To celebrate finishing university my house mates and I decided to go away for a week’s holiday for a bit of sun, sea and much needed rest and relaxation. After tossing up possible destinations and looking on various sites like Air Bnb it was decided that Madeira was where we would go.

Madeira is an island just off Africa. It was formerly Portugese, so the language spoken is Portugese. It’s a relatively small island and we stayed in a quiet area with cosy little tavernas and cafés run by friendly locals always happy to engage in conversation.

We spent days lounging by the beautiful infinity pool which had wonderful views of the sea stretching out to the horizon, reading books, sunbathing and playing cards. We spent some days at the beach and also explored some of Funchal, the capital of Madeira. It was so lovely being able to switch off and unwind without a care in the world except for deciding when and what we would eat! One of the other great things about being in a villa is that you’re able to cook some meals at home rather than always eating out. We had a gorgeous eating area by the pool overlooking the bay so would often make big homemade pasta dishes and salads and sit out enjoying the sun setting over the sea.

Early on in the week we discovered a lovely little ice cream stall down in the local town, run by a sweet man who appeared almost every day to serve his family’s homemade ice cream. The flavours would change regularly and were always delicious, with options of creamy coconut, passionfruit, white chocolate and raspberry, mango, plain chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. The scoops were always overly generous and it tasted so creamy and fresh we ended up seeking him out most days!

As I decided it was important to switch off and have a week where I didn’t use social media as much I didn’t take many photos, but I’ve posted a few that I took on our holiday below.