Throw Back to our Stay at The Savoy Hotel Saacharum Resort and Spa

After a day travelling - actually isn't everywhere at least a day's travel these days?  We landed in Funchal, Madeira.

Travelling light ......

We flew by British Airways from Gatwick and to be honest it was quite uneventful.  Except that we had decided to travel light and take bags on to the plane and not put in the hold.  Inexperienced in travelling light we made a bit of a hash of it!

You see, when you travel light, hence take all baggage on the aircraft with you, you must ensure you have all liquids, creams etc in a plastic bag.  Easy, you think?  It must be the correct size!  19cm x 19cm and one each is allowed, and each bottle/tub no more than 100ml.

Our bags were larger and full, of course!  Consequently many of our items were confiscated!

Note to self:  

Regulations are: 19cm x 19cm

100ml max each bottle and tub

Bag can be full but must be able to seal it!

Whew, feet back firmly on the ground

Eventually we board the plane. 

I am not going to say I enjoyed the flight, but that's not because of anything other than I just don't like flying!

Always very pleased to have feet back on the ground.

The best taxi ride ever ....

We had booked a taxi from the airport to our destination in Madeira and this was a great experience.  Our cab driver spoke excellent English and talked us through the 45 minute drive to Calheta.

Somewhere new and a friendly welcome.  You can't beat it!

Our arrival at the Hotel was greeted with warm friendliness by all Hotel staff.  The Concierge, Jose, took us to our room (from this point until we perched ourselves on sunbeds by the pool, my mouth stayed open .. and if you read on you will see why!)

Jose was full of information from room air conditioning to pools, day trips and much more!

Anyone for a sundowner?

We were so excited to see it all, that at this point we didn't unpack our bags.  The room was amazing and overlooking the small private hotel beach.

Anyone seen the bar?  

But just for starters, and to quench our thirst after a long day, we couldn't wait to investigate the top pool and bar!

At 18.30 the sun still shining, warm and lots of empty sunbeds overlooking the ocean.  It was definitely time for a sundowner.

Actually the sun didn't go down until about 20.30 in Madeira.
So, yes, you guessed it, we had more than one sundowner!

Some of the most amazing sunsets from our balcony and even saw the moon and reflections one morning.  Beautiful.

An Alfresco Breakfast anyone?

A buffet breakfast and there was so much to choose from.  English breakfast, which was Malcolm's favourite, but mine was the delicious fresh fruit, yoghurt and to top it all the sugar cane syrup and outside again overlooking the ocean.  My idea of heaven!   

This Hotel has windows galore and everywhere there are the most amazing reflections.  Absolutely stunning.

I think by looking at our photos of this wonderful place, you will see why my mouth stayed open in wonder and amazement.

Hotel Saccharum Resort and Spa ... I can only describe as blissful.

Want to know more about Madeira?

See too our visit to Funchal, our ride in the cable car, the tropical gardens, and a very long levada walk.

Bliss .... meaning 

The Savoy Hotel Saacharum Resort and Spa Calheta, Madeira

  

Smile - You're in Calheta

One of the oldest parishes in Madeira, is Calheta.  The name Calheta, actually means ‘small beach’.

Continuing on our travels.  

If you haven't seen our previous post, read it here.  

You won't want to miss the beautiful

Saccharum Hotel Resort & Spa.

Once we managed to tear ourselves away from the wonderful surroundings of this fabulous hotel we went out and about.

A word of warning.  It is best to go walking early morning before the sun reaches its hottest!

This pretty parish has an old sugar cane factory, which was founded in 1901 and is still producing sugar cane honey and sugar cane spirit now (known as aguardente).  The sugar cane syrup was a favourite of mine on my morning breakfast of fruit and yoghurt.

More about the sugar cane factory in another blog.  Malcolm took many photos there.  It certainly warrants its own blog to be sure.

Calheta is also famous for a wide variety of fish found in the coastal waters.  Indeed, in the marina, we spotted these fishermen.

Absolutely fascinating watching these hard working fishermen in the marina preparing for their fishing trip.

The Marina is really pretty. There are lots of trips on offer, from fishing to whale and dolphin watching.

We didn't do any of those mainly because we were only there for 7 days and as it was our first trip we wanted to see a bit more of the island.

Maybe next time! :)

The many waterfalls are so pretty.

 We couldn't believe the size of this variegated rubber plant!  

A little worried about the one growing in our conservatory now!

And Malcolm thought I was a little dotty when I stopped to take a photo of the fruit and veg in the supermarket.  Wow!  I think our supermarkets should take a page out of this book!  Just amazingly fresh and beautifully stacked.

Thank you for visiting our travel blog, we hope you will visit again soon.

The island of Madeira, I think, will take quite a few blogs.  There is so much to see and do on this beautiful island.

Hope to see you again very soon.

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