Reid's Palace, A Belmond Hotel, Madeira — Hotel in Funchal

Arriving by ship at the Atlantic Ocean island of Madeira, it is Reid’s Hotel that commands one’s attention. It’s perched high on a cliff, overlooking both the ocean and Funchal, the capital city. It demonstrates that dreams can come true. William Reid was a 14 year old cabin boy from Scotland, when he first stepped ashore on the island in 1836. He was penniless, so he entered the wine trade and made a fortune exporting Madeira wine. He bought the present rocky site of Reid’s Hotel and had it covered with many tons of rich soil. Nature went to work and eventually the site was a magnificent sub-tropical garden instead of a bleak rock. Finally, he started building a grand hotel on the site in 1887, over half a century after he first arrived on the island. He died before its completion, but his sons finished off their father’s dream. Reid’s Hotel opened for business in 1891 and has long been recognized as one of the world’s finest.

When someone chases a dream with determination, unforeseen events so often conspire to help. In other words, you get lucky! In the 1880’s, huge quantities of gold and diamonds were discovered in South Africa, thereby creating some very wealthy people needing to travel regularly between South Africa and Europe. At that time, air travel was something for the future. Wilbur and Orville Wright’s earliest contraption did not take off until 1903. Therefore luxurious ocean liners began to ply the route between the port of Southampton, England and the port of Cape Town in South Africa. That’s a voyage of over 7000 miles. There had to be somewhere for these ships to break the journey and there, midway between the two ports, sits Madeira. Ocean liners began to deposit wealthy people on the island for a visit of a few days. They all stayed at Reid’s and loved it….which was just as well, because it was the only place in town to stay, while their ship re-supplied itself.

Now my point is this. When William Reid was spreading rich soil over the rock he had just bought and planning his hotel, he could not possibly have foreseen the existence of those wealthy customers. The gold and diamonds had not even been discovered. Gold mining in South Africa did not even start until 1886. Why did he even expect a demand for a five star hotel on a tiny island in mid-Atlantic? However good a businessman he may have been, where did he expect his hotel customers to come from? Madeira is 360 miles off the North African coast and 583 miles off the south western tip off Europe. It’s on the same latitude as Atlanta, Georgia. The island is only 30 miles long by 13 miles wide. Who on earth would want to go there, particularly before the days of air travel? And how did William Reid know about the future discoveries in far away South Africa that would make his dream succeed? Yet succeed it did and the list of celebrity guests over the past century or so is formidable. Long ago, I enjoyed afternoon tea on the terrace of Reid’s Hotel, overlooking the ocean. It helped compensate me for a disappointment. We all know that only one tenth of an iceberg emerges above sea level. Madeira is just like that. The surrounding ocean is extremely deep, but volcanic activity has thrust upwards from the ocean floor a slim finger of material. The top of the finger broke the surface of the water and became the island of Madeira. The highest point in Madeira is over 6000 feet above sea level, but the ocean floor is several miles below sea level. When I visited Madeira, I donned my mask, snorkel and flippers and drifted along the surface looking downwards at the miles of ocean between me and the ocean floor. Now surely that should be a spectacular view? It’s not. It’s just dark. So I retreated to the terrace of Reid’s Hotel. That was a...

We spent two weeks here in August with our kids (4 and 6), so I have a lot to say!

Overall, we had a really fantastic time. It was our homebase to do all the best hikes the island has to offer, which are all within an hour max drive from Reid’s—an awesome setup, and the hotel valet is easy and efficient.

The kids club is great. The structure itself is fairly small compared to some of the palatial facilities at other hotels, but it has all that kids need, including a pool, and the team—Vanessa, Sofia, Amanda, and Catia—is excellent. They’re conscientious with sunscreen and took our requests seriously regarding nutrition (for example, no snacking) and no screen time. They even arranged babysitting starting at 8:30 am most days so that we could take off on excursions before it got too hot. They have a daily program with good variety, from banana harvesting to t-shirt painting, and offer several lunch options. We also had our 6-year-old do tennis lessons with the wonderful coach, Patrice, every other morning, and in the two weeks we saw substantial progress. (They arrange a fun social tennis hour on Sundays for adults, fyi.)

The gym is fine, though it could use heavier dumbbells, yoga blocks, and a recumbent bike, and the steam room was broken the whole time we were there. Does it really take more than two weeks to fix a key amenity? That felt lazy to me. And there’s one spa attendant who’s not friendly. The others are all great, but one blonde woman with glasses needs an attitude change; as in, she literally doesn’t say hello when you say hi to her. I had a sports massage with Jessica that was really good.

