Beaches
Reserva Natural do Garajau
Portugal's first marine reserve (1986) — dusky groupers in 20m visibility
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The place
Designated in 1986, Garajau was Portugal's first fully protected marine reserve, and decades of no-take rules have paid off: divers regularly meet dusky groupers over 50kg, along with barred hogfish, stingrays and garden eels in water that's clear past 20m most of the year. A small cable car drops from the clifftop 200m down to the shore in under five minutes, making this one of the few reserve dive sites reachable without a boat.
When to come
Year-round — sheltered from the north winds, though summer gives the calmest seas
Worth knowing
- 376 hectares, no-take marine protected area since 1986
- Cable car access from the clifftop near Cristo Rei, or boat trips from Funchal marina
- Dive operators pay a per-diver conservation fee to IFCN
- Book boat dives a few days ahead — only a limited number of boats allowed in at once