Many people rent a car in Madeira and that is really recommended! But if you find this a bit scary or want to save costs, you can also visit many places by bus. It is just quite difficult to figure out which bus you need to take.
In Madeira, you have 4 different bus companies. Each company goes to a different part of Madeira, but they all come to Funchal. It is easiest to first look at the Madeira bus map (see images or full article) to find out where you want to go and which bus goes there. Then you can go to the bus company's website for more info.
Overview of bus companies:
- Rodoeste (west)
- Horarios (around Funchal + Santana)
- SAM (east)
- EACL (Funchal – Canico)