Madeira's quiet neighbour — 9km of golden sand beach and Columbus's island home
Porto Santo is a small island 43km northeast of Madeira, reached by ferry or a short flight — and it has something Madeira lacks entirely: a long beach. The 9km stretch of pale golden sand along Porto Santo's southern coast is one of the Atlantic's most underrated beaches. The island is quieter, drier, and more relaxed than Madeira; many visitors from Funchal come just for a day or a weekend. Christopher Columbus lived here from 1479 to 1482 — his house in Vila Baleira is now a museum — and it was possibly here that he conceived the idea of a western route to Asia.
Porto Santo was the first of the Atlantic island groups to be discovered by Portuguese navigators, in 1418 — predating the settlement of Madeira itself by a year. Bartolomeu Perestrello became the first governor and it was his daughter Filipa that Columbus married, giving him access to his father-in-law's charts of the Atlantic winds. Columbus's time on Porto Santo gave him first-hand knowledge of the trade winds and Atlantic currents that would later enable his 1492 voyage. The island was repeatedly raided by Barbary pirates in the 16th and 17th centuries.