census, 47 m above sea level on average, 200 m from the coast. An edge-of-town neighbourhood between Vila Baleira and Tanque.

A sítio of Porto Santo: 65 inhabitants at the 2011 census, 51 m above sea level on average, 250 m from the coast. A sítio on the gentle rise behind the beach, overlooked by the Miradouro das Lombas; a wooden windmill is preserved here.

A sítio of Porto Santo: 146 inhabitants at the 2011 census, 81 m above sea level on average, 100 m from the coast. A sítio on the north-western slope; its name comes from the water tank it lived on before desalination. A municipal park carries the same name.

A sítio of Porto Santo: 250 inhabitants at the 2011 census, 98 m above sea level on average, 1.0 km from the coast. A sítio whose name refers to the dragon tree, the archipelago's emblematic tree.

A sítio of Porto Santo: 251 inhabitants at the 2011 census, 119 m above sea level on average, 950 m from the coast. A north-western sítio, on the way to Camacha and Fonte da Areia.

A sítio of Porto Santo: 175 inhabitants at the 2011 census, 93 m above sea level on average, 750 m from the coast. A sítio at the foot of Pico do Castelo, as its name says, on the road up to the viewpoint.

A sítio of Porto Santo: 147 inhabitants at the 2011 census, 157 m above sea level on average, 350 m from the coast. A small sítio on the eastern slope, between the town and Portela.

A sítio of Porto Santo: 750 inhabitants at the 2011 census, 69 m above sea level on average, 650 m from the coast. A western sítio, between Campo de Cima and Pico de Ana Ferreira.

A sítio of Porto Santo: 110 inhabitants at the 2011 census, 39 m above sea level on average, on the coast. The last sítio before Calheta, behind the island's south-western tip.

A sítio of Porto Santo: 108 inhabitants at the 2011 census, 18 m above sea level on average, on the coast.

A named locality 5.5 km north-east of Vila Baleira. The north-eastern plateau, inside the Pico Branco – Terra Chã special area of conservation (Natura 2000, PTPOR0002); the PS PR1 trail leads there.

A named locality 3.9 km north-east of Vila Baleira. A north-eastern pass, between Pico Branco and the Serra de Dentro valley.

A named locality 3.7 km east-north-east of Vila Baleira. A locality on the east coast, with a viewpoint over the sea and the cliffs.

A named locality 4.4 km east-north-east of Vila Baleira. A rocky point on the east coast, between Porto dos Frades and Praia do Furado.

A named locality 3.7 km east of Vila Baleira. The island's eastern point, facing Pico do Baixo and Ilhéu de Cima.

Travel agency in Vila Baleira.

Tourist activities and services agency.

Travel agency in Vila Baleira (office shared with Moinho Rent A Car).

Car rental in Vila Baleira.

Car rental.

The island's airport, code PXO, at Campo de Cima, about 2 km from Vila Baleira. Opened on 28 August 1960 after a first test flight on 20 July, it has a concrete runway of 3,006 metres, one of the longest in Portugal, which also serves as a diversion field. Flights from Funchal and, in season, from Lisbon arrive here.

The municipal library, in the centre of Vila Baleira next to the town hall. It also hosts cultural activities, including a reading club.