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Beach guide

Porto Moniz natural pools

The lava pools at the island’s north-west tip are the one bathing site on Madeira with a till: charged all year, lifeguards on duty, and the longest bathing season in the portaria.

Checked against the portaria and the municipality’s own pages on July 26, 2026.

What it actually is

Surface
Lava rock pools
Municipality
Porto Moniz

Basalt basins that the sea refills at every tide, concrete edges where the rock ran out, and the Atlantic breaking on the outer wall a few metres from the swimmers. It is walled, staffed and gated, and the water in it is still entirely the ocean’s idea.

Blue Flag awarded for 2026.

Blue Flag 2026
Sea-water pools among black lava outcrops behind concrete walkways at Porto Moniz, a handful of people on the paving and one swimmer in shallow turquoise water, the open Atlantic breaking beyond.
The paid complex at Porto Moniz. Lava basins, concrete edges, and a turnstile.Ivars

What the state says about it

Annex IV of Portaria n.º 204-A/2026/1 lists it as a designated bathing water, with a 2026 season running April 15, 2026 to October 15, 2026.

It appears in the “praia de banhos” column, which is how the annex records that assistance to bathers is assured.

Neither of those is our judgement. It is which column the beach appears in.

Portaria n.º 204-A/2026/1 · Diário da República, 1.ª série, n.º 84, Suplemento · Anexo IV

What it costs

€3 per adult, per entry.

Students and over-65s pay €1.50, a municipal card is €0.50, children up to 3 go free, and so does a disability card of 60% or above.

Open 09:00–19:00 in summer and 09:00–17:00 in winter, and charged all year — there is no free season.

All fourteen beaches, compared

Getting there

It sits in the concelho of Porto Moniz, which is how the portaria files it.

MadeiraBus publishes a direct route from Funchal to this destination: 380 · 340.

Getting around without a car
The natural pools at Porto Moniz, north-west coastOpen in OpenStreetMap© OpenStreetMap contributors

What we could not verify here

Carried over from the beaches page word for word, because you will meet these claims elsewhere with a confident number attached.

  • Month-by-month sea temperatures. The only first-party figure we found is Porto Moniz’s annual average; everything else traces back to commercial weather aggregators.