The Vine

Upscale and great options for dining nearby

As mentioned tovthe staff, ooms seem to be missing a light or two; they seem dark. I was told that was done by the designer. Seems odd especially with purplish colors on the wall. Also, the doors to the room close very slowly. Sunce my flight was later in the day, I did like that i could use the amenities and parking after my check out. Finally, i forgot to take a picture / mention to the staff, but there is some wall covering missing on the upper part of the wall in the bathroom. You can see the electrical when laying in the bed.

This is a very beautiful hotel but I’m afraid some aspects of the design (which has won multiple international awards) is a triumph of modern design over practicality. Our suite had an open plan bathroom with a bath in the middle of it with the bed behind separated by a glass screen. The space in the suite, what a very comfortable queen sized bed and large windows on 2 sides, was nonetheless poorly used. There was no sofa, but a very strange chair squeezed into the corner of the room. The location of the electric sockets was bizarre. The only way to use the coffee maker and kettle was by using a dusty extension lead that I found stuffed down the end of the bed. That said we had a good time.

This is a dark hotel - moodlighting rules, so much so that in 1 lift it is like being on the Death Star - Darth Vader would approve! We were first offered a jnr suite on 2nd floor - all shades of dull mid-green - impractical, eg no side units by bed & no balcony. We switched to an all brown jnr suite on 5th floor, slightly more practical but with 1 less armchair. The lights in both rooms were inadequate. Both the toilet & shower cubicles had cobbled floors - painful to walk on in bare feet or even thin slippers. The same black cobbles were in the lobby too - and on walls around the hotel (& all over Funchal) - meaning the noise from dragged suitcases was horrendous & more difficult to move. The 'balcony' was about a foot wide, so impractical & unusable. Of 3 lifts, 2 were not working for most of our stay. Also, the door-card machine broke meaning we had to keep getting porters to let us into our room - so inconvenient. Breakfast was ok - good choice of cold food, some of the hot food was odd, cereals were all very cheap & hard as bullets, Nespresso coffee machine broke down EVERY day, 3 fruit juices a day incl freshly-squeezed orange. Cakes/pastries were usually poor imitations of what you'd find in shops/cafes, esp the tarte de nata! Staff were all friendly/helpful. Good location in central Funchal, plus free car park underground. We wanted to leave after a week - earlier in fact - because the hotel was so relentlessly dark. 11 nights was a bit hard going! We would definitely NOT return to this hotel!

We have just returned from a wonderful week in Funchal at the Vine Hotel. Madeira may not be the sunniest island in June, but the hotel and Funchal itself more than made up for it. The hotel is SUPERB. The rooms, facilities, location and staff are possibly the best we have ever enjoyed. The room, bed and walk in wet room are all huge and the added value facilities, air-con, wi-fi, safe, tea and coffee making, toiletries, bathrobes, slippers, 3 (different sized and depth) pillows and lovely balcony, made this place extra special. We were on a B&B tariff and the breakfast was definitely the best hotel breakfast we have had in 40 years of travelling. The layout, presentation and content would have kept a King happy. The brilliant staff are worth a mention, Diana, Miguel and Andreia made us feel like their best friends.

We spent a wonderful week in Madeira, staying in The Vine Hotel. We were given an upgrade upon arrival so our holiday started well, and the room was beautiful. My boyfriend was celebrating a birthday during the holiday and a member of the cleaning staff must have seen a birthday card in our room, because when we returned there were chocolates and a note wishing him a happy birthday. I thought it was such a lovely touch. I miss the breakfasts at the Vine - a different selection every morning. It’s ideally located too, a short walk to the promenade and near lovely restaurants. I would highly recommend Madeira for a holiday, and the hotel is a top recommendation too.

Ideally situated in Funchal, the location was perfect, complemented by a wonderful breakfast. The staff were incredibly friendly and accommodating, ensuring a pleasant stay.

Excellent upscale hotel in the heart of Funchal. The check in process was efficient with friendly staff. The hotel entrance is located just inside a nice modern shopping center, where you take the elevator to the reception area. The room was very modern, clean, quiet, with tea and coffee making facilities in the room. Great water pressure in the shower too! The rooftop has an amazing view over the town and the surrounding hills/mountains. The taxi to/from the airport was about Eur20 and took around 25 minutes. The breakfast was amazing with such a great variety of foods for everyone. The hotel is surrounded by cafes and restaurants within 10 minutes walk. Even though I didn’t try, it has a nice Italian restaurant on the rooftop (closed Sundays and Mondays though). I highly recommend this hotel.

Looking over the reviews you can see this hotel is something of a 'marmite' taste - some love it, some seem to hate it. The hotel is part of a complex including a Mall and private apartments. It had a few niggles, and let's get them out of the way first. We stayed in one of the Junior Suites on the 5th floor which faces out onto the private apartment 'wing'. They can see you and you can see them very clearly! As a result, the hotel provides privacy blinds that you kinda have to use for this very purpose and this means you do spend quite a bit of time in subdued light. And on the subject of light, they have gone for fancy control panels which are not entirely successful. Some lights didn't work for us, others required double hits, although a top tip is we found that 'resetting' the lights (by removing and restoring the key card at the door) was the easiest way to turn everything on properly. A final niggle was a lack of USB charging. Given the modern aesthetic this seemed an odd omission. There was only one spare plug near the bed, recessed into the desk, so our bulkier UK charger would not fit - we had to buy an extension lead (from the Mall downstairs) for this to work for us. But we didn't come to Madeira to sit in a hotel room all day. We want our hotel to allow us a good night's sleep, feed us a hearty breakfast and be in spitting distance from the action. And I'm pleased to report it delivers all three perfectly. The bed, as others have mentioned, is excellent. By far the most comfy hotel bed we've slept in, I think ever. We both commented on this - not a twinge of back or neck pain at all. The breakfast was really good - everything you could wish for and more, a well stocked buffet, fresh, plentiful, something for everyone. And the location is right on the edge of the old town - walkable to everywhere in that part of Funchal. Oh, and of course, free parking below the hotel if you have a car as we did. So this for us is really on the cusp of a five star review for the hotel - I'm knocking a star off though because those niggles just stopped it being total perfection. However, if your priorities are 'Sleep, Breakfast, Location' and perhaps 'Parking', I don't think you'll be disappointed. Even if you don't like marmite.

The Vine hotel is a lovely hotel. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here. I cannot say enough about the mattress. It was by far the most comfortable mattress we slept on throughout our stay in Portugal ( we stayed at 4 other hotels throughout Portugal). We had the best sleep. The breakfast was outstanding! There was a vast variety every day. We liked how it was switched up and How they added different things. So it was never the same ole same ole. The location of the hotel was perfect. We were close to the water to go on our various tours ( dolphin watching and the Desertas island). The sauna at the spa was fabulous. We did not like the jacuzzi/hot tub. Sadly it was not hot. It was Luke warm/cool at best. This is something I would recommend the hotel look into. The only other thing I would say that was a bit of a nuisance was the lights in the room. Whenever you got out of the bed in the middle of the night, a light came on under the bed. It would stay on for a few minutes. It would like the room up like a Christmas tree and wake either myself or my spouse up. The hallways of the hotel were very dark. We overheard a lot of guests complaining about it. An added bonus was that there was a mall on the bottom floor connected to the hotel. Overall, we enjoyed our stay at the Vine. The front desk staff were extremely helpful and personable. What was also very cool was Bella the robot that we saw every day at breakfast. I would recommend this hotel.