The activities were on another level. As a company, Stubborn Mule has clearly spent time seeking out the best partners to work with and it really shows. Our children were full of apprehension at the idea of an active holiday, but they honestly loved it – the canyoning especially made my daughter feel anxious yet she ranked this as her favourite activity of the whole week, and I completely agree.

We were lucky enough to have Alex and Bernardo leading our tour and they were so much fun (and had SO much energy!). In addition, our guide on the mountain biking was beautifully patient with my daughter who unfortunately had a bike much bigger than was ideal – by the end she was cruising down the levadas with both hands in the air due to the confidence he had bestowed upon her!

We were lucky enough to see 2 types of dolphin and pilot whales on our whale watching tour – the guide was so informative and we learnt a lot from her. Likewise on the snorkelling/kayaking trip – an incredible setting on the east side of the island with a couple of very knowledgeable and kind guides.

And then there was the hike! Anya was a wonderfully, kind and informative lady who helped keep the motivation up for our children when it started to flag (which, to be fair, was only as a result of it being an incredibly hot day with zero cloud cover). But, wow, the views. It was the absolute highlight of my week. It is now my plan to return to Madeira at some point in the future for a week of hiking as Anya said there are literally hundreds to explore. We were honestly on top of the world.

On our ‘day off’ we took the cable car to the top of Funchal and rode the wicker baskets back down – so much fun!

I’m so glad I found your company when looking into Madeira holidays – we have always freestyled our holidays and have only ever done the odd organised boat trip with the rest evolving naturally each day, but we LOVED it. I really feel like we got to know the island and I can’t wait to come back again one day.

Thank you so much.

The dolphin and whale watching people were excellent and being on the speed boat, it would not have mattered if you had found anything or not as the trip was fun just the way it was! Luckily we were in for a great viewing of common dolphins. We did not see anything else but that is the risk of trying to see them in the wild but it is the way it should be done. We all enjoyed it immensely.

The canyoning was fabulous! The guides Bato and ‘The Mexican’ were absolutely awesome. The beauty of the location was impressive and the experience was fantastic! Highly, highly, highly recommend this to anyone.

Lisbon was a great place to visit and the tour was very good with Mr. Luis giving lots of information and really showing us a large overview of the entire city within just a couple of hours. He also was able to give us lots of suggestions for the next day as well.  One of them was the Coaches Museum which was really good and right beside the Quake Museum which is part science museum part history and part story.  This was something we had seen arriving at the airport and N really wanted to go. It was good for the entire family. 

Connections and pickup/drop-offs were also very good and we had to move our final pick-up to earlier as the airline was worried about it being busy at the airport. I emailed Pedro who had said any issues let him know and it was changed to an hour earlier which worked out perfectly as well. 

All in all a very successful holiday and we are all very glad we did it.

Thank you again.

The accommodation in Lisbon was slap bang in the centre, pristine, good breakfast and very helpful staff. They gave us a tip for a good fish restaurant on the first night and we sat on a lovely square listening to buskers eating a great meal. Lisbon coincided with the heat wave so we were up at the castle for 9.00am to beat the heat and the queues..by the time we came out 2 hours later they were queuing down the road standing in the direct heat. We decided against Sintra, as it was peak tourist season and we figured there was enough to do in Lisbon. We had booked a Fado night for that evening, which was nice to experience.

The following morning a great double act turned up, who were the car hire company. A lady and a man, bought a choice of 2 cars and helped us with our luggage to the local car park about 400m away where they had parked them. Again they gave us tons of advice and were really friendly. What was particularly lovely was that when they found out we were going to start the day by visiting the aquarium, they said they would lead us there and show us the right car park as it was on the way back to their main office. This made leaving inner Lisbon a lot less stressful. The aquarium was great, and not too full and we picked up a super meal in the surrounding restaurants.

Then we followed your directions via a quick pit stop at the Belem Tower and made a way via back roads down to Sesimbra. I spoke to one of your colleagues the day before we went and she gave some useful advice about where to park. We managed to park right outside our next hotel to drop the luggage off and then we parked the car as she suggested in the free car park at the top of the town.

The hotel in Sesimbra was the favourite accommodation for all of us. Again a fab location right on the lovely little central square. 20 mins after arriving we were in swim stuff on the beach just 200m from where we were staying! The couple who run the hotel are delightful, so friendly and thoughtful and the accommodation was very nicely decorated, clean, lovely view over the square and a super breakfast with lots of choice. We swam in the sea every day, lovely beaches, with space for everyone.

All the arrangements for coasteering and canoeing were well explained and worked well. The coasteering was truly hair-raising… no small jumps to build up your confidence, straight into great leaps off rock faces into the water and then clambering out to do it again and again. Not for the faint-hearted but quite an experience…you can only enjoy it after the event! Kayaking was a much more chilled event and we actually canoed past the next load of brave coasteerers. Nice lunchtime break on a secluded beach for a swim and a top recommendation from the organisers for a little fish restaurant on the roadside near them… the cheapest meal of the holiday with sardines fresh from the harbour. My husband who is a foodie said it was his favourite meal.

Then it was on to the coast, we decided not to stop off as we were a little worried about leaving the car with our luggage in. Thanks to the great location of this accommodation we discovered the estuary just next to us and the evening views were spectacular. The surf guy was a total delight, very organised, so friendly and very patient with a load of hopeless surfers! The beach was spectacular and pretty deserted, with just the right waves for beginners.

Overall, moving three times was great, we were ready for a change each time. Punctuating the trip with activities for the kids really worked, it gave us a structure for our days. The quality and location of the accommodation was excellent. All your info was super helpful, thank you.

We climbed Pico, Portugal’s highest mountain, (2,351m), and enjoyed relaxing evenings eating fresh fish and unwinding by the pool. We hiked through amazing landscapes formed by volcanic lava flows. We relaxed in volcanic hot spring pools and learned to cook ‘cozido’ with a local chef. Our stew cooked for 5 hours in the ground by volcanic steam. We swam in waterfalls and spent an evening surfing as the sun set. We watched our 8-year-old overcome his fears as he leapt from 8m high into the deep blue sea on our coasteering adventure.

Throughout our guides were magnificent making sure that we had the best time. It was truly a holiday to treasure with some amazing memories. Thank you Stubborn Mule!

The hiking was superb and we did a great trek around Sete Cidades. Our guide Juan was hilarious and kept M going the whole way with his Portguese version of Dad Jokes. The day of canyoning was also brilliant. This was our least good weather day and in fact it really didn’t matter at all, and we loved it anyway.

Cooking the cozido stew was fun although as a some-time vegetarian it was a bit meaty for me. But it was fun to understand how it cooks in the ground and the others loved it.

All in all, really fun and totally different to anything else we’ve ever done in Europe. A great suggestion, thank you!