Best Car Rental in Madeira: Firsthand Review

If you’re staying only in Funchal and planning a couple of day trips, you can get by without a car. Bolt, taxis, and organized tours are everywhere in Funchal.

But if your itinerary looks anything like ours, packed with hikes, wineries, and tiny seaside towns, a car is absolutely essential.

How we plan trips:

• Pin every spot we want to hit (restaurants, hikes, viewpoints, wineries).
• Step back and look at the map.
• If things are scattered all over, that’s our cue we’ll need wheels.

Madeira (for us) was 100% a car trip!

I quickly learned there’s no shortage of car rental companies in Madeira. So how do you choose?

Here’s why we went with Point Car Rental:

✔️   Outstanding reputation

5-star Google rating with 400+ reviews. That immediately caught my attention.

✔️   Automatic cars available

With Madeira’s insanely hilly roads, this is not the place to practice driving stick. They had a solid selection of automatics.

✔️   Competitive pricing: The number you see is the number you pay. Full insurance included (tires and interior not covered, but that’s common).

✔️   Pay upon delivery

Seriously. You book, they trust you’ll show up.

✔️   Flexible pick-up and drop-off

Main office in São Martinho, but they also offer delivery to the airport for a fee or hotels in Funchal, Caniço, and Câmara de Lobos.

I knew exactly what I wanted in a car for Madeira:

Compact size → Funchal’s streets are tight, parking is tighter.

Power → You’ll be climbing near-vertical roads to reach some hikes. I saw a poor Fiat Panda wheezing up the road to Pico Ruivo with a train of cars stuck behind it. Hard pass.

Automatic transmission → Non-negotiable. Yes, an automatic car is more expensive, but with those hills, it’s worth every cent.

We ended up with an automatic Seat Ibiza 1.0 TSI DSG (Group C1).

It was my little workhorse: compact enough for garage parking, zippy enough for mountain climbs, and rock-solid with its five-star Euro NCAP safety rating.

It felt practically new with less than 14,000 km, had Bluetooth that synced instantly for driving directions, and icy cold AC.

And one major win … a covered trunk!

Perfect for stashing hiking gear when we wanted to wander through towns like Santana post-hike.

For luggage context: the Seat Ibizia fit my 24” Travelpro suitcase, my husband’s 22” suitcase, and both our backpacks without issues.

By the end of the trip, I was seriously attached to this fantastic little car! 

We initially booked 8 days with airport pick-up and drop-off, but changed plans last minute to arrive earlier.

No problem. They let us pick up the car at their office in São Martinho a day sooner and adjusted the rental.

• Total rental: 9 days
• Cost: €600 (€65/day + €15 airport drop-off fee)

The woman at the desk was thorough and friendly, pointing out minor scratches and reminding us that insurance didn’t cover tires or the interior.

But since full insurance was included otherwise, there was no stress.

The only slightly annoying part? The car came with about a half tank of gas, and we had to return it at the same level.

Honestly, I prefer when companies give you a full tank and ask you to return it full, way easier to manage, but this half-tank system seems typical.

Driving around Madeira, we took the Ibiza everywhere:

• City squeezes in Funchal and Seixal
• Big climbs to Pico do Arieiro, Pico Ruivo, and Cabo Girão
• Coastal roads to Ponta de São Lourenço and Machico
• Levada trailheads like Balcoes, Alecrim, Caldeirão Verde, and Moinho 
• Off into charming towns like Santana

• Windy sometimes one-lane roads to our amazing wine country hotel at the end of our trip, Terrabona Nature & Vineyards

Here are a few fun snapshots of some of the hikes we did, all thanks to our little powerhouse:

Drop-off couldn’t have been easier. We were told to park in P5 or P6 at the airport. P5 was full, so we left it in P6, popped the parking ticket and keys in the glovebox, and walked straight to the terminal. Done.

No stress, no lines, no last-minute arguments over tiny scratches.

Just… smooth.

✔️   Start Early for Hikes

If you’re not naturally a morning person, Madeira may change that. Popular trails fill up fast, and parking at trailheads is limited. For a smoother experience, we always arrived between 8:00–8:30 am.

✔️   Back Into Parking Spaces

When parking at busy trailheads, back into your spot if possible. Later in the day, cars squeeze into every inch of space, sometimes right near your car. Backing in makes it much easier to get out.

✔️   Plan Before Entering Tunnels

Check your directions before driving into a tunnel. GPS often loses signal underground, and it can take time to update once you’re out. If you miss your exit, don’t panic. Most tunnels end at roundabouts where you can safely circle until your signal returns.

✔️   Roundabout Etiquette

In Madeira, stay in the outside lane only if you’re taking the first exit. Otherwise, enter the inside lane, and always use your turn signal when exiting.

✔️   Single-Lane Roads

On narrow roads that only allow one car at a time, note the location of bump-outs (wider spots on the road). The driver closest to a bump-out should reverse into it to let the other car pass.

If you’re the kind of traveler who likes freedom, flexibility, and finding the best little hidden corners of a destination, you need a car in Madeira.

We sometimes book with the big guys (Hertz, Europcar, etc.), but more often than not, we go with highly rated local companies.

Past wins for us include Cael in Porto, Luzcar in the Algarve, Atet in Slovenia, Capricorn in the Seychelles, Amalie Car Rental in St. Thomas, and CABS Car Hire in Cape Town, South Africa.

In Madeira, Point Car Rental was outstanding. Between the service, the flexibility, and my trusty Seat Ibiza, I couldn’t have asked for a better rental experience.

Would I book with them again? Absolutely.

If you’re planning a trip to Madeira, I hope this firsthand review makes your car rental process a whole lot easier.

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Questions about our Madeira car rental experience with Point Car Rental?

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