Camara De Lobos And Funchal Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tour

We booked the 5 day ticket for 3 in 1 tour for 33 euros each, which we felt was great value. The buses were frequent, safe, clean and ALL the bus drivers were friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. The stops are clearly laid out and weee helpful at supporting our tour plans. Especially as we're first time visitors to Funchal. Thoroughly recommend.

This tour is a great way to get at feel for Funchal imo, I would advise doing it on your first day. Lovely view from the open top as you potter round the capital. The recorded guide could be better, tends to mention random stuff about food and where to buy things etc rather than the basic what you are passing by, also the music interludes between buildings was mildly annoying. But overall a good experience plus we purchased cable car tickets at the same time which saved us a lot of time avoiding the large queues at the cable car entrance!

Reasonable experience. First bus didn’t turn up so a bit of a wait. Commentary was okay and was ( mostly ) in sync with what was being described. Not a great deal to see re sites from the bus and you would probably be better walking if you can. The end destination was lovely. A neat little harbour with some nice restaurants and a coastal path to some excellent view points. Overall I’d say walk the old town to see the sights and get an ordinary bus or taxi to Camara Do Lobos. The bus works if your not very mobile.

Due to the poor quality of the supplied earphones and wind noise it was difficult to hear the commentary, and the annoying music between commentaries was unnecessary. In the end we didn't bother using the headphones. It would have been useful for the driver or an automated recording to announce the next stop as I spent much time looking at the map to see where we were and what was the next stop instead of enjoying the scenery.

Not a good experience...we saw much of Funchal twice as the bus kept going back on itself, attractions were usually far away, the commentary lagged behind and whoever translated it into English from Portuguese must have had a U in GCSE Portuguese. The only things that worked well were the headphones. A soul-destroying trip with the added highlight of the tour being the only other person on the bus listening to Tik Tok at full volume although, given the audio, who could blame her? Get the Citybus Tour instead although as a lot of the stops are the same, it may not be much better. In fact, just walk around, you'll see more!

Sold ticket when they knew whole of upper bus sold to school tour. Did not warn us. Had to sit downstairs. Could not see anything on tour.

The tour was definitely worth it and it was exactly what I was expecting.

A lacklustre tour. The audio (English) gave very little interesting information. There is so much more to Funchal than was recalled on the audio. The stops weren't announced in advance, meaning that we, and several other passengers, didn't get off where we'd intended on the way. Camera de Lobos was brilliant, but on rejoining the bus, we had to move seats three times to get the audio to work, so we had no information for most of the rest of the journey. We've been on several city tours over the years and this one should study Edinburgh, Dublin and Rethymno to learn how to do it properly.

Brilliant. Really good bus ride

It was amazing to visit all those places and if you want can go and see places from inside out and back on another bus,all day you got for that 👌I have booked on booking.com it was clear,if you want can do directly and it’s slightly cheaper

A good value way to familiarise yourself with Funchal and to have a wander around a fishing village. We did 5 days as was not many more Euros than the 3 Day ticket, it’s useful for getting back from the promenade walk or the centre. I’d recommend buying the 3in 1 as you go up to the high cliff for the Skywalk, we did the ride but walked up higher to the chapel (not open) rather than pay to go on the skywalk, great view either way. The scent of eucalyptus is lovely up there.

Despite the system allowing us to pay for tickets the buses were full and allowed no additional passengers until noon. Considering this wasn't during high season you wonder how they would cope. Buses were every 20 mins and only became less busy after around 1pm. The headphone socket also didn't work. Other than a couple of vantage points not sure it was worth it

Great way to see Funchal, up and down the main streets, so you can note where to see later instead of aimlessly wandering. Then out into the hills, sit on the left side if you want sea views, into a fantastic village Lobos change buses to see Cabo Girao, 5€ each to get in but some great views along the coast. Then back into Lobos for a drink and bus back to Funchal, sit on the right side for some fantastic views. If you’re on a cruise get off at stop 27 and walk back to the ship, it’s downhill and shorter than going back to the terminal. Unless you want to see the delights of Funchal.

Wasn't suitable for us. Personally we wasted €28 euros deciding to take this bus as we could've just got the public bus to Câmara de Lobos. We are in our twenties and are active. I can only imagine this service being beneficial to individuals with mobility limitations.

