We stayed the first week of July 2008. We booked the hotel on booking.com (a great site that provides clear information) at half the hotel's own prices - 385 euros (?315) for 1 week B&B with a balcony and full sea view. We booked flights on Expedia with TAP Portugal for ?222 each – this was a quality flight with leather seats and food and drink provided. All booked the day before leaving. Flight time is 3.5 hours from Gatwick. Package holiday prices are twice what we paid and the only benefit would be to have the transfer is included. The taxi from airport to hotel cost 17 euros on the way there and 23 euros back for a 10 minute journey. The Roca Mar (also spelt Rocamar in the hotel’s own literature, just in case you wonder if there two hotels of the same name) provided a lovely quiet scenic sea holiday. We enjoyed perfect sea views and an excellent layout for sunbathing and resting as the hotel has a multitude of layered ‘platforms’ built into the rocks to follow the natural shape of the costal rocks. This is typical of this island and although there are several hotels on this coastline with a similar design, the others were not as nice. This hotel seemed to us to be the best in the Cani?o area once we walked around the area. Many of the other hotels do not have a pool, their sunbathing areas are not as nice and varied and they don’t have as many access points (ladders) into the sea. Being so close to the sea you could hear the waves from the hotel room with the patio door open, which is a lovely relaxing sound. The room was nice, spacious, clean and practical. The hotel has an environmental policy so like-minded guests can keep their towels during their stay – the only issue is knowing whose towel each one is as the cleaners fold them neatly (an identifier would help). We also really enjoyed the generous breakfast each day with fresh fruit, cooked breakfast, a good choice of bread and pastries and a daily fresh Madeira cake. The hotel provided excellent service, especially the front desk staff who could speak many languages and were very helpful with planning activities. The only exception is the Rocky Bar (one of the Hotel’s two bars) which did not manage to cope with orders despite the hotel not being only half full, the attendant wasn’t friendly and the bar closes at 6PM despite the sun being out till 8PM. There were few children but those often hogged the pool and as it’s small this didn’t leave room for many people to swim. For us the pool, despite being sea water, was one of the best features of the hotel. The only downsides for us were: - no mini bar - some people may be scared to swim in the sea as it’s wavy (not recommended for all children) - rooms above the restaurant and bar are noisy at night and in the early morning (chairs being dragged, fridge humming etc) but the hotel offered to change our room - there was also noise from doors slamming due to the draft in the corridor and from toilet flushes so some noise insulation would be good - Not very lively: Rocky Bar closes at 6PM, food at the main bar stopped by 10PM, few people at the bar - food and drink at the hotel more expensive than in the capital - Little to do in the area, no real town centre, no real restaurant, so this type of holiday is best to just rest - the free shuttle bus to Funchal provided by the hotel has very limited times (no evening return) - it may be tiring/difficult for some with all the stairs up and down the sea front About Cani?o The resort is Cani?o de Baixo (pronounced ‘Caniso de Bayo’) meaning Cani?o on sea. The town of Cani?o is a mile or two up a steep hill on route to Funchal. There’s very little there. The main attraction is a church and there is a very small shopping centre and square. The bus ride to there is 95 cents. About Madeira island This island provides a steep rocky coast with amazing views of the Atlantic Ocean. However most streets and roads are very steep and this means it’s difficult to walk about. The only sandy beaches are found in the small Porto Santo Island which is very popular are accessible by ferry from Funchal (2.5 hours away with several departures daily). Generally food is quite basic with most menus showing the food categories as Starters-Meat-Fish-Salads-Omelettes and there are very few vegetarian options. Often restaurants and cafes use kebab-shop style pictures of the dishes in their plates on the menus and signs outside – not very enticing. Taxi and bus drivers drive very fast and the roads on the cliff edges are rather scary. Taxis have a distance based meter so they drive fast to make as many journeys as possible, which is uncomfortable as well as scary. A coach transfer may be better. About Funchal The capital Funchal is a nice small city with two big cable car rides to admire the sea, town and vegetation (not recommended if you are afraid of heights), old town area with cobbled streets, a few shopping centres (one outside the centre) and a few good restaurants. We can recommend the Golden Gate as the best one we tried. It provides excellent quality food and several vegetarian options in a top quality historical building with very professional service. We can also recommend the Taj Mahal (UK style Indian) which has a nice roof terrace and is modern. The bus ride (no. 155) from Cani?o de Baixo is 30 to 45 minutes depending on route and traffic and costs only 1.55 euros each way. The service is sufficiently frequent (not quite every hour) and there is a late return so you can spend the evening out. We can only praise the drivers for their incredible skill manoeuvring a large old bus through narrow and windy streets and cliff edges, often having to squeeze passed incoming buses, work in the heat and offer change for the very odd fares charged. They were friendly and stopped for late passengers outside official bus stops, which you wouldn’t get in the UK. We even tipped one driver.

Para mi el hotel RocaMar es excelente en cuanto al trato que recibes por parte de los empleados, por la limpieza de las habitaciones y por el solarium (mar, tumbonas, chiringuito,...) Pero si he de hacer una crítica desde luego se ha hago al menú de las cenas. No puedo decir que llegue correcta (y yo no soy nada tiquismiquis con las comidas!!!!!) Mientras el desayuno es aceptable las cenas mediocres. Por el precio que supone coger media pensión vale la pena cenar fuera. La comida en Madeira es buena y a muy buen precio. Además en Caniço hay lugares donde poder comer mejor que lo que supone pagar la media pensión. Cuando el hotel afirma que tiene sauna, gimnasio, etc... hay que tener en cuenta que son unos servicios compartidos con el hotel de al lado, no hace falta salta salir a la calle pero es importante saber lo que realmente hay. De todas maneras el hotel es recomendable.