The breakfast is wonderful, with lots of fresh fruit, a juice of the day, an a la carte menu, and nice variety in the buffet, though the service can be a bit hit or miss depending on who you get, and I’d encourage the hotel to stop bringing a pastry “amuse-bouche,” as they call it, as the default when you sit down. It’s a cute idea but not something a lot of health-conscious guests want as a temptation; it felt awkward rejecting it every morning, or sad to see it go to waste. Instead, I’d suggest having a small table with the rotating pastry of the day for people to take if they want it—an opt-in system rather than an opt-out.

As for the other restaurants, we never went to William, as it was too fancy for us as a family with small kids, but we loved the other two. The views from both are spectacular, and the food is pricey but good. The bread roll + butter from Brisa do Mar is truly one of the best things ever—boiled then grilled, freshly made. And the staff is all excellent. (Special shout-out to Amelie at Brisa and Laticia at the Cipriani!) Gelato from the spot in the Cipriani building—San Giorgio—is a must. And then definitely stroll through the hotel gardens. They’re extremely well-kept and so serene for an after-dinner walk when the sun is setting and the weather perfect.

The two hotel pools—one saltwater and one freshwater—are gorgeous and big, and the sea level area has another small rock pool and two diving boards. It’s a really fun area with crabs all over the rocks that our kids loved watching, but the shower down there is always teeming with flies—something management should note and resolve.

Another complaint is that the AC in the room doesn’t get cold enough.

And the bathroom by the breakfast restaurant has a horrible bleach smell; they’re using way too much product.

Otherwise, apart from the specific points above that seem easy to remedy, it’s a beautiful property with a special heritage, and very worth a visit. And I should mention that they have a WhatsApp number, and responded fairly promptly to my messages, from changing a massage time to...

THE MOST AMAZING, PERFECT, BELMOND HOTEL FOR RELAXATION This must be one of THE historic hotels in the world. The position, atop the cliffs, the sub-tropical gardens, the multi-levels of gorgeous outdoor spaces to relax that cascade down the cliff, the three swimming pools...the first class spa... the comforting, old fashioned service, wonderful restaurants... l would not dream of staying anywhere else in Madeira... this is one of those rare hotels where guests choose to visit for the hotel itself as well as the location. DON'T HESITATE... the pleasure of discovering Reid's palace for the first time cannot be replicated. This is a brilliantly managed, totally unique, lovely grand hotel. Most guests don't want to leave.

I really was impressed not only with the sense of place, personal touches, the courtesy throughout as well as being cosseted... but the fact that this was like stepping back in time to experience old-fashioned luxury and charm aplenty. This hotel is timeless and yet the standards throughout (and the Wi-Fi) are remarkable. We loved how the hotel embraces its past and wonderful history while providing great service/amenities which are so up-to-date and yet not spoiling the historic and the feeling of being somewhere special.

Everything about Reid's Palace exudes class, old-world charm, "Grand Hotel' elegance with outstanding attention to detail. If William Reid could see it today I am sure he would be totally delighted at every aspect especially the service which is way ahead of the curve.

I have to mention restaurant manager Andrea, from William. This lady really is exceptional and that is saying something when the entire hospitality team are all so very good at what they do. There are so many elements that need to come together to create such a wonderful hotel stay... it starts at the top with a brilliant general manager and pervades throughout. Also, so important are the head and executive chefs. William Restaurant has one Michelin star. Yet it is way superior in every way to so many two Michelin star restaurants I have visited. Dining at Reid's Palace is a delight. While we mainly dined at the hotel we also had a booking at a nearby two Michelin star restaurant is named after William Reid, who originally emigrated to Madeira in 1836 as a teenager for health reasons and built this wonderful hotel. He must have been inspired by finding the perfect location which really is the very best in Madeira. His sons went on to run this luxurious, Edwardian hotel and the most wonderful photographs from days gone by are there to be discovered all around the hotel, along with their original advertising posters. Past guests have included emperors, A-list movie stars...British royalty and Sir Winston Churchill who holidayed here for a week, enjoying painting the views.

We have stayed at many Belmond hotels that are expensive (but worth it) however this particular Belmond Grand Hotel offers exceptional value for money.

When I really like a hotel l normally review it very quickly. In this case I put it off for months as I wanted to do it justice and realised that it would be quite a task...it really is that good, we stayed...