Travel: Madeira

Madeira, along with neighbouring islands of Porto Santo, the Desertas and the Savage Islands, form an autonomous region of Portugal.

The island is located in the Atlantic, just over 500 km from the African coast and 1000km from the European coast. The weather is warm all year round.

Tourism forms a significant part of Madeira's economy, with hotels all over the island - but more heavily concentrated in the more densely developed southern half.

Attractions for visitors include levada walks, watching traditional basket weavers at work, Madeira wine tasting, and riding two-seater wicker tobbogans downhill from the village of Monte. The busiest time for visitors is around New Year, when people flock to see spectacular firework displays over the capital, Funchal.

The Quintas da Madeira can be found at www.quintas-madeira.com.

Flights from the UK to Funchal Airport are operated by easyJet and TAP.

If anywhere has a claim to calling 2010 an annus horribilis, it is Madeira.

It hit the headlines in February when torrential floods swept through parts of the island, killing 42 people. Although clean-up started almost immediately, the damage was done.

Madeira is overwhelmingly dependent on tourism and the images beamed around the world of people being swept down water-filled streets had done their worst. Holidaymakers cancelled in droves.

Then in April came the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud, keeping away those few travellers whose had decided to brave a trip.

And finally, in September, fierce fires wiped out a swathe of forest in the mountains above the capital Funchal, issuing a plume of thick smoke across the south of the island.

Even the cheeriest of hoteliers will nod stoically and tell you it was a hard, hard year.

But they are a determined bunch, with a devout core of returning guests who have remained faithful to this sunny, slightly old-fashioned island, and their visitors are returning.

There is much to welcome them back. The year-round sunshine, the breathtaking landscape, clean streets and an orderly approach to life make this a particular favourite with British and German visitors.

More upmarket than its Atlantic cousins the Canaries, Madeira - which is an autonomous region of Portugal - tends to attract older visitors. Many come for the golf or the walking and a large number return to the island, often to the same hotel, year in, year out.

Only 14 miles north to south, it nonetheless boasts mountains that rise to nearly 2000m, and the island is sliced in every direction by deep ravines and river valleys - there is virtually no flat land.

For centuries this left many settlements inaccessible except by sea or a treacherous overland journey, but now the island boasts countless road tunnels, giving easy access to all corners.

The north coast remains less developed, with tiny villages clinging to the shore, squeezed between the sea and towering cliffs.

Traditional irrigation channels, known as levadas, criss-cross the island, and the paths that run alongside them serve as footpaths, from flat, wide, easy routes to longer, more taxing climbs.

It is the levada walks that attract many of Maderia's visitors, with guided tours, well-signposted paths and readily-available maps.

Last year's fires affected only one small part of the island, and its ancient laurisilva forests are a Unesco World Heritage Site. While the steeper slopes might prove a challenge for walkers, the payback comes in the views, which are breathtaking on a clear day.

Funchal lies spread over a steep natural amphitheatre on the south coast. At New Year the city capitalises on its mountainous aspect to host one of the world's biggest firework displays and both residents and visitors flock to the countless viewpoints to enjoy the spectacle.

The historic city centre offers one of the island's few areas of flat ground. It is small enough to be explored on foot, with attractions including the S cathedral, with its mixture of Hispanic, Gothic and Moorish influences, and the Mercado dos Lavradores (market), where vendors offer peculiar-looking fish and an array of local fruits and gifts.

Madeira is the kind of place where holidaymakers are perhaps more likely to be found sporting a blazer than a bikini, and the ultimate in old-world charm is offered by the Quintas da Madeira.

The quintas are manor houses that have been renovated - and often tastefully extended - to form upmarket hotels.

They are scattered across the island and many retain the long-established gardens of the original manor, so that even in Funchal the city recedes to no more than a stunning, distant backdrop.

Quinta da Bela Vista, in the hotel district of west Funchal, sits in six acres of gardens, where guests can find secluded benches under vast, sprawling mature trees to doze off in peace and quiet; while on the other side of the city Quinta Casa Velha do Palheiro boasts 200-year-old formal gardens, sitting right on the edge of a championship golf course.

At most of the quintas there is a sense that time has stood still - which can be either charming or a little staid, depending on your taste.

Antiques line the halls, silver-haired guests dress for dinner, and restaurants boast acres of starched table linen with weighty, polished cutlery.

Service is highly attentive - hotel managers pride themselves on knowing their guests by name, and at dinner crowds of white-jacketed waiters stand ready to swoop at the slightest summons.

If the attention is diligent, the food is divine. Most quintas offer a large menu, including Madeiran dishes, with fish straight from the sea, and local ingredients such as chestnut and passion fruit in plentiful supply.

In fact Quinta Jardins do Lago, also in Funchal, has such productive gardens that the restaurant serves its own home-grown fruit, vegetables and herbs.

One refreshing exception to the old-school atmosphere of many of the quintas is the minimalist Estalagem, built around the Quinta da Rochinha at Ponta do Sol, west of Funchal.

Sitting perched on top of a towering, narrow cliff above the village, it is certainly not for those uncomfortable with heights.

Access is by lift from street level, with dizzying sheer drops on three sides of the hotel and its gardens.

The rooms are in square, white, 1930s-style blocks which gleam brightly in the sun.

The hotel spreads over several levels, with small, secluded terraces for sunbathing and an infinity pool teetering close to the cliff-edge.

The ambience is more relaxed than the traditional quintas - there is no room service but the pool-side honesty bar is open round the clock; there are jumbo beanbags to lounge around on; the waitresses smile and laugh, and the hotel dog will amble into the lift with you if she fancies a snooze by the pool.

If you join her in the sun, with the sound of the waves crashing hundreds of metres below, it's hard not to feel a sense of well-being - and of disbelief that an island so blessed by nature in so many ways should have been so cursed by it in 2010.

Well, Madeira - here's to 2011.