Porto da Cruz: north coast, and closer to the airport than to Funchal

The weather, and the station that is not here

There is no published weather station in Porto da Cruz. The nearest is Ponta de São Jorge, further west along the north coast, which recorded a mean annual air temperature of 18.1 °C*, source: DREM — Direção Regional de Estatística da Madeira, read August 26, 2026 in 2025 and mean wind of 11.2 km/h*, source: DREM — Direção Regional de Estatística da Madeira, read August 26, 2026 in 2024, predominant direction north-east.

Its rainfall reading needs a warning. The station recorded 459.3 mm*, source: DREM — Direção Regional de Estatística da Madeira, read August 26, 2026 in 2024 and DREM publishes no total for it in 2025 — and that 2024 figure is lower than several south-coast stations, which is not what the north coast is like. The regional water-resources study states the rule directly: rainfall is higher on the north slope than the south at the same elevation. Where a station total contradicts the rule, the sensible reading is that the station is not representative, and this page will not present it as this village’s rainfall.

What is actually in the village

Centro de Saúde do Porto da Cruz, on Rua Marçal, opens on weekdays only. There is no urgência. The nearest round-the-clock urgent care is at Machico or Santana, and the region’s only twenty-four-hour hospital emergency department is in Funchal.

Neither national chain lists a supermarket here, and Lidl has none anywhere in the archipelago — an absence from two locators rather than proof that nothing exists. Schooling is an Escola Básica com Pré-escolar at Sítio das Casas Próximas, so pre-school and primary in the village and everything after that elsewhere.

Buses reach the village by three different inland routes, via Santo da Serra, via Portela and via Marocos, plus services linking it to Santana. Every route number in Madeira changed to a three-digit scheme on 9 March 2026, so anything published earlier is unreliable.

Who lives here, and the drive

Porto da Cruz counted 2,134*, source: DREM / INE, 2021, read August 26, 2026 residents at the 2021 census, one of the five parishes of Machico municipality. DREM publishes no parish estimates after the census.

Modelled at free-flow speed over OpenStreetMap data, the airport is 15 minutes*, source: OSRM over OpenStreetMap data, read August 28, 2026 and Funchal 33 minutes*, source: OSRM over OpenStreetMap data, read August 26, 2026. That ordering is the point: from here the terminal is closer than the capital, which is true of very few places on the north coast. Both figures are routing-engine outputs with no traffic and no weather in them, and the roads into this village are inland climbs rather than coastal runs.