the other side of the bay, without the crowd
The bay at Machico has two shores. One has the historic centre, the fort, the life of the village. The other has Praia da Banda d'Além. Cross the Machico river on one of the bridges and you literally change sides.
The beach sits against the northern breakwater of the bay, with the village in front of you and Pico do Facho up above closing off the horizon. It's yellow sand, fine-grained, on an island where that's the exception and not the rule. Most of Madeira's beaches are pebble or black basalt sand. Banda d'Além is something else, and people who know that come here for exactly that reason.
On this side there are fewer people, a direct view of the whole bay and the profile of the hillside dropping to the sea. Banda d'Além is the fishermen's quarter, and you feel it in the atmosphere around you: nets, boats pulled up onto the bank, the salt smell mixed with the scent of old wood. The beach doesn't exist separately from that context, it's part of it.
If you want to understand Machico properly, you start on the tourist side and end up here, facing where you came from.
the full picture
- fine yellow sand, a rarity in Madeira
- direct view of the historic centre and the fort on the opposite bank
- fishing village atmosphere, not resort
- Pico do Facho as a permanent backdrop
- easy walking access from the centre, in under five minutes
