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The boat is knifing through the steely water of the Atlantic when a fish leaps from the waves. With its fins outstretched, it’s spitfire-shaped, and it flies for roughly 100 metres before descending back into the depths.
More than 86 square miles of the ocean surrounding the Portuguese island of Porto Santo, 30 miles northeast of Madeira, is protected as a Unesco Biosphere Reserve.
The water is abundant with marine life. Earlier in this boat trip around the coast (with a company called Mar Dourado; €45/£38 per adult), a loggerhead sea turtle popped its head out of the water like a periscope.
At just seven miles long and 3.7 miles wide, Porto Santo is 20 times smaller than Madeira’s main island but its size belies how much there is to do.
Porto Santo’s standout sight is its beach – nearly six miles of silky sand. It’s sparsely occupied during my visit, despite its proximity to the capital Vila Baleira. Created by the build-up of broken-down corals and shells over millions of years, the beach is unlike the volcanic black sands and pebble shores found on Madeira, and the reason Porto Santo is known as the Golden Isle.
The sand here is not only used for sunbathing, though. It’s also the key ingredient in the island’s signature spa treatment – psammotherapy, which I get to experience at Porto Santo Hotel & Spa.
I’m gently lowered into an open-topped rectangular box, then one therapist pours warm sand over me while another pats it down. Within a couple of minutes, I’m buried up to my chin and a foil blanket is placed on top of me.
Researchers from the universities of Oslo and Aveiro have found that the island’s sand is rich in minerals such as magnesium, calcium, and strontium. It’s said that when a person starts to sweat during the treatment I’m sampling, these elements are absorbed through their pores, delivering health benefits. When I’m exhumed, my skin feels newborn soft.
It’s treatments such as this that have led online travel agency Expedia to name Porto Santo as the best island for wellness and relaxation among its “2026 Island Hotlist”, which is based on the 10 islands that have seen the highest growth in interest from travellers.
Madeira’s main island is a well-established holiday destination, but harder-to-reach Porto Santo can be more affordable. I’m staying on an all-inclusive basis at The Navigator – Colombus hotel, which nuzzles up to the main beach, a couple of miles from Vila Baleira.
While a buffet is included every evening, I take the tip of a local waiter and venture into João do Cabeço, a restaurant across the road, one evening. When my bill (for two people) comes, I do a double take. Two bolo do caco (steak sandwiches) with more chips than I can eat, a generous glass of red wine, and a beer have come to less than €20 (£17).
This is a contrast to dining costs in Funchal on Madeira where, according to recent research from Post Office Travel Money, a two-course lunch for two adults costs an average of £48.93. Indeed, Funchal was the second-most expensive among 22 European destinations based on a barometer of in-destination costs.
Porto Santo is also quieter than Madeira. The archipelago recorded more than one million visits between January and May this year, but less than four per cent were to Porto Santo.
Sand isn’t the smaller island’s only novelty. A wine grape grows here that can’t be found anywhere else in the world. I get to taste it during a visit to the island’s only vineyard.
My 4×4 jerks along off-road tracks, passing rows of the island’s traditional drystone “crochet” walls and the windmills (Moinhos de Vento de Porto Santo) that were once used to grind crops, before I arrive at Quinta Fonte d’Areia.
Here, on a vine-shaded tasting terrace overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, I try a citrusy, flinty wine made from the rare caracol grape, alongside a flight of others made from Portuguese varieties like aragonez, verdelho, and touriga nacional.
While the main coast of Porto Santo is all syrup-coloured sand, the centre of the island rises into mountains, which are laced with more than 93 miles of well-marked walking trails.
I follow the 3.3-mile, round-trip PS PR 1 – Pico Branco and Terra Chã Trail, which inches its way up to the top of Porto Santo’s second-highest peak, thorn-shaped Pico Branco. I barely encounter a soul on the path and the soundtrack is the susurration of wind through the trees and the call of island canaries.
Porto Santo is rich in nature. Charles Darwin used data on the island’s endemic species of land snails to inform his theory of evolution, and the creatures are everywhere. As are lichens, ferns, and pines. There’s a new vista at every turn, from slopes of white wildflowers to infinite ocean.
Some of the views can be enjoyed at Panorama restaurant, a 10-minute drive south of Pico Branco. Perched on a hillside in the east of the island, its floor-to-ceiling windows look out to the beach, Porto Santo’s uninhabited Cal islet and Madeira in the distance.
The 13th hole of Porto Santo’s 18-hole golf course, designed by champion golfer Severiano Ballesteros, also serves up some vertiginous vistas. This cliff-edge part of the course is called the Amen Corner – like that in Augusta – as golfers regularly lose their balls to the sea.
Porto Santo is also known for its unusual rock formations. On the Pico Blanco hike there’s a “prismatic” geological formation formed by cooling lava that looks like falling rain.
On a 4×4 safari around the island, with Lazermar tours, I also encounter its “organ”, a wall of vertical basalt columns that reminds me of the rocks of Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway.
Many visitors catch the ferry from Funchal, but I arrive and depart using Binter Canarias’ twice-daily turbo-prop flight. A journey of just 15–20 minutes, it’s cinematically scenic.
As I depart, smoke signal clouds puff past the window. Between them I can see the undulations of the ocean. I almost feel close enough to spy another flying fish.
How to get there
The writer was a guest of Visit Madeira. Direct flights to Madeira are available from several UK cities.
Ferries run from Funchal Marina to Porto Santo harbour every morning (usually 8am), seven days a week, and return every evening (times vary depending on the weekday). Journey time is 2.5 hours.
Prices for Binter Canarias’ twice-daily turbo-prop flight start at €80 (£68) one way.
Where to stay
The Navigator Columbus has rooms from €256 (£219) a night in summer.
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