Pick a day that is sunny and not too windy if you want to sit up top and get the best experience. We were staying on the yellow bus route, so could check out how busy the buses were as they went past our balcony. Watch out for very busy buses when cruise ships are in the harbour (Saturdays usually), although extra tours are laid on and there were always seats available. The quietest days are early in the week. The website is very helpful, showing the route options and prices. The same brochure is available as a leaflet on the bus. Book & pay online, then download the voucher to smart phone or printout to present to the nice helpful bus driver in exchange for your actual ticket (don’t lose it!). The whole circuit supposedly takes 1hr50 but we took a Friday bus from Doca do Cavacas about 1220. It got to the marina just before 1300, then, as that’s the official start/finish of the tour, there was a 15 minute wait or so (enough time to grab a takeaway coffee or whatever from the fast food chains along the seafront). As we started off again, it was about 1310 and the afternoon traffic was fairly awful, so we didn’t get to Câmara de Lobos, which is why we took the tour, until well after 1400, so already they’re well behind time, but, who cares? It’s a lovely relaxing way to see some out of the way spots around Funchal and São Martinho. There are also 5-minute or so stops at a couple of viewpoints en route. We had already been to Cabo Girão (extra trip in a smaller bus, plus a €5 fee to stand on the balcony and viewing platform right on the cliff edge there), so stayed in the harbour area, had a drink (plenty of bars and restaurants) and walkabout at Câmara de Lobos, getting another bus back to Doca do Cavacas. Note, if you just miss a bus from stop 13 nearest Câmara de Lobos harbour, you have around 7 mins to dash uphill round the corner and pick it up at stop 14, though of course you’ll have missed the tour of the upper village. The English commentary is OK, by a native speaker, though a bit pedestrian because it is of course scripted. It’s also a bit repetitive. There’s a choice of 10 languages. The intervening music, of which I’ve read several complaints, is neither too horrendous nor too loud (there is a volume control!). Only one side of our headphones worked, but that wasn't a problem. Some of the presumably more modern buses have Stop request buttons on the seats, others, you just have to get up & go. All in all, a very good way to spend a few hours on a nice day.

BUS starts by sea front prom,by all coaches,look for Yellow open top,21 euros for 48 hours,headphones included with audio,so we did one complete circuit,all 27 stops,sights history,views,took about 1 hour 50 minutes,drafty on top so go prepared for showers,No not umbrellas,then we did hop on and off where we liked for rest of the day and again the next day,churches,resteraunts,harbours,mountain views,villages,Sir Winston Churchill ,s favoreit painting spot,its endlass,comfy buses,smooth ride,keep ticket safe .

The bus tour was good value for money. Gave us a good overview of view of Funchal and its history. Plenty of bus stops and and access to electronic timetable. One stop I would thoroughly recommend is the lovely fishing village of Camero de Lobos.

Firstly don’t bother paying for more than 24hrs. This is the worst hop on off bus tour I’ve been on. The commentary was so minimal with confusing facts that you’d struggle to marry up with the description provided in your ear piece to what you’re supposed to look at, and 80% of the time your ears are blasted by the most annoying warbling singing. This tour is a circuit so you can obviously hop on and off whenever you like hoping it’s every 30 to 45 minutes before the next bus, although 2 came at the same time for some reason and then you’re stuck for a while, but to get from AtoB you have to do a full circuit as it goes one way only so not useful as a convenient way of travelling around unless you want to spend an hour or 2 doing the same road trip. Sorry it wasn’t great for such a beautiful island. Better off using local buses or a proper tour.

I guess the only 2 for 1 is 1) you get on the bus and 2) you get off the bus. Otherwise, it is just on complete tour with fairly boring stops. I would recommend it, if you have never been to Funchal before. For the same cost for 2 or more, one could get a taxi tour of town with a live commentary.

This is a terrific and convenient way to see the sights of Funchal and in particular the Camara de Lobos area and its delightful fishing villages. The English commentary could be of a higher quality, both in terms of content and presentation, but it's still a highly recommended trip.

We were in Funchal on November 3rd and took The Yellow Bus for an hour and forty minute tour. This was an excellent, well presented tour, that has a great audio description available in many languages. The bus driver was a true professional and excellent driver. The roadways can be very challenging! I unfortunately lost/left my phone when we got off the bus and did not realize it was missing until the bus had departed. To make a long story short, with the help of cruise ship customer service and the Yellow Bus driver (Sergio). My phone was returned to me, at the ship! Truly honest and efficient people.

Excellent service. We were able to see much more of the island plenty of bus stops. We would recommend 5 day ticket. As our hotel was on the outskirts of Funchal

Funchal is a beautiful city and the tour was pleasant enough. The reason this review is only 3 stars is purely because of the English audio that goes along with the tour. The person speaking (a native English speaker), showed a poor command of the language and was evidently reading from a script. It felt that she had never even been to the city, there was no real enthusiasm in her voice. She read as though she were talking to a bunch of kids. If you could improve that, the experience would be so much better.

It was good. Easy to use & if u catch the earlier bus you can hop off at your convenience & get back onto the next one.

Fantastic tour. The bus was comfortable and the driving was excellent. We didn't bother with the commentary as we'd visited the places last year but the scenery from the upper deck of the bus was brilliant. We only got off the b us once in the centre of Funchal but we were glad of the second leg of the tour as our hotel was at the top of a really steep hill. Would recommend this to all holidaymakers.

A very beautiful picturesque fishing village, gorgeous little cafes, restaurants. Beautiful bay of twinkling sea. Fishing boats, Churchill, church. So glad I visited

The frequency of these buses is not every 30 minutes as advised when booking. I waited for nearly an hour at one stop and over 30 minutes at another. I ended up getting a local bus back to the hotel costing more money as the yellow bus did stop near to my hotel, if it had of turned up. Also the attitude of one driver was not very welcoming. I would advise you avoid with a barge pole and use the red bus company which is much more reliable.

We bought 48 hour tickets but only used the bus on one day. We got off at Camara de Lobos and had lunch there then rode back to Funchal. There was not much detail of what each bus stop offered and the English dialogue was very basic. During gaps in the dialogue, awful music was played at a higher volume so had to keep turning this down until the speaking restarted. On the first bus, the headphone socket was broken so sound only in one ear so I plugged into the vacant seat control behind me. In hindsight, should have just taken a Bolt car or public bus to Camara de Lobos.

Not much to see on the trip when compared to other cities. We dod the route but only got off at the fishing village because there was nothing else worth seeing.

Great way to see the city and there town around the city to madeira ith all it beautiful coast. Its great just get off the bus at all the different locations and hop back on the next bus

It took a little while to realise that the hop on/hop off, ‘2 in 1’ Bus Tour is not a ticket for 2 separate tours but one tour, of approximately 1.5 hours, that covers the city of Funchal (number 1 tour) and the nearby seaside town of Camara De Lobos (number 2 tour)! A ‘third’ tour is available (for a fee) as an add which takes you to the Cabo Girao viewing point. With this you take the main tour and alight at Camara De Lobos where a minibus takes you to the glass floored viewing point of Cabo Girao and then returns you back to meet a Yellow Bus at the pickup point. A useful, free online App gives real time arrivals at each stop. There are various purchase options with the popular 48 hour, 2 in 1 tour costing €21 for adults. Tickets are available from the bus driver at any stop. Discounts are available online. The tour is useful as an orientation to the area and a free headset gives you useful info about what you are seeing although we found the linking music and songs increasingly tedious after a while. Don’t forget to check the time of the last bus!

The buss trip was good, especially to Camara de Lobos. However the booking did not go well. I booked online the day before and paid. When we arrived we did not have the correct email confirmations and ended up having to pay again. The guy at the boarding point was apologetic and tried to sort it out but in the end we never got our initial booking refunded.

Bus very busy, with people having to stand. The tour of Funchal was informative, although would have preferred to sit upstairs as would have seen more. Very disappointed that buses to Cabo Girao were full, asked to come back in an hour but the next bus was full too. In the end we ended up not being able to do this tour as we did not have time. On the way back the commentary was broken on my seat.

It was awful not only they didn't give us a Refund but they also made us stand bc the second roof of the bus was wet! 1/10 exp.

I was waiting at Cabo Giro for 40 minutes. The yellow bus didn’t turn up at 11.15 at schedule. It drove past around 11.32 without stopping. I had to wait for an another hour. It’s so disappointing that they don’t keep the timetable wasting precious time of passenger’s holiday. The website live schedule is broken. They never refund my money when i asked for a refund.

Do this early on when you arrive on holiday. It's the best way to see where everything of interest is in Funchal. You will then have a good idea of the layout of the city and where the things are that you most want to see. Informative commentary in several languages via earphones which are provided and you can keep. The app is useful too as it has a realtime map of where your next bus is for when you hop on and off. All-in-all a good value trip.

Not the best on-off bus tour we have been on. I usually enjoy a tour, helps us to orientate a new location, but this tour provided little information & the recorded info seemed to be out-of-synch with the location of the bus! Beautiful views were the best thing about the tour, but sadly disappointed with the rest of it.

Very good value over 1.5 hours, went very high for excellent views only annoying thing, terrible music on the commentary!

We booked the tour via our cruise ship and were met by the bus at the port. It did a round of Funchal before taking us to the highest point, and then the village of Camara de Lobos. The route has several curves, and from the accessible wheelchair space on the bottom deck views were not as good as I could not adjust my position for photos as readily as my wife could from the upper deck. Glare from the windows on the lower deck didn't disrupt the tour, but did impact photos. The stop at the high vantage point was shorter than I would have liked. The village was not much different from Funchal itself, but the drive past banana plantations and terraced hills, as well as the view of the coastline was pretty. The tour did include a coupon for a tasting at Blandy's Wine Shop, and we went to that stop after the full circuit. The route however is set up in such a way that a full second circuit is needed to get back to the cruise port, or you can do as we did and walk a couple hundred metres back to the ship from the Blandy's stop. The wheelchair ramp is manual and the tour operator will put it down on request.

On the website you can see where the bus is and the estimated arrival time of every station, very useful. Nice ride to do some city exploration.

Great way to see some of the island and get a sense of its history and attractions - use the live tracking rather than a timetable Thomas they have been known to leave a stop early!!

As this was our first visit to Madeira, we decided to do the HOHO bus tour to get out bearings. The live timetable did take a bit of working out, but each time we used the bus it was pretty much on time. We choose the 5 day ticket and definitely made good use of this. The bus was never overcrowded and driver was friendly. The info was as useful (although-minor point- the voice over was irritating- her intonation was all over the place!) Would I recommend the bus- yes, definitely.

Dreadful experience. No bus schedule so waited over an hour twice for the bus to arrive. No headphones offered on the first bus, asked for some on the second bus (after yet another hour's wait) found no jack point on the bus that worked just heard noisy interference on every channel so no tourist information at all and spent a large part of the day standing at bus stops for an hour at a time with no seating. Frankly angry at being charged €21 pp for this dreadful experience. Do not bother with this. We watched several red HOHO buses go past whilst we waited so they might be a better bet. Wish I had read more reviews before I bought our tickets as this is an ongoing issue which the company has obviously done nothing to rectify, treating customers and tourists with contempt.

Very good service that got us around the local area. Plenty of stops. Regular buses Could have ran later into the early evening to enable more time at stops and also to stop the last bus being so crammed Unfortunately I really wanted to hear more about the areas we travelled around. It’s all easily walkable and the whole point of taking a tour bus was to know about the area. What are in these fabulous buildings? How old are they? Tell me about The Ritz? The fire station how big an area does that cover - especially given your recent forest fires? The harbour area? The cruise ships etc etc. I could go but actually so could you…. More history, more knowledge less loud annoying music please.

Arriving at the ticket office at stop 2 in Funchal we were sold tickets for the bus and the cable car. The tickets for the cable car saved a fair bit of time as it saved us queuing twice. The information seemed clear and I always check the gap time between buses as we never stop to long between hopping off and hopping back on. We were told 30 minutes. We first stopped at the cable car then hopped back on and proceeded to Lobos. A second yellow bus which they refer to as a mini bus but is not a mini bus which was confusing at Lobos takes you up to the viewpoint and back. This bus came along, parked up and the bus driver dissapeared. We then went for a walk instead of hanging around waiting. At 2pm another yellow bus turned up (the one that goes round the city so we decided to go back at 2.30 giving 30 minutes as directed. In the meantime the mini bus driver reappeared and by now the bus stop was full with people waiting. The mini bus driver drove off with a handful of these people while the rest of us waited another 30 minutes for the next bus making it an hour between buses. It was a mess so we gave up and got a local bus instead. To be honest we might as well have just got local buses for what we saw as it certainly did not warrant all the hanging around waiting. Having visited many cities over the last few years and using very similar services I can honestly say this service was the worst by far. Information was unclear and untrue and the service was awful. Add to this having to change seats on the bus several times because the audio guide plugs were not working.

I can barely recommend the Yellow Bus. First my cruise ship dropped me off next to Red Bus, which just happens to be RED and YELLOW. Also all of the local buses (nor tour) also happen to be Yellow. When I asked the local tour agent where the YELLOW bus was. she just pointed in a direction. After an 15 minute walk in that direction we gave up. We finally found the YELLOW bus at one of its stops.. In the meanwhile two RED buses had driven past us. The narration on the bus as to the sights was poor. We would be told to look at the right/left and see something. We did and for the most part only saw the side of a building. In between sights, all we heard was Portuguese music. All in all, I can barely recommend the YELLOW us.

Given the parking congestion problems within Funchal and its neighbouring suburbs, the Funchal based Yellow Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tours are a great way to see the city sights and to enjoy a trip to Camara de Lobos and Cape Girao without the hassle of spending hours trying to find a parking spot. We purchased a five day ticket, which we used extensively. We usually hire a car for all of our holidays, but the parking in Funchal is a nightmare, hence we not only enjoyed this fun and funky way of seeing the city, but we saved a lot of money in doing so and by not hiring a car.

We were on a week's holiday visit to Madeira, and because we did not have long to see the island, we decided to take the bus tour. This was £25 for the 2 in 1 ticket and, as usual, was with translated audio.

Driver fastened my aunty’s wheelchair and when he braked she went backwards - he just shouted -asking if we were ok - terrible driver and a waste